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Title: Scotland in Pagan Times - The Iron Age
Author: Anderson, Joseph
Language: English
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SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES
_Printed by R. & R. Clark_
FOR
DAVID DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH
LONDON HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND BOWES.
GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS.
ABERDEEN LEWIS SMITH AND SON.
[Illustration: THE BROCH OF CLICKAMIN, NEAR LERWICK, SHETLAND.]
SCOTLAND
IN
PAGAN TIMES
=The Iron Age=
_THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHÆOLOGY
FOR 1881_
BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, LL.D.
KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE
ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND
[Illustration: Ornament of Bronze Mirror.]
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS_
1883
_All rights reserved._
PREFATORY NOTE.
On the conclusion of my second series of Lectures on _Scotland in Early
Christian Times_, the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
having done me the honour of again appointing me to the Rhind
Lectureship for a term of two years, that I might deal with the
antiquities of the Pagan Period in Scotland, I have devoted the present
series of Lectures to the investigation of the remains of the Iron Age,
leaving those of the Bronze and Stone Ages to be dealt with in the
succeeding series.
I have to thank the Council for their permission to use such of the
Society’s woodcuts as might be suitable for the illustration of the
Lectures, and my thanks are also due to Mr. J. Romilly Allen for the use
of some of his drawings and measurements of Brochs, to Messrs. Chambers
for the view of the Broch of Mousa, and to Mr. Thomas S. Muir for the
use of his etching of the Broch of Clickamin, which forms the
frontispiece to the present volume.
J. A.
14 GILLESPIE CRESCENT, EDINBURGH,
_15th March 1883_.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN BURIAL—VIKING BURIALS.
Reasons for the division of the general subject into two Pages 1–65
sections, comprising Christian Times and Pagan
Times—Survival of Pagan customs in Christian
burial—Burial clothed, and with arms, ornaments, and
insignia of office—Burial with shoes on the feet—Burial
with holy-water vessels—Burial with incense vases of
clay—Viking burials—Graves in the sandhills at
Ballinaby, Islay—Their characteristics—Arms, implements,
and ornaments associated with them—Characteristics of
the art of these objects—Their art not Celtic—Phenomena
of the burials not Christian—Their unusual and
suggestive character—Determination of the typical
relations of the objects found in the graves—The sword,
spear, and shield are of the Viking types—The brooches
and silver ornaments are of Scandinavian
types—Comparison of their art with the art of the Celtic
school—No such groups of arms and ornaments associated
with Celtic burials—Their forms are those of the
Norwegian area—Typical character of the Norse burials of
the heathen Viking time—Burials, burnt or unburnt, with
grave-goods—Identity of their characteristics with those
of the Islay burials—Determination of the area of this
type of burial in Scotland—Other burials of the same
type in Islay, in Mull, in Tiree, in Barra, in Sangay,
in St. Kilda, in Sutherland, in Caithness, in Orkney, in
Shetland—Character of the art of the Norse brooches of
the Viking time—Their number in Scotland exceeds that of
the Celtic brooches—This excess an archæological result
of the difference between Paganism and Christianity—The
range of the Viking burials in Scotland establishes an
archæological area coincident with the area colonised by
the Norwegians—Viking graves in Eigg—A Viking cemetery
in Westray, Orkney—Ship-burial in Scotland—Testimony of
the earlier Sagas—Evidence of the grave-mounds—A
ship-burial, burnt, at Möklebust—Ship-burials, unburnt,
at Tune and Gökstad
LECTURE II.
NORTHERN BURIALS AND HOARDS.
Modified types of the intruded Paganism of the northern Pages 66–111
area—Burials with urns of steatite in Orkney and
Shetland—Their relation to Norwegian burials in the
Pagan Period of the Viking time—Deposits of objects not
associated with burials—Hoard of silver ornaments found
at Skaill, Orkney—Dated by Kufic and Anglo-Saxon coins
found in it—Typical characteristics of its
brooches—Special features of their
ornament—Characteristics of its neck and arm
rings—Difference in character from the Norries Law
hoard—No other hoard of similar character found in
Scotland—Similar hoards found in Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark—Character of the objects found in them—Question
of their Oriental origin—The hoard of silver ornaments
found at Cuerdale—Character of its brooches—Some of them
distinctively Celtic—Determination of the typical
relations of the Skaill brooches—Their form Celtic—Their
art partly Celtic and partly Scandinavian—Its affinities
with the art of the Scandinavian Pagan times—A figure
like that of the god Thor represented on one of the
Skaill brooches—Thor’s hammer—Thor’s face as represented
on monuments—The mixed art of these brooches implies a
mixed race—They are probably products of the area in
which they were found—Dress of the period—Hood found in
a moss in Orkney—Relations of the neck and arm rings of
silver to ornaments in gold found in Orkney and the
Western Isles—Their special forms and ornamentation are
peculiar to the area of the Scandinavian colonies in
Scotland
LECTURE III.
THE CELTIC ART OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.
Bronze headpiece, with horns, found at Torrs, Pages
Kirkcudbrightshire—Bronze headpiece, with horns, found 112–173
in the Thames—Typical relations of their ornament—Other
objects found in Scotland possessing the same
character—Swine’s head of bronze found at Liechestown,
Banffshire—Character of its ornamentation—Other objects
exhibiting the same style of art—Sword-sheath of bronze
found on the Pentland Hills—Bridle-bit, with red and
yellow enamels, found at Birrenswark, and
harness-mountings found in Annandale—Difference of the
art of these objects from that of the Celtic Christian
times—Technical skill displayed in their manufacture—The
testimony of Philostratus to the skill of the Barbarians
of the Ocean in working enamels—Such enamelled
horse-trappings found only in Britain—Bronze mirror and
other objects found at Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbright—The
character of their ornament—Such mirrors found
associated with interments of Pagan times—Pagan Cemetery
at Mount Batten, near Plymouth—Bronze mirror found in
one of the graves—Character of its ornament—Similar
mirrors found in graves at Trelan-Bahow, Cornwall, and
at Birdlip, near Gloucester—Character of their
ornament—Other bronze mirrors found in Britain—They
differ in form and ornamentation from Roman
mirrors—Their ornament discloses the existence of a
native school of art differing from the Roman
style—Bronze spoons found at Weston, near Bath, and
Llanfair, Denbighshire—Bronze collar found at Stitchell,
in Roxburghshire—Bronze armlet found at Plunton Castle,
Kirkcudbrightshire—Hoard of gold objects found on the
Shaw Hill, Peeblesshire—This group of objects, in bronze
and gold, includes characteristic examples of the work
of a special school of decorative art—Its distinctive
character—Its Celticism—Another group of objects in
bronze peculiar to Scotland—Massive enamelled bronze
armlets found at Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire—The
character of their ornament—Enamelled bronze armlets
found at Pitkellony, near Muthil—Others of similar
character found in Scotland—One found at Stanhope,
Peeblesshire, associated with a bronze vessel of Roman
type—The period of this distinctively native style of
art reaches back beyond the time of the Roman
occupation—Another group of personal ornaments in
bronze, exhibiting the special features of this school
of decorative art—Armlet, in the form of a double-headed
snake, found in the Culbin Sands—Its form and
decoration—Its character as a work of art—Armlets of
similar form found at Pitalpin, near Dundee, and at
Grange of Conan, near Arbroath—Bronze ball, with Celtic
decorations, found at Walston, Lanarkshire—Stone balls,
with ornaments of similar character, found in various
parts of Scotland—Their probable purpose—Their area—This
group of objects presents a series of examples of the
art which characterised the Iron Age Paganism of
Scotland—Its difference from the art of the Christian
time—Its special qualities and characteristics
LECTURE IV.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BROCHS.
The Broch of Mousa, Shetland—Its situation and Pages
appearance—Its peculiarities of construction—Its 174–208
chambers, stairs, and galleries—Its features not related
to those of any variety of castle of historic times—Many
similar structures in different parts of Scotland—The
Brochs of Glenelg—Broch at Loch Duich—Their typical
plan—Evidence as to height—Typical characteristics of
the Brochs—They point to a double intention in the minds
of the builders—Their admirable adaptation for purposes
of shelter and defence—Range or area of the typical
form—Broch on Cockburn Law in Berwickshire—Broch at
Torwood, Stirlingshire—Broch at Coldoch,
Perthshire—Their numbers north of the Caledonian
Valley—More than three hundred examples in the five
northern counties—Significance of this result—They are
the remains of a period of architectural activity which
has no parallel in the history of the country—No example
of the type is known except in Scotland—Instances of
Brochs with peculiar features—Defensive works, wells,
and drains—Construction of the doorway—The general
adoption of such a peculiar system of strongholds points
to the existence of peculiar circumstances in the
history of the people—Uniformity of plan and
construction a striking feature alike of the Round
Towers of Ireland and the Brochs of
Scotland—Dissimilarity of the two types of
structure—Idea of which the Broch structure is the
actual embodiment—The archæology of Scotland is largely
composed of typical forms that occur nowhere else—Her
monuments and metal-work demonstrate the existence of a
National School of Decorative Art in Early Christian and
Pagan times—The remains of these structures demonstrate
the existence of a National School of Architecture as
truly unique—Significance of these facts in relation to
the unwritten history of Scotland
LECTURE V.
