The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

THE PROSPECTORS 49
introduced into Egypt, perhaps at the beginning of the second pred5niastic period, from
some region, such as Syria, where dolmens were known, or else that both had been
derived from a common ancestry.^
It has been suggested by some inquirers that the fashion of erecting such
megalithic monuments of orthostatic blocks arose at one time and in one place, and
was carried by degrees from centre to centre until it reached many widely scattered
regions between Ireland and Polynesia.* It is not suggested that this culture, with
which has been associated many others, such as terrace cultivation, irrigation, the
use of conch shells and a number of others, was carried to aU these places simultaneously
or even within the same miUenium, nor is it asserted that the people who introduced it
to these widely scattered regions were of necessity the same. The idea may, I think, be
better expressed by saying that a cult or religion became widely disseminated at an
early date, that it developed many varieties in the regions in which it took root, and that
these regions often became in time fresh centres for dissemination. Thus it might
happen that a daughter cult might ultimately become spread through part of the region
in which the parent cult had arisen. A parallel may be drawn from the spread of
Christianity, especially in these islands. The new faith reached Britain during the
period of the Roman occupation and thence spread to Ireland ; later, when it had
disappeared from the former, it passed from Ireland to lona and thence back to
England.
We need not discuss the whole of this hypothesis, which is concerned with a much
wider area than the lands we are considering. One of the most essential features, however,
of this interesting thesis is that the people, whoever they were, who spread the cult
of megahthic monuments and allied practices, were traveUing in search of gold, silver,
copper, tin, amber and pearls ; they were, in fact, merchants in search of precious and
easily portable commodities.
Now Perry,'' who has specially worked at this part of the hypothesis, maintains
that megalithic monuments are invariably found in association with metalliferous
5 Peake (1916) 2. 116, 117.
« Perry {1915) : Smith (1915).
7 Perry (1915).