S JACKSON, Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 



form, C. annulus, together in one grave (Di 14) at Abydos, 

 would seem to suggest the possibility that cowries may 

 have been adopted as a form of currency at that early 

 date. According to Del Mar, 17 Egypt "appears to have 

 conducted its exchanges with cowries and scarabs, supple- 

 mented possibly at later dates by Lydian or Greek coins 

 for foreign commerce, until the Persian conquest, when it 

 was supplied with a national coinage, probably of very 

 limited extent, by Cambyses and Darius." He further 

 remarks: k4 The Indians who traded with Egypt used 

 cowries for money ; the Chinese, who also traded with 

 Egypt a t a very remote period, used 'tortoise' (probably 

 cowrie) shells for money." (Del Mar, p. 147.) 



The money-cowry (Cyprcea monetei) has been found at 

 the famous cemetery of Koban, upon the northern slope 

 of the Caucasus, almost midway between the Black and 

 Caspian Seas, along with bronze and other antiquities. 18 

 ft has also been recorded from a sandy layer above the 

 Tertiaries at Frankfurt-on-Main by Dr. VV. Wenz, who 

 reports the existence of extensive prehistoric settlements 

 of different periods in the immediate neighbourhood. 19 

 Another interesting record is that of Dr. H. Stolpe, who 

 states that, among the foreign objects (Cufic money, etc.) 

 found in the Island of Bjorko, were many Upper Silurian 

 fossils from Gothland, and Cretaceous fossils from Skane, 

 also some shells of molluscs from the west coast of 

 Sweden. But the most important shells were five 

 examples of the money-cowry, Cyprcea monetae Speci- 



17 Del Mar. "A History of Money," London, 1885, p. 149. 



1S "A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age " (British Museum), 

 1904, p. 129; see also "Materiaux pour i'hist. prim, el nat. de 1'homme," 2nd 

 ser., xiii., June, 1882, p. 260. 



19 Nachr. Deulsck. Mai. Ges., 191 1, p. 104. 



20 Congifo interned, cC Anlhropo'. et aAu/ieol. Prchist., 1874, vol. ii., 

 Stockholm, 1876, pp. 619-29. 