THE BROCHS AND THEIR CONTENTS.
Excavation of the Broch of Kettleburn, Wick, by the late Pages
Alexander Henry Rhind of Sibster—Group of objects found 209–259
in it—Their deposit in the National Museum gave a new
character to the collection of Scottish antiquities and
a new direction to Scottish archæology—Description of
the relics—Implements in stone, bone, bronze, and
iron—The food of the inhabitants of the Broch—No reason
for attributing to them an exceptionally low condition
of culture and civilisation—Excavation of the Brochs of
Kintradwell and Carn-liath, in Sutherlandshire—Group of
relics found in them—The food of the
inhabitants—Outbuildings or secondary constructions in
connection with the Brochs—Burials found in
them—Excavation of the Brochs of Yarhouse, Brounaben,
Stirkoke, Bowermadden, and Dunbeath in
Caithness—Description of relics found in them—Excavation
of the Broch of Levenwick in Dunrossness, Shetland—Its
peculiar features—The Brochs of Orkney—The Broch of
Burray—The Broch of Burwick—The Broch of Okstrow—The
Broch of Lingrow—The Broch of Burrian—Character of the
relics found in them—Determination of the general
relations of the group of remains obtained from the
Brochs—They are products of an advanced state of
culture, civilisation, and social organisation—The
relations of the structures and their contents are
Celtic, and not Scandinavian
LECTURE VI.
LAKE-DWELLINGS, HILL-FORTS, AND EARTH-HOUSES.
A Broch like Clickamin is practically a lake-dwelling—Many Pages
defensive structures in lakes which are not 260–307
Brochs—Defensive structure in the Loch of Hogsetter,
Whalsay—Its special peculiarities—Lake-dwellings
constructed of wood, known as Crannogs—The Crannogs of
the Loch of Dowalton—The Crannogs of Ayrshire—General
similarity of the groups of objects recovered from them
to those found in Brochs—No class of ancient remains of
which we have less precise knowledge than
Hill-Forts—They differ essentially from all other
structures—They are of two varieties, earthworks and
stoneworks—Character of the earthworks—Earthwork on
Midhill Head, Midlothian—Stone fort at Garrywhoine,
Caithness—The White Caterthun, Forfarshire—Fort on Ben
Ledi—The vitrified forts—Knockfarril in
Strathpeffer—Craig Phadrig, near Inverness—Fort at
Finhaven, Forfarshire—Dun Mac Uisneachan, in Loch
Etive—Forts in Arisaig, Inverness-shire—Vitrified forts
do not differ in character from forts that are not
vitrified, if their vitrifaction be not a feature of
their construction—The evidence insufficient to
establish that the vitrifaction was a method of
construction—The phenomena of the vitrified forts in
France—The Gaulish forts constructed with alternate
layers of logs and stones—Similar construction of the
great rampart of Burghead in Morayshire—The hill-fort of
Dunsinnane associated with underground chambers—Similar
association in the forts of Ireland—Underground chambers
not associated with forts—The “Earth-Houses” at
Broomhouse, Berwickshire—In Strathdon,
Aberdeenshire—Groups of them at Airlie, Forfarshire, and
Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire—Associated with an overground
habitation and a group of graves at Grange of Conan,
Forfarshire—With objects of the Roman period at Tealing,
Pitcur, Newstead, and Crichton Mains—The range and
period of this type of structure—The culture and
civilisation of the people who constructed them
INDEX 309
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
View of the Broch of Clickamin, Shetland _Frontispiece_
Clay Vase found in a Mediæval Stone Coffin at Montrose 1111
Illumination from a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript 12
Clay Vases found at Castle Hill of Rattray,
Aberdeenshire 13
Sword found in a Viking Grave at Ballinaby, Islay 17
Boss and Handle of Shield found in a Viking Grave at
Ballinaby 18
Front view of Handle of Shield, Spear-head, and
Ferrule found in a Viking Grave at Ballinaby 19
Iron Ferrule and Fragment of Iron found in a Viking
Grave at Ballinaby 20
Bronze Plaque, with Figure of a Warrior, found in the
island of Oland 20
Sheath-mounting of Bronze and Axe-heads of Iron from a
Viking Grave at Ballinaby 21
Adze and Hammer from a Viking Grave at Ballinaby 22
Forge-tongs and Handle of Pot from a Viking Grave at
Ballinaby 23
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch and its Pin of Brass from a
Grave at Ballinaby 24
Double Disc of Bronze and Hairpin of Silver from a
Grave at Ballinaby 27
Chain of Knitted Silver Wire and Beads of Coloured
Glass from a Grave at Ballinaby 28
Saucepan of Thin Bronze from a Grave at Ballinaby 29
Implement of Black Glass for Smoothing Linen from a
Grave at Ballinaby 30
Sword of the Viking time from Vik, in Norway 33
Linen Smoother of Black Glass (modern) 37
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch of Brass found in a Grave at
Ballinaby in 1788 38
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch of Brass found in a Grave near
Newton, Islay 39
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch found in Tiree 40
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch of Brass found at Castletown,
Caithness 44
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch found in a Cist in The Long
Hills, Wick, Caithness 45
Sword ploughed up in Rousay, Orkney 45
Silver Mounting of a Drinking Horn found at Burghead 46
Sword-hilt of the Viking time found in the island of
Eigg 49
Side view of Pommel and Edge of Grip of Sword-hilt 5050
Upper side of Guard of Sword-hilt 51
Sword-hilt found in a Grave at Ultuna, Sweden 52
Buckle of Bronze from a Grave-mound in Eigg 53
Ground Plan and Sections of Grave-mounds in Eigg 53
Penannular Brooch of Bronze, silvered, from a
Grave-mound in Eigg 54
Belt-clasp of Bronze from a Grave-mound in Eigg 54
Whetstone and portions of Cloth from a Grave-mound in
Eigg 55
Single-edged Comb from a Grave-mound in Westray 57
Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch from a Grave-mound in Westray 57
Iron Key from a Grave-mound in Westray 58
Sheath-mounting from a Grave-mound in Westray 5858
Sectional View of Burials in Stronsay, Orkney 67
Urn of Steatitic Stone from a Cist in Stronsay 6868
Urn of Steatite from Stennis, Orkney 7070
Urn of Steatite from Corquoy, Rousay 71
Urn of Steatite from Rousay 72
Urn of Steatite from Shapinsay, Orkney 72
Urn of Steatite from The Fair Isle 7373
Vessels of Sandstone found at Aucorn, Caithness 75
Silver Brooch found at Skaill, Orkney 79
Silver Brooch found at Skaill, Orkney 81
Silver Brooch found at Skaill, Orkney 82
Neck-ring of Silver found at Skaill, Orkney 84
Neck-ring of Silver found at Skaill, Orkney 85
Neck-ring of Silver found at Skaill, Orkney 86
Armlets of Silver found at Skaill, Orkney 87
Flat Arm-band of Silver found at Skaill, Orkney 88
Circular Patterns on Brooches found at Skaill 94
Pattern of Interlaced Work on Brooch found at Skaill 94
Zoomorphic Patterns on Brooch found at Skaill 95
Zoomorphic Patterns on Brooches found at Skaill 96
Human-headed Figure on Brooch found at Skaill 9797
Axe-head inlaid with Silver from the Mammen How, 9797
Thor’s Hammer in Silver from Skäne, Sweden 99
Runic Monument at Skjern, North Jutland, with Thor’s
Face 100
Runic Monument at Aby, with Thor’s Head and Hammer 101101
Hood found in a Moss in St. Andrew’s Parish, Orkney 103
Portions of the fabric of the Hood and Woollen fabric 105105
Gold Rings found at Stennis 106
Gold Rings found in the Hebrides 107
Ingot of Silver found in the island of Bute 107
Gold Rings and Fillets found in the island of Bute 108
Penannular Arm-ring of Silver found at Rattar,
Caithness 109
Bronze object, like the frontal of a horse, with
horns, found at Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire 113
Plan of the horns of the Bronze object 115
Bronze Plaque, with Figures of Warriors, found in the
island of Oland 116
Bronze object in the form of a Swine’s Head, found at
Liechestown, Banffshire 117
Plates, forming separate parts of the Bronze object 118
Sword-sheath found at Morton Hall 120
Mountings of Cast Bronze found at Henshole, on Cheviot 121
