The Phœnician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons : discovered by Phœnician & Sumerian inscriptions in Britain, by preroman Briton coins & a mass of new history : with over one hundred illustrations and maps

who handed it over to the museum. It is of the type figured in the Hittite rock-carving of about 2200 B.c. at

Dp. 7-

It is thus described by Mr. Gogan: “It is a gem of the early stone-worker’s art, and is assignable to the Early Bronze Age in Ireland, about 1800 B.c. In my opinion the axe definitely establishes the existence in Ireland about 1800 B.c. of the cult of the Double Axe—a cult which may be traced across Britain, through the continent to S.E. Europe and even to Mesopotamia. Brittany and Crete were strongholds of the cult, and in both countries axes of enormous dimensions have been found, either in tombs or sanctuaries. The sacred and non-utilitarian character of these axes is indicated by the smallness, absence, or noncompletion of the boring. The sacred character of the Mayo find is indicated in a different fashion—that is in the absence of an effective cutting edge. Both edges are decorated with inscribed lines, and the decoration on the lateral surfaces is remarkable. The sacred character of these axes arose from the idea that the Sky-God was armed with a weapon of this kind, manifestly a thunderbolt. The Hittite god Teshub was always represented as armed with a Double Axe, and also a symbol of lightning. The Jupiter of Doliche jan ancient Hittite site im N. Syria} dating from Roman times is similarly represented.” Mr. Gogan is, I am informed, publishing shortly an article on the subject, which is in the press. Dolmens are numerous in County Mayo.

This freshly found link in Ireland with the Hittites, Trojans and Phoenicians is of immense importance. This sacred Double Axe is found in several prehistoric Hittite sites in Asia Minor. It was found “ very frequent at Troy ”’ in the earlier strata (Schliemann Jiios, 438) ; and was the emblem of the island of Tenedos, outlying the Troad—an island previously called “ Phcenice ” after its early Phoenicians. It was worshipped in Lydia, an old province of the Hittites (D. G. Hogarth, Ionia and the East, 74 f.); and according to Plutarch (Quest. Greca, 45) one of the stone double axes in Lydia, sacred to Herakles of the Phcenicians, was captured by the Carians (largely mixed with Pheenicians) and dedicated to the temple of Zeus or Jupiter at Mylasa ; and Caria itself also was formerly called ‘* Phcenice ” (G. Rawlinson, Hist. of Phenicia, 100). In Crete it became the symbol of the Mother-goddess as well as her consort, as shown by Sir A. Evans ; and the Pheenician colonization of Crete is attested amongst other things in these pages by its several promontories called ‘‘ Pheenice.”