STATUE-MENHIRS. 



185 



and other places in the TEgean. Fig. 9 gives an illustration 

 of one of these idols found at Idanha a Nova, Portugal. It is 

 engraved on a slab of schist and is almost identical with 

 one, also illustrated by Siret, found in Cyprus. 



Fig. 10 represents another found in Spain, now in the 

 Collection Rotondo, Madrid. In details the resemblance 

 of these figures to the statue-menhirs of Southern France is 

 striking. They show the same symbolic treatment of the 

 human features already noticed. The absence of the mouth, 

 and the presence of straight lines of tattoo marks on the 

 lower part of the face, similar to those on the statue of 

 St. Sernin and others in South-Eastern France and North 

 Italy, show an affinity of idea which can only be attributed 

 to an origin from a common prototype. 



Recent discoveries have brought to light proof of the 

 great influence of the higher ^Fgean civilisation on that of 

 Western Europe at the end of the Neolithic period and during 

 the early Bronze Age. Traces of this influence are especially 

 discernable in Spain where numerous objects, beads of callais, 

 pottery, objects carved in ivory, and the small idols above- 

 mentioned, have been discovered in graves of the period 

 closely resembling those of the pre-Mycenean period in the 

 ^Egean and at Hissarlik, all pointing to a maritime connection 

 with the East. From Spain and the Mediterranean coast 

 these influences spread northward through Gaul to the 

 British Isles and Northern Europe along, what is thought to 

 be, the oldest route of intercourse between East and West. 



Proof of this intercourse between East and West is also 

 to be found in the distribution over wide areas of certain types 

 of vases and other objects of undoubtedly eastern origin. 

 The caliciform vase, for instance, is found distributed from 

 the basin of the Mediterranean, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Por- 

 tugal, and Southern France, to Brittany, the Channel Islands, 

 England and Germany. In the Mediterranean basin, Spain, 

 Portugal and the French departments bordering the northern 

 slopes of the Pyrenees, this form of vase is invariably found 

 associated with gold, or small copper ornaments, or poniards 

 of the Eneolithic or Copper Age. To the north of this line 

 it is, with rare exception, found in dolmens associated with 

 stone implements with no trace of metal, showing that while 

 Spain and Southern Europe had reached the first age of metal 

 at the time of their distribution, Brittany and Western France 

 were still in the Neolithic period. The similarity in form and 

 decoration of this particular vase, wherever it is found, points 

 to its origin from a common type. It does not necessarily 