Bronze Ornaments found in a Cairn at Towie,
Aberdeenshire 122
Mounting in Cast Bronze from Dowalton Loch 123123
Bridle-bit, enamelled, found in moss at Birrenswark 124
Quern found with Bronze articles at Balmaclellan 126
Bronze Mirror found at Balmaclellan 127127
Half of a Crescentic Plate of Bronze, with its 128128
Form of the Bronze Plates found with the Mirror at
Balmaclellan 129
Bronze Mirror found in a Grave at Mount Batten, near
Plymouth 130
Back of a Bronze Mirror found in a Grave at Birdlip,
near Gloucester 132
Bronze Spoon found at Weston, near Bath 134
Backs of the Handles of Bronze Spoons from Weston 135
Spoon found at Weston, and Spoon found at Llanfair 136
Jointed Collar of Bronze found at Stitchell,
Roxburghshire 136
Jointed Armlet found in the Parish of Borgue,
Kirkcudbrightshire 137
Gold Ornament found on the Shaw Hill, Peeblesshire 139
Bronze Armlet, enamelled, found at Castle Newe, 141141
Back view of Bronze Armlet found at Castle Newe 142142
Enamelled Plates of Bronze Armlets found at
Pitkelloney, Perthshire 143
Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, Banffshire 144
Back view of Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, 144144
Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet found at 145145
Front view of Bronze Armlet found at Drumside,
Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire 146
Back view of Bronze Armlet found at Drumside,
Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire 146
Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet found at
Drumside, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire 147
Armlet of Brass found near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire 148
Armlet found near Aboyne (back and side views) 149
Bronze Armlet in the National Museum (back and front
views) 149
Bronze Armlet found at Stanhope, Peeblesshire 150
Buckle-like object of Bronze found at Stanhope,
Peeblesshire 151
Saucepan of Bronze found with the Bronze Armlet at
Stanhope, Peeblesshire 152
Bronze Armlet, probably from Bunrannoch, Perthshire 153153
Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet from Perthshire 154154
Bronze Armlet found near Seafield Tower, Kinghorn,
Fife 155
Bronze Armlet found near Newry, County Down, Ireland 155
Bronze Armlet found in the sands of Culbin, Elginshire 156
Bronze Armlet found in the sands of Culbin, Elginshire (back
view) 157
Bronze Armlet found at Pitalpin, near Dundee 159
Bronze Armlet in the National Museum 160160
Bronze Armlet found at Grange of Conan, near Arbroath 160
Bronze Ball found at Walston, Lanarkshire 162
Ornamented Stone Ball from Elgin 162
Ornamented Stone Ball found at the Glas Hill, Towie,
Aberdeenshire 163
Ornamented Stone Balls found at Freelands and Fordoun 164
Ornamented Stone Ball in the collection of Sir J. Noel
Paton 165
Ornamented Stone Ball found at Ballater, Aberdeenshire 166
Ornamented Stone Ball found in the Tay, near Perth 166
Ornamented Stone Balls found in Argyleshire and
Inverness-shire 167
Ornamented Stone Ball found in the Isle of Skye 167
Ornamented Stone Balls found at Skaill, Orkney 168
Ornamented Stone Ball found near Kirkwall, Orkney 169
Ornamented Stone Balls found in Dumfriesshire, and at
Dudwick, Aberdeenshire 169
Ornamented Stone Balls found at Montblairy,
Banffshire, and near Nairn 169
Men with Maces (from the Bayeux Tapestry) 170
Exterior view of the Broch of Mousa, Shetland 175
Ground Plan of the Broch of Mousa, Shetland 176
Section of the elevation of the Broch of Mousa,
Shetland 178
View of Doorway of Broch in Glenbeg, Glenelg 181
Ground Plan and Section of Doorway of Broch in
Glenbeg, Glenelg 181
Section of Elevation of Broch in Glenbeg, Glenelg 182
Ground Plan of Doorway of Broch at Loch Duich 183
Sectional elevation of S.E. side of entrance passage 184184
Views of Cole’s Castle and Dun Dornadilla,
Sutherlandshire 185
General Plan of Broch and its fortifications on
Cockburn Law, Berwickshire 187
Masonry of Broch on Cockburn Law 188
Ground Plan and Section of Elevation of Doorway in
Broch of Torwood, Stirlingshire 189
Ground Plan of the Broch of Coldoch, Perthshire 190
View of the Nuraghe of Goni, in Sardinia 193
Section of Nuraghe, showing chambers and stair 193
View of Broch, known as Cole’s Castle, Sutherlandshire 194
General Plan of Broch of Clickamin, near Lerwick,
Shetland 196
Diagrammatic Section of East Broch, Burray, Orkney 197
Diagrammatic Section of the Broch of Borrowston,
Shapinsay, Orkney 198
Ground Plan of Broch at Manse of Harray 198
Section of the Well in the Broch at Manse of Harray 199
Ground Plan of Structure at Bodinar, Cornwall 207
Ground Plan of Broch at Kettleburn, near Wick 210
Lamp of Sandstone from Broch of Kettleburn 212212
Long-handled Comb from Broch of Kettleburn 213
Bronze Tweezers from Broch of Kettleburn 214
Section of Chamber in Broch of Kintradwell 217
Stone Cup from Broch of Kintradwell 218
Oval Pebble of Quartzite from Broch of Kintradwell 220
Hammer-marked Plate of Brass from Broch in Dunrobin
Park 222
Ground Plan of Broch of Yarhouse, Caithness 224
Circular Brooch of Brass from a Burial in the mound
covering the ruins of Broch of Yarhouse 225
Interior Aperture of Doorway in Broch of Yarhouse 227
Entrance to Stair in Broch of Yarhouse 228
Whetstones from Broch of Yarhouse 230
Bronze Armlet from Broch of Yarhouse 231
Portions of Horns of Reindeer from Broch of Yarhouse 231
Vessel of Red Sandstone, Bead, Comb, and Bronze Pin, 233233
Ground Plan of Broch of Levenwick, Shetland 235
Bronze Knob from Broch of Harray, Orkney 236236
Bone Cup, Comb, Button, and Pins, from Broch of Harray 237237
Ornamented Bone Pin from Broch of Burwick, Orkney 239239
Long-handled Comb from Broch of Burwick 240
Round-backed Comb from Broch of Burwick 240240
Cup and Lamps of Sandstone from Broch of Okstrow, 241241
Bronze Pin, Penannular Brooch, and Mounting of Bronze 242242
Ground Plan of Broch of Lingrow, Orkney 243
Pebble of Quartzite and Implement of Bone from Broch 244244
Clay Mould for casting Bronze Pins from Broch of
Lingrow 245
Bone Implement and Pins of Bone from Broch of Burrian, 246246
Bone Pins and Needles from Broch of Burrian 247247
One of a set of Playing Dice from Broch of Burrian 248248
Tool of Bone and Round-backed and Double-edged Combs 249249
Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian 250250
Long-handled Combs of Bone from Broch of Burrian 251251
Smoothing Implement of Bone from Broch of Burrian 252252
Weaving Comb of Wood and Iron used in India 254254
Stone with Incised Figures of Crossed Triangles from
Broch of Burrian 255
Metatarsal Bone of Ox, with Incised Symbols, from 256256
Defensive Structure in the Loch of Hogsetter, Whalsay,
Shetland 261
Portion of a Shoe of Stamped Leather from Crannog in 265265
Saucepan of Bronze, of Roman form, from Crannog at
Dowalton 266
Bead of Glass with lining of Bronze from Crannog at
Dowalton 267
Basins of Bronze from Crannog at Dowalton 268
Ground Plan of Earthwork on Midhill Head, Midlothian 273
Section of Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane, with Underground
Chambers 281
Ground Plan and Sections of Earth-house at Broomhouse,
Berwickshire 283
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Migvie, Aberdeenshire 284
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Buchaam, Strathdon 285
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Culsh, Aberdeenshire 287
Ground Plan and Section of Earth-house at Kildrummy,
Aberdeenshire 288
Ground Plan and Section of Earth-house at Eriboll,
Sutherlandshire 289
Ground Plan and Section of Earth-house at Kinord,
Aberdeenshire 291
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Cairn Conan, near
Arbroath 294
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Tealing, Forfarshire 298
Sketch Ground Plan of Earth-house at Newstead,
Roxburghshire 300
Ground Plan of Earth-house at Crichton Mains,
Midlothian 301
Sections of Earth-house at Crichton Mains, Midlothian 302
Ambry and Hewn Stones in Earth-house at Crichton Mains 303303
LECTURE I.
(17TH OCTOBER 1881.)
CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN BURIAL—VIKING BURIALS.
At the outset of my first series of Lectures I stated that the necessity
of abandoning the historical method of inquiry was involved in the very
nature of the investigation which I contemplated, because the relations
which the materials to be investigated bear to each other, and to
special phases of human culture and civilisation, are neither disclosed
by historical record nor discoverable by historical methods of research.
I therefore proposed that, for the purposes of this inquiry, we should
consider ourselves engaged in the exploration of an unknown region; and
that, starting from the borderland where the historic and the
non-historic meet, and ascending the stream of time, we should proceed
to make such observations of the facts and phenomena encountered in our
progress as would enable us to determine their relations by comparison
with facts and phenomena already familiar to us, and to deduce
conclusions which, so far as they are sound and relevant, would serve as
materials for the construction of a logical history of culture and
civilisation within the area investigated.
Having thus traversed the region characterised by the phenomena of the
Early Christianity of Scotland, all that is distinctively Christian is
now left behind. Before us lies the whole extent of the Pagan period,
resolvable into three great divisions, characterised as the Ages of
Iron, of Bronze, and of Stone. In each of these we shall meet with
distinctive manifestations of culture, disclosing their peculiar
characteristics by their special products. These products are the
materials of our investigation, and they fall to be dealt with by the
same methods that have been employed in the disclosure of the nature and
quality of the culture and civilisation of the Early Christian Time in
Scotland.
I have adopted this division of the general subject into “Christian
Times” and “Pagan Times,” because the phenomena with which I am dealing
do themselves exhibit a clearly defined distinction, and are separable
from each other by their characteristics according as they are products
of Christian or of Pagan forms of culture and civilisation.
For instance, while Paganism existed, there were two customs which gave
a distinctly typical character to the archaeological deposits of the
heathen period. These were (1) the burning of the bodies of the dead;
and (2) the deposit with the dead (whether burnt or unburnt) of
grave-goods—urns, weapons, clothing, personal ornaments, and implements
and utensils of domestic life. Previous to the introduction of
Christianity, the burials are characterised by cremation or by the
association of urns, arms, implements, and ornaments. After the
introduction of Christianity these characteristics cease. The
substitution of Christianity for Paganism thus produced an alteration in
the character of the archæological deposits exactly comparable to that
which was produced by the substitution of bronze for stone, or of iron
for bronze; and the difference between the Christianity and the Paganism
of a people or an area, as thus manifested, is therefore a true
archæological distinction.
But no archæological boundary is of the nature of a hard and fast line.
The deposits which constitute the periodic divisions of archæology (like
those of the geological series) are always to a greater or less extent
products of a re-formative process, by which portions of pre-existing
systems are imbedded in the new formation, in whose constitution the
disintegrated elements of the older system are often quite clearly
visible. There is therefore necessarily a series of transitional
phenomena along the whole line of contact, and though the new system may
have been characterised by a gradually increasing number of new types,
the older types are often continued with altered characteristics, caused
by an increasing conformity to the new conditions. It thus becomes of
importance that the character of these transitional phenomena should at
least be indicated before we finally pass from the region of
Christianity into that of Paganism. Their investigation is essentially
an examination of the disintegrated elements and altered fragments of
the Pagan systems that have entered into the composition of later
Christian formations; and no branch of this inquiry is more instructive
than that which takes cognisance of the survival of Pagan customs in the
usages connected with Christian burial.
“The first Christians,” says Aringhi, “did not follow the heathen custom
of placing deposits of gold, silver, and other precious articles in
their sepulchres.” But it is plain from his further statement that they
followed it partly, or, in other words, that the older custom was
continued in a modified form;[1] for he goes on to say that “they
permitted gold, interwoven with the cloth used in the preparation of the
body for burial, and such things as gold rings on the fingers; with
young girls, too, they often buried their ornaments and such things as
they most delighted in.”
-----
Footnote 1:
The body was swathed in linen, sometimes with the insignia of office,
or with ornaments of gold, or gems placed in the coffin or
sarcophagus.—Euseb. _Vit. Const._ iv. 66; Ambros. _Orat. in obit.
Theodos_; _August. Conf._ ix. 12, cited in Smith’s _Dict. of Christ.
Antiq._, _sub voce_ “Burial of the Dead.” The insignia of office, if
the deceased had held any such position—gold and silver ornaments in
the case of private persons—were often flung into the open grave, and
the waste and ostentation to which this led had to be checked by an
imperial edict.—_Cod. Theodos._ xi. tit. 7, 1, 14. _Ibid._ So common
was the burial of weapons and ornaments in Early Christian times among
the Franks, that enactments against the violation of graves in search
of treasure form a special feature in the Salic Laws. Gregory of Tours
tells of the robbery of the grave of the wife of Gonthram, who was
buried in the Church of Metz, “cum auro multo rebusque preciosis;” and
Montfaucon adds that from this we see that it was not the kings only,
but the great of the land also, who were at that time buried with
things of price.
-----
Although the Pagan form of burial in which the dead were placed in their
tombs, apparelled in their richest robes, and with their arms,
ornaments, and insignia, is clearly opposed to the doctrine taught in
all ages of the church, that the dead are for ever done with the things
of this life,[2] we find it strangely surviving as a Christian
ceremonial in the burial of kings and clergy. Childeric, the last of the
Pagan kings of France, was buried seated on a throne, in his kingly
robes, and with the arms, ornaments, and insignia of royalty.
Charlemagne, the establisher of Christianity (who meted out the
punishment of death to the Saxons who dared to burn their dead after the
old manner),[3] was also buried seated on a throne, with his royal
robes, his arms and ornaments, and the book of the Gospels on his knee.
The Scandinavian Viking was buried with his arms because his Valhalla
was a fighting place; but the Christian kings of Denmark continued to be
buried with their arms although there was no Valhalla prepared for
them.[4] Giraldus Cambrensis, describing the miserable death of Henry
II. of England, laments that when the body was being prepared for burial
“scarcely was a decent ring to be found for his finger or a sceptre for
his hand, or a crown for his head, except such a thing as was made from
an old head-dress.” When the custom was disused for kings, it was
retained for the clergy.[5] Archbishops and bishops have always been
buried with their insignia and robes of office.[6] Their graves,
containing the crosier or staff, the chalice and paten, the robes and
ring, although necessarily of Christian time and Christian character,
are directly related in the line of archæological succession to those of
the earlier Paganism. The custom also survives in the pompous
accessories of a military funeral. When we see the sword laid over the
coffin, and the horse led in procession to the grave, we witness the
survival of one of the oldest ceremonies ever performed among men—the
difference being, that of old the weapon was laid in the grave beside
the hand that had wielded it, and the horse was slaughtered to accompany
his master to the unseen world.[7] Some forms of this survival gradually
passed into distinctively Christian usages[8] with a definitely
Christian significance, and others became actually incorporated in the
ritual of the Church. One of the most striking of the sepulchral customs
of the Pagan Northmen was that of binding the “hell-shoes” on the feet
of the dead. It is stated in the Saga of Gisli the Outlaw that when they
were laying Vestein in his grave-mound, Thorgrim the priest went up to
the mound and said, “’Tis the custom to bind the hell-shoes on men so
that they may walk on them to Valhalla, and I will now do that by
Vestein;" and when he had done it he said, “I know nothing about binding
on hell-shoon, if these loosen.” This custom is often found in Christian
as well as in pre-Christian graves in Central Europe. It was well known
to the liturgical writers of the Middle Ages. Durandus says: “The dead
must also have shoes on their feet by which they may show that they are
ready for the judgment.” Members of religious orders were usually thus
buried, but the custom was not confined to them alone.[9] The idea of
providing for a journey which was implied in the Northern custom of the
“hell-shoon,” is curiously illustrated by the statement of Weinhold,
that in some remote districts of Sweden, up to a very recent period, the
tobacco-pipe, the pocket-knife, and the filled brandy-flask, were placed
with the dead in the grave.
-----
Footnote 2:
There are records of occasional cases in which the converts rebelled
and went back to their old customs in spite of the efforts of the
clergy to restrain them. Thus we find in A.D. 1249, that in Livonia,
where heathenism lingered longer than in almost any other part of
Europe, there is a solemn deed of contract entered into between the
converts and the brethren of the Holy Cross, by which the converts
become bound, for themselves and their heirs, never again to burn
their dead or to bury with them horses or slaves, or arms or
vestments, or any other things of value, but to bury their dead in the
cemeteries attached to the churches.—Dreger, _Codex Diplomaticus
Pomeraniæ_. Again we find that the Esthonian converts rebelled in
1225, took back the wives they had given up, exhumed the dead they had
buried in the Christian cemeteries, and burned them, after the fashion
of the old Pagan times.—Gruber, _Origines Livoniæ_, cited by Wyllie in
_Archæologia_, vol. xxxvii. p. 46.
