xvi Proceedings. {October 19///, 1915. 



1914-15. Average, 60 yrs. 



September °'537 July to Oct. 3'H4 



October (to 18th) 0-293 9495 3'5 8 9 ^3' 3^4 



Total to Oct. 1 8th... 3 1*856 32-820 Average 



for year. 



Professor G. Elliot Smith M.A., M.D., F.R.S., made a 

 short communication on " The Evidence afforded by the 

 Winged-Disc in Mexico and Central America for the 

 Egyptian Origin of Certain Elements of the Pre- 

 columbian Civilization. 



In a previous communication to the Society the author cited 

 a very large series of curious customs and beliefs, built up into 

 an artificial culture-complex, as a demonstration of the fact that 

 the ancient civilisation of America was derived from the Old 

 World. The proof is further corroborated and put beyond all 

 reasonable doubt when each of its numerous component elements 

 is studied ; for it is found that not only are the wider cultural 

 associations of each factor reproduced in the New World, but 

 also in many cases trivial details of designs and customs 



The distinctively Egyptian, and wholly arbitrary, association 

 of the sun's disc with two serpents and hawk's wings, is found 

 represented on the lintel of the sanctuary in many ancient sun- 

 temples in Mexico and Central America. In the course of its 

 transference from the Old World to the New this curious design 

 became reversed — upside down — and the lattice-pattern of the 

 serpents' bodies, often seen in the Egyptian examples, became 

 still further conventionalised to form a purely geometrical pattern, 

 in which the serpent is no longer recognisable as such, although 

 the symbol is known to be that of a serpent-deity. Comparison 

 with the Egyptian examples explains the meaning of these 

 hitherto-inexplicable features in the American symbolism. The 

 modifications which the Egyptian design underwent in Syria 

 and Babylonia, where the disc is sometimes replaced by a 

 representation of some deity, also explain some of the American 

 variants of the pattern. Incidentally the American symbols 