Footnote 3:
Si quis corpus defuncti hominis secundum ritum paganorum flamma
consumi fecerit, et ossa ejus ad cinerem redierit, capite
punietur.—_Capitulary_, A.D. 785.
Footnote 4:
When the grave of King Olaf at Sore was opened, a long sword was found
over the body from the head to the feet. In the coffin of King Erik
Glipping, in the Church of Viborg, his sword lay at his side.
Kornerup, _Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed_, 1873, p. 251.
Footnote 5:
In the _Capitularia Regum Francorum_ we are told that the custom which
had grown obsolete among the common people was retained for the
clergy:—Mos ille in vulgo obsoletus in funeribus episcoporum et
presbyterum retinetur.
Footnote 6:
Durandus says, “Clerici vero, si sint ordinati, illis indumentis
induti sint, quae requirunt ordines, quos habent; si vero non habent
ordines sacros more laicorum sepeliantur. Verumtamen licet in aliis
ordinibus propter paupertatem hoc saepius omittatur, in sacerdotibus
tamen et Episcopis nullo modo praetermittendum est.”—_De Div. Off._
lib. 7. Kornerup, describing the practice in Denmark, says of the
burials of the higher orders of the clergy in the Middle Ages—“On
their heads they bore the mitre, on their shoulders the cloak of gold
brocade, on the finger the Episcopal ring, and the crosier lay by the
side of the corpse. Their feet were shod, and the chalice and paten
were placed in their hands.” These particulars have been verified in
many instances, among which it is only necessary to mention the graves
of Bishop Absalon at Sore, and Bishop Suneson at Lund.—Kornerup,
_Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed_, 1873, p. 251.
Footnote 7:
In a tumulus opened near Picton Castle, there were found, along with
the skeleton of a man, a sword, a breastplate, four horse-shoes, and a
gold ring, on the bezel of which were engraved the arms of Sir Aaron
ap Rhys, a knight of the Holy Sepulchre. The latest instance of this
custom carried out in its integrity occurred at the interment of
Frederick Casimir, a knight of the Teutonic Order, who was buried with
his horse and his arms at Treves in February 1781.
Footnote 8:
A variety of the custom of burial clothed took the form of burial in a
monkish habit. It was not uncommon in the twelfth century for laymen
to be thus buried, under the notion that the sanctity of the dress
preserved the body from molestation by demons. Thus Erik Ploupenning
sets forth in a deed dated 1241, “Votum fecimus ut in habitu fratrum
minorum mori deberemus et in ipso habitu apud fratres minores
Roeskildenses sepiliri.”—Pontoppidan, _Annales Eccl. Dan. 1669_. The
idea of sanctity connected with the monastic orders led people to seek
for burial, not only in the consecrated ground about the monastery,
but in the habit of the monks. The right was in early times purchased
by the great men of Brittany by the gift of lands and other offerings,
as we have seen to be the case in Ireland.—Stuart’s _Sculptured Stones
of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 63.
Footnote 9:
Bernard, grandson of Charlemagne, who died in 818, was found with
shoes on his feet when his coffin was opened in 1638. William
Lyndewode, Bishop of St. David’s, who died in 1446, was buried in St.
Stephen’s. When his grave was recently disturbed during repairs, the
body was found unclothed, but with shoes on the feet.—_Archæologia_,
vol. xxxiv. p. 403. In the cathedral of Worcester a skeleton was found
in 1861 having shoes or sandals on its feet, the soles of which were
quite entire.—_Gent. Mag._, Oct. 1861. The Abbé Cochet mentions a
large number of instances in France, proving the existence of the
custom there from the twelfth century to the seventeenth. In an
account of the funeral expenses of Roger Belot, who died in 1603,
there is a charge of twelve sous six deniers for a pair of shoes to
place on the feet of the defunct.—_Revue Archæol._, vol. xxv. (1873)
p. 12.
-----
Broadly stated, the archæological effect of the establishment of
Christianity was to cut off the presence of grave-goods from the burials
of the area. But these examples show that while this was the general and
final result, it was neither obtained absolutely nor at once. The burial
usages of a people are among the most unalterable of all their
institutions. Other observances may change with the convictions of
individuals, but the prevailing sentiment which leads to the disposal of
the dead—"gathered to their fathers"—in the same manner as the fathers
themselves were disposed, resists innovation longer and more stubbornly
than any other. In point of fact we find that from the beginning there
have been but two great typical forms of burial—viz. burial with
grave-goods, which is the universally Pagan type, and burial without
them, which is the universally Christian type.
These typical forms of burial are respectively products of the opposing
doctrines of Paganism and Christianity as touching the future life. I
cannot tell what may have been the precise attitude of mind which
induced my Pagan ancestor to provide his dead with grave-goods. In view
of the general prevalence of the custom, I cannot doubt that it was an
attitude which regarded their provision as a sacred duty, universally
binding and almost universally performed. But the Christian belief in a
resurrection to newness of life recognised no such duty to the dead, and
steadily opposed the practice as amounting to a denial of the faith. On
this account it is plain that when we find the dead in Christian graves
provided with grave-goods we have a form of burial which cannot be
accounted for by anything in the essential elements of Christianity
itself, and therefore it must be regarded as a survival of the older
custom, which logically ought to have died with the death of the Pagan
system,—of which it was a distinctive usage.
The Christian fathers appear to have drawn the line of demarcation
between Pagan and Christian burial so as to prevent the continuance of
cremation. Yet the practice of strewing charcoal and ashes ritually in
the open grave, and laying the unburnt body upon them, was a wide-spread
Christian custom of the early Middle Ages.[10] I cannot conceive the
process by which a custom like this could have been evolved from any of
the distinctive usages of Christianity, if the custom of cremation had
not preceded it. Again the practice of placing vessels of clay in the
cist with the unburnt body, which was one of the most widely diffused
and most distinctively Pagan customs connected with the interment of the
dead, was continued with certain modifications of form and significance
as a Christian usage.[11] In Pagan times these vessels contained food
and drink; in Christian times they held holy water and charcoal and
incense. The holy water vessel was shallow and basin-like, and was
placed usually at the feet of the corpse. Johannes Belethus, in the
twelfth century, notices this custom, and after him Durandus, Bishop of
Mende,[12] who says that the holy water is used “that the demons who are
greatly afraid of it may not come near the body;” and that incense is
used "to indicate that the dead person has entered his Creator’s
presence with the acceptable odour of good works, and has obtained the
benefit of the Church’s prayers." That the latter usage was widely
extended throughout Christendom is proved by the frequent discoveries of
vases pierced with holes, and containing the remains of charcoal, which
have occurred in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Denmark.[13] It was not
unknown in Scotland, as the following examples will show. On the
demolition of the old town steeple of Montrose in 1833, in
[Illustration: Fig. 1.—Clay Vase, one of four found in a mediæval stone
coffin at Montrose.] removing the soil under the base of the structure,
a rude stone cist was discovered at a depth of three feet. The cist
contained a skeleton disposed at full length, and beside the skeleton
were four vessels of clay placed two at the head and two at the feet.
One of these vessels (Fig. 11) is still preserved in the Montrose museum. It
is of reddish clay, 4 inches in height, 5 inches in diameter at the
widest part, and 3 inches across the mouth. Its form is shown in the
accompanying woodcut, from which it is also observable that it is
pierced with holes which exhibit irregular outlines. There are five of
these holes in the circumference of the widest part of the vase, and it
is evident from their appearance that they have been pierced by driving
a sharp-pointed instrument through it, not when the clay was soft but
after it was fired.[14] All the characteristics of the interment—the
stone-lined grave, the full-length burial, the vases placed two at the
head and two at the feet[15]—are those of the commonest form of
Christian burial with incense vases, as manifested in continental
examples later than twelfth century.
-----
Footnote 10:
The Christian liturgists account for this custom on other grounds than
as a simulation of the effect of cremation, or a survival by symbol;
but we should not expect them to recognise it as a survival of the
Pagan custom. Durandus says:—“Carbones ponantur in testimonium quod
terra ilia in communes usus, amplius redigi non potest; plus enim
durat Carbo sub terra quam aliud.” Is not the “ashes to ashes” of the
burial service a lingering echo of this ritual?
Footnote 11:
Vases of glass and of clay were buried with the early Christians in
the catacombs. The glass vessels were drinking cups, the clay vessels
are in all probability such as were in domestic use. Garrucci gives a
list of 340 of these glass vessels, many of which have the Christian
monogram, or scenes from Scripture, depicted on them. There are
others, however, ornamented with scenes from domestic and civil life,
and even with subjects from the Pagan mythology.
Footnote 12:
Mabillon also notices this custom:—"L’on trouvent assez souvent dans
l’anciens tombeaux des Chretiens des petits vases de terre pleins de
charbons."—_Dissertation sur le culte des Saints inconnus_, p. 25.
“Aquam benedictam et prunas cum thure apponerent.”—Beleth, _De Divinis
Officiis_, c. 161. “Deinde ponitur in spelunca in qua ponitur aqua
benedicta et prunae cum thure. Aqua benedicta ne demones qui multum
eam timent ad corpus accedant; solent namque desaevire in corpora
mortuorum, ut quod nequiverunt in vita, saltem post mortem egant. Thus
propter faetorem corporis removendum, seu ut defunctus creatori suo
acceptabilem bonorum operum odorem intelligatur obtulisse, seu ad
ostendendum quod defunctis prosit auxilium orationis.”—Durandus, _De
Off. Mortuorum, In Rationale Div. Off._ lib. vii. c. 35. “Vascula cum
aqua lustrali in sepulchris apponebantur.”—Aringhi, _Roma
Subterranea_, vol. i. p. 94. “Statutum etiam fuit ut in sepulchris
crux, et aqua lustralis seu benedicta apponeretur.”—Durantes, _Ex
Antiq. Ritual. Sacr. Libris._ apud Aringhi, _loc. cit._
Footnote 13:
The following are a few of the localities in which these vases have
occurred most abundantly:—Braquemont, Martin Eglise, Bouteilles, where
over 100 vases occurred, Roux Mesnil, Neuchatel, etc. It may be
interesting to indicate the range in time of the custom, by a few
instances, with well-defined dates. In the coffin of Urson, Abbot of
Jumieges, who died in 1127, two pierced vases were found. At Leure,
near Havre, among many interments with similar vases, there was one
with an inscribed slab identifying it as that of Pierre Berenguier
(1270–1290). In the stone coffin there were six of these pierced
vases. The stone coffin of Simon de Goucans, Bishop of Amiens, who
died in 1325, contained three vases, two being placed at the shoulders
and one at the feet, all pierced with holes and partly filled with
charcoal. In the coffin of John Count Dunois, who died in 1468, seven
vases occurred. In that of Francis Longueville, who died in 1491,
twelve pierced vases with charcoal were ranged along the sides of the
coffin. On the right side of the wooden coffin of the Abbé François
d’Orignai, who died in 1483, two pierced vases were found. In the
leaden coffin of Agnes of Savoy, Duchess of Dunois, who died in 1508,
there were four vases of common red unglazed ware containing charcoal.
The latest precise date is furnished by an interment in the graveyard
of the Benedictine monastery at Mans. The coffin, on which the
inscription was still legible, CHARLOTTE LE NORMANT DE BEAUMONT,
DECEDE LE 12 AVRIL 1688, contained a vase with charcoal. This curious
and little known custom is fully illustrated in the Abbé Cochet’s
works, _La Normandie Souterraine_, 2d edition, Paris 1855, and its
sequel _Sepultures Gauloises, Romaines, Franques et Normandes_, Paris
1857. See also _Bulletin Monumental_, vol. xxii. pp. 329–364, 425–447;
vol. xxv. pp. 103–132, 273–311; _Mémoires de la Société des
Antiquaires de Normandie_, vol. xxii. pp. 11, 12, 294–298, vol. xxiv.
p. 5–8; _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. p. 233, vol. xxxvii. p. 399, vol.
xxxviii. p. 66, vol. xxxix. p. 117; _Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of London_, 1855, pp. 206, 290; _Revue de l’art Chretien_,
vol. ii. (1858), p. 420; De Caumont, _Cours d’Antiquites
Monumentales_, vol. vi. p. 316; A. Murcier, _La Sepulture Chretienne
en France_, p. 159–164.
Footnote 14:
This is a frequently-occurring characteristic of the vessels partially
filled with charcoal found in graves of the Carlovingian period and
down to the seventeenth century in France. They are usually pierced
with holes irregularly placed. In some cases the holes have been made
when the clay was soft. In others the vessels have been pierced by
holes driven through their sides after they were fired, as if by a
nail or other pointed instrument.
Footnote 15:
At Bernay, where 150 of these incense vases were found, the most
common arrangement was four in one coffin, two at the head and two at
the feet.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 2.—Illumination from a fourteenth century MS.,
representing incense vases, placed, alternately with candles, round the
coffin during the funeral service.]
The form of the vase figured is not that of any known variety of urn
found with interments of Pagan type. But it closely corresponds with the
form of the incense vases represented in an illumination from a
manuscript of the fourteenth century (Fig. 2), as placed alternately
with candles on the floor round the coffin during the funeral service,
and which, as we learn from contemporary documents, were afterwards
placed in the grave.[16] In the illumination the red colour of the fire
within the vases appears through the holes pierced in their sides. (This
cannot be shown in the woodcut here given, but the escaping smoke
indicates the position of the apertures). There is in the National
Museum another pierced vase, in which the holes have been made when the
clay was soft. It was found in 1829, with two others, under a flat stone
at the Castle Hill of Rattray in Aberdeenshire. It is here figured (Fig.
3) along with one of the two others found with it, of which the Society
possesses a drawing (Fig. 4). From a note attached to the drawing we
learn that the three vessels were filled, with ashes when they were
first discovered. No other record of the phenomena of this interesting
deposit exists; but, from the character of the vessels themselves, which
is totally distinct from that of all known types of vessels deposited
with Pagan interments in this country, they may be assigned to the class
of vessels deposited in Christian graves of twelfth to fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries with charcoal and incense.
-----
Footnote 16:
Two instances are cited by the Abbé Cochet. Claud d’Escarbotte left
orders in his will that the young lads, orphans, who were to follow
him to the grave should carry each a torch and a pot with incense.
Jehan Thelinige described the custom more particularly, for he
prescribes in his will that the small pots with the fire and the
incense shall be thrown into the grave. In the district of Morvan,
says M. Jules Chevrier, the peasants even in our own days continue the
custom of using funeral vases. They throw upon the coffin, when it is
lowered into the grave, a porringer or some such dish of earthenware
which had been ordinarily used by the defunct; and in certain parts of
La Bresse they still throw into the grave the holy water vessel which
had stood at the feet of the defunct previous to the ceremony of
inhumation.
-----
[Illustration: Figs. 3, 4.—Clay Vases found at Castle Hill of Rattray,
Aberdeenshire (5 inches high).]
In the special features of such survivals as these we read the story of
the transition from the older to the newer forms of burial resulting
from the change of faith. We see the custom of burial with grave-goods
retained as a ceremonial observance in Christian sepulture, and the
practice of cremation succeeded by the symbolic act of strewing charcoal
in the open grave, and by a ritual which still regards the act of burial
as a consigning of “ashes to ashes;” and by these and similar links of
connection we pass gradually from the Christian system to the system of
Paganism that preceded it.
But when we advance beyond the Christian boundary in Scotland we enter
on a region singularly destitute of materials by which the burial
customs of the people may be correlated with those which offer
indications of their culture and civilisation. The general phenomena of
the burials of the Celtic Paganism of the Iron Age in Scotland are not
disclosed by any recorded observations known to me. If they exist, they
exist either as phenomena of unrecognised character or as phenomena
which are still unobserved. I therefore proceed to the examination of a
group of phenomena disclosing the existence within the Celtic area of a
system of Paganism which was not of Celtic origin; and I turn to these
phenomena as the only materials available for the demonstration of the
character of Pagan burial—premising that they belong to a time when,
owing to the intrusion of a foreign element, the Christian form and the
Pagan form were closely contiguous and contemporary in Scotland.
* * * * *
In the autumn of 1878 the late Mr. William Campbell of Ballinaby, on the
west coast of the island of Islay, passing through the sandy links
there, had his attention arrested by the unusual appearance of a patch
of iron-rust in a hollow from which the sand had drifted. Examining the
spot more closely, he found that there was a deposit of iron implements
in the sand. Digging out the deposit, he discovered that it had been
disposed in two contiguous graves, each containing a skeleton laid at
full length, with the head to the east and the feet to the west, the
boundary of each grave being marked by an enclosure formed of stones set
on edge in the sand.
In grave No. 1 he found the following objects deposited with the
skeleton:—
An iron sword in its sheath (Fig. 5).
The iron boss of a shield, with its handle of bronze or brass still
attached. (The boss and handle are shown in Fig. 6, and the handle
separately in Fig. 7.)
An iron spear-head with wide blade and long socket (Fig. 8).
An iron object, having a wide socket at one end of a long shank (Fig.
9).
A conical iron object with the remains of wood adhering to the
interior surface (Fig. 10).
A number of fragments of corrugated iron (Fig. 11).
A hollow cylindrical object of bronze with a globular end, probably
the mounting of the end of a small sheath (Fig. 13).
An iron axe-head, not differing greatly from the modern form, the eye
broken (Fig. 14).
An iron axe-head of similar form, but longer in the shank, the eye
entire (also shown in Fig. 14).
The iron head of a small adze, nearly entire (Fig. 15).
The iron head of a hammer, entire (Fig. 16).
A pair of forge-tongs, partially broken (Fig. 17).
The broken fragments of a large iron pot, and its bow-handle, broken
(Fig. 18).
In grave No. 2 he found the following objects deposited with the
skeleton:—
A pair of oval bowl-shaped brooches of bronze, ornamented with pierced
and chased work and with plaited bands of silver wire and studs, of
which the pins only remain (Fig. 20).
The brass spring-pins of the two brooches (Fig. 19).
Portions of three pairs of discs of thin bronze, plated with silver,
each pair connected by a narrow band, the discs ornamented with bosses
arranged in circles, and the bands with borders all in _repoussé_ work
(Fig. 21).
A silver hair-pin with a globular head, ornamented with filigree work,
and furnished with a ring of wire fastened by a peculiar twisting of
one end round the other (Fig. 22).
A silver chain-like ornament, formed of fine silver wire knitted as a
hollow tube, knotted at the two ends, and furnished at one end with a
ring fastened by a peculiar twisting of the ends round each other
(Fig. 23).
Seven beads of coloured glass, enamelled on the surface with patterns
in different colours (Fig. 24).
A saucepan of thin bronze, with a long flat handle (Fig. 25).
A hemispherical lump of black glass, in shape nearly resembling the
bottom of a bottle, and having its convex side rubbed and striated by
use (Fig. 26).
A small object like a needle-case, of silver, broken, and containing
what seems to be a portion of a broken needle of bronze.
It is apparent, from the nature of the groups of objects severally
associated with the two burials, that No. 1 was the grave of a man, and
No. 2 was the grave of a woman. The man was buried with his arms and
implements, the woman with her personal ornaments and housewife’s gear.
It is equally apparent, from an examination of the whole phenomena of
the burials, that there is an obvious absence of all indications of
Christianity. They are not destitute of characteristics possessing a
special significance, but they are destitute of characteristics
possessing such significance as could be attributed to the faith and
hope of the Christian creed, or explained by reference to any recognised
customs of Christian burial. They suggest, for instance, a condition of
life considerably removed from absolute poverty; they present
indications of culture and taste, of skill and industry, of manly vigour
and womanly grace. But the position of the graves, with the head to the
east and the feet to the west, is the opposite of that referred to by
the liturgical writers of early Christian times as the proper position
of the Christian dead, who should be placed with their feet to the east,
so that in rising they may face their Lord as He comes from the east.
And there is no feature which can be more surely relied on as an
indication of early Christian burial than this orientation of the grave
which is here so plainly disregarded.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.—Sword found in the grave at Ballinaby, Islay (36½
inches in length).]
If the absence of all indications of Christianity be thus obvious, there
is no less obviously a complete absence of all the characteristics of
art and art-workmanship with which we have become familiar in the
progress of our investigation. There is no Celticism apparent in the art
of the decorated objects placed in these graves. The characteristics
which we have found to be constantly present in the decorative
metal-work of the Celtic school of art are notably absent, and those
that are present are mostly new and strange to us. If the phenomena of
the burials are clearly not Christian, the characteristics of the art
are as clearly not Celtic.
To find such weapons of bronze or stone as are commonly styled
prehistoric deposited with the dead excites no feeling of surprise,
because we know, in a general way, that this was the common custom of
prehistoric Paganism. But when we find in a grave, along with the
ordinary weapons of war, a collection of implements like this—a group of
actual tools of iron—scarcely differing in shape, and not differing in
material from those now in use in our workshops, we instantly realise
the presence of a phenomenon at once unusual and suggestive. It is
unusual in this country because our forefathers received Christianity
early, and Christianity abolished the custom of placing implements in
graves. It is suggestive because it enables us to perceive how closely
the characteristic customs of the man we call primeval may be linked
with the arts and culture of modern times. It is therefore a phenomenon
which it is desirable to investigate as fully as possible.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.—Boss of Shield, with Handle attached, found in
grave No. 1 at Ballinaby, Islay.]
For this purpose it will be necessary to examine in detail the principal
objects found in the graves, with the view of determining their typical
characteristics and relations.
First, I take the sword (Fig. 5) as the most important, and therefore
the most likely to disclose its typical relationship by comparison with
others. It is a long, broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, tapering
slightly and evenly from hilt to point. Its whole length is 36½ inches.
The blade is 2¾ inches wide at the junction with the guard of the hilt,
2½ inches in the middle of its length, and 1½ where it begins to be
rounded off at the point. The grip of the hilt, which is covered with
leather, is 3¾ inches in length. The guard, which forms a straight
collar to the blade, flattened on the upper and under surfaces, and
convex on both sides, is 4¼ inches in length. The pommel, which is
triangular in outline and convex from the apex to the base, is 2½ inches
high, 4 inches from side to side, and 1½ inches thick. Portions of the
wooden lining of the scabbard still adhere to the blade.[17]
-----
Footnote 17:
Pennant figures an iron sword of this type in the second volume of his
_Tour in Scotland_, plate xliv., but dismisses it with the remark that
it is “part of an iron sword found in Islay.”
-----
The shield boss (Fig. 6) is a round piece of hammered iron, like a
hollow truncated cone, the outlines being those of an ogee curve instead
of rectilinear. It measures 3¼ inches diameter and 3½ inches high, the
flattened top being half an inch across. The base of the cone impinged
upon the wood of the shield, to which it was securely fastened by two
rivets passing through the flange of the boss and through the wood.
Other two rivets, placed in the circumference of the flange midway
between these two, also passed through the wood of the shield and were
riveted into the handle. The handle is of brass or bronze, 7¼ inches in
length, convex on the exterior surface, and concave internally in the
direction of its breadth, and slightly convex also in outline in the
direction of its length. It is ornamented (as shown in Fig. 7) by bands
of engraved lines forming reticulated patterns, and terminates at both
ends in slightly raised circular discs, furnished with loops in front
and back. The front loops apparently passed through the wood of the
shield, those on the backs of the discs must have stood free on the
inside of the shield, and were probably used for its suspension by a
strap slung across the shoulder. Portions of the wood of the shield
still adhere to the edges of the boss. This specimen shows what has
never before been seen in this country, viz. the method of attachment of
the boss and handle through the wood of the shield.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.—Handle of Shield, front view (7¼ inches in
length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 8.—Spear-head found in grave No. 1, at Ballinaby,
Islay (7 inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.—Ferrule found in grave No. 1 (6 inches in
length).]
The spear-head (Fig.8) is a long and stout-bladed weapon,
straight-edged, and tapering equally from the butt of the blade, which
is unbarbed, the short neck of the blade passing gradually into the
rounded socket. The blade is now only 7 inches in length, but was
probably about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide at the butt. The socket
still contains a portion of the wood of the shaft.
With these weapons there are other relics to which it is less easy to
assign a definite purpose, such as the iron object (Fig. 9), 6 inches in
length, which may have been the ferrule of a shaft, if not the heel of
the spear-shaft itself, which was often mounted with an iron prong for
convenience of thrusting it into the ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Iron Ferrules found in grave No. 1 at
Ballinaby.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.—Fragment of Iron from grave No. 1 at Ballinaby.]
[Illustration: Fig. 12.—Bronze Plaque, from Oland (actual size).]
Akin to this object is the broken portion of a conical ferrule (shown in
Fig. 10), and there are a number of fragments of an iron object with a
corrugated surface, as if formed of thick wires laid side by side (Fig.
11). None of the fragments suggest the probable size or form of the
object when entire, or reveal its purpose. But in the figure of a
warrior represented on a small bronze plaque (Fig. 12), dug up in the
island of Oland, we see a helmet formed of bands of somewhat similar
appearance, and the sword he bears in his hand is a sword of the
peculiar type associated with these peculiar relics.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.—Sheath Mounting of Bronze from grave No. 1 at
Ballinaby (actual size).]
A small and elegantly-formed and ornamented object of bronze (Fig. 13),
with a cylindrical socket, terminating in a globose and lobated
expansion, with a rope-like moulding round the upper part of the
terminal expansion, appears to have been the mounting of the end of a
small sheath. A similar object, nearly of the same size, having its
globose termination ornamented with a grotesque face was found in a
grave in the island of Westray, in Orkney, and will be hereafter
referred to. (See Fig. 50.)
[Illustration: Fig. 14.—Axe-heads of Iron (⅓), from grave No. 1 at
Ballinaby.]
The implements associated with these weapons and accoutrements in the
man’s grave are equally worthy of special examination, because, when
regarded as a representative group, it will be seen that they point with
equal definiteness to the same conclusion as to the typical character
and relations of the special form of burial with which we are dealing.
The iron axe-heads (Fig. 14) found in the grave were two in number,
nearly alike in form and dimensions, though somewhat mutilated. They do
not differ greatly from the modern form of the implement, and are good
serviceable tools.
[Illustration: Figs. 15 and 16.—Adze and Hammer (½), from grave No. 1 at
Ballinaby.]
The small adze-head (Fig. 15) and the hammer-head (Fig. 16) of iron are
also good serviceable tools, not differing greatly from forms that are
still in use, but possessing, in common with the axes, sufficient
individuality of form and character to establish their typical
relationship as members of a special group.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.—Forge-Tongs (⅓) from grave No. 1 at Ballinaby.]
The forge-tongs (Fig. 17), in the same manner, present features of
individuality which are capable of being correlated with a special
variety of this type of tool confined to a special area, and usually
occurring in certain special associations of a similar character to
those in which this example occurs.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.—Bow-Handle of Iron Pot, one end broken (⅓), from
grave No. 1 at Ballinaby.]
The broken fragments of the large iron pot present no features of
character that can be recognised as distinctive. They are simple
fragments of a large culinary pot, the diameter of which is indicated by
the span of the iron bow-handle (Fig. 18), of which about half remains
entire. But though the pot itself is not a specially remarkable object,
the occurrence of an iron culinary pot in such associations is a fact of
sufficiently remarkable character to be of importance in the
determination of the special relations of a burial distinguished by such
a group of unusual phenomena.
Let us now examine in detail the special characteristics of the
ornaments and other articles found in the grave of the woman.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.—Brass Spring-Pin of Brooch, from grave No. 2 at
Ballinaby.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.—Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch found in grave No. 2 at
Ballinaby, Islay.]
The most peculiar and striking objects among these ornaments are the two
brooches. They are determined to be brooches by the fact that they are
each furnished with a pin on the under side. These pins, which are of
brass, are of very peculiar construction.[18] The head of the pin (Fig.
19) is bent back to form a loop, by which the pin is secured in a socket
formed by two projections from the inner surface of the brooch, in which
a small rod is riveted passing through the loop of the pin. On this rod,
the pin plays as on a hinge. The free end of the loop of the pin,
doubled back and recurved, impinges on the inner and concave surface of
the brooch, and acts as a spring when the point of the pin is pressed
back to be slipped under a projecting catch on the opposite end of the
brooch. When in its place it lies under the concavity in a line with the
longest diameter of the brooch, which is oval and bowl-shaped, convex
externally and concave internally. The body of the brooch (Fig. 20),
which is 4¾ inches in length, 3 inches in width, and 1½ inch in height,
is double,[19] consisting of an outer and highly ornamented shell of
pierced open work, placed over an inner shell which is smooth and highly
gilt on the upper surface, so that the gilding may appear through the
open work above it. This open work consists of a series of patterns
which are similar as to the general effect, though they vary in their
details. They are arranged in equal segmentai divisions of the convexity
of the brooch, and separated by continuous bands of unpierced metal.
These bands are traversed longitudinally by furrows, in which plaited
strands of fine silver wire are laid and carried through perforations at
the junctions where they cross each other. At these junctions are
circular spaces, each of which has borne a knob or stud, probably of
coloured paste or enamelled glass. These are all gone, but the pins that
fastened them remain. The patterns themselves are zoomorphic in
character, but their zoomorphism is radically different from that of the
Celtic school. It is zoomorphism in which the details are sacrificed to
the general effect, as if in the mind of the artist the idea of the
ornament was dominant, and the idea of the form of its parts
subordinate. No two styles of ornament could be more widely dissimilar.
The artist of the Celtic school produced his effects by simple variation
of the arrangements of his stereotyped forms. In all the intricate
interlacements of his zoomorphic patterns, the typical forms employed to
produce the most bewilderingly beautiful combinations are substantially
the same, and their parts are the same. His zoomorphism was consistent
throughout. If the conventional beast was there at all, his tail was
there, and his crest, and his limbs—he was there in unvarying
completeness of form and conventionality of feature. But this
zoomorphism renders nothing distinctly. There is a suggestion of heads
here and wings there, but there may be no bodies and no limbs, or there
may be a suggestion of limbs to which no bodies effeir. The Celtic
artist built up his patterns with the forms of his conventional beasts
laboriously expressed. This artist simply blocks out his pattern and
covers it with suggestions of animal forms.
-----
Footnote 18:
The pins of all the other specimens of this type of brooch that are
preserved in the Museum have been of iron, and have consequently
disappeared by oxidation. Without the Ballinaby brooches we should not
have known the construction of the pin.
Footnote 19:
See the figure of the Tiree brooch, which is engraved with the upper
shell removed from its place, and each shown separately (Fig. 31).
-----
But if the art of these brooches is not Celtic, the form differs no less
widely from that of the Celtic brooches, which is penannular, with
flattened and expanded ends. No brooch of this oval bowl-shaped form
occurs within the Celtic area, either ornamented with Celtic art, or
associated with objects of exclusively Celtic origin.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.—Double Disc of thin Bronze, from grave No. 2 at
Ballinaby (7½ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.—Silver Hair-Pin, from grave No. 2 at Ballinaby
(actual size).]
Equally characteristic, and as widely different from anything that we
have seen of Celtic forms or Celtic art, are the forms and the art of
the double discs of plated metal (Fig. 21), of which three were found in
the same grave with the brooches. They are so thin and so sorely wasted
that they could only have been recovered from a sandy soil, and even
then, if they had been subjected to less careful handling, we should
have been unable to establish their original form. They are all
imperfect, the most entire being 7½ inches in length, consisting of a
pair of buckler-like discs, ornamented with bosses and concentric
circles, and connected by a band ornamented with zigzags and pellets,
all in _repoussé_ work. It is difficult even to conjecture what may have
been their use. They are of silvered bronze, and if they had occurred in
the man’s grave, they might have been supposed to have been ornamental
mountings of the shield. But Mr. Campbell’s testimony as to their
occurrence in the grave of the woman is distinct, and it is equally
clear from their form and character, that they are objects of ornament,
but neither the form nor the character of the objects gives any clue to
the manner in which they were worn.
The silver hair-pin (Fig. 22), with globular head and ring attached by a
loop, is 5 inches in length. The globular head is ornamented with double
reversing spiral scrolls of filigree work of notched wire, finely
executed. The ring of wire which hangs in the loop on the summit of the
globular head of the pin, is also notched, and the ends twisted round
each other in a fashion which is characteristic of many similarly joined
rings of this type; as, for instance, the ring attached to the end of
the chain of knitted wire to be next described.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.—Chain of Knitted Silver Wire, 15 inches in
length, and end portion of the Chain of the actual size, from grave No.
2 at Ballinaby.]
The chain of knitted silver wire (Fig. 23) is an object of very peculiar
character, but its relations are not difficult to establish.[20] Its
total length is 16 inches, and its width ¼ inch. It is formed of silver
wire of the fineness of sewing thread, knitted as a hollow tube, with
the common knitting-stitch used in knitting stockings. The knots at the
ends of the tube are produced separately, and fastened on. The ring at
the end of the chain has its ends twisted together in the same manner as
the ring attached to the hair-pin.
-----
Footnote 20:
A portion of a similar chain occurred in the Croy find (_Scotland in
Early Christian Times_, Second Series, p. 23); also in the Skaill
hoard, to be subsequently described; in the hoard at Cuerdale; and in
a small hoard found in the Isle of Inchkenneth.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 24.—Beads found in grave No. 2 at Ballinaby (actual
size).]
The beads of coloured glass found in the graves (of which the different
varieties are shown in Fig. 24), were seven in number. In all
probability, only a part of them were recovered. They present the
peculiarity of being formed of glass of different colours fused together
so as to present a variegated surface, sometimes in regular patterns of
different colours.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.—Saucepan of thin Bronze, from grave No. 2 at
Ballinaby (17½ inches in length).]
The saucepan of thin bronze (Fig. 25) is extremely light, of good shape
and excellent workmanship. Its whole length is 17½ inches,—the handle
being 12 inches in length, the bowl 5½ inches wide and 3½ inches deep.
It is formed of extremely thin beaten bronze, not much thicker than
writing paper. A T-shaped fillet surrounds the rim, giving strength and
rigidity to the upper part of the bowl. Below the rim are three slight
mouldings in _repoussé_ work. The handle is strengthened by a T-shaped
fillet on either edge, and the circular expansion at the end is
ornamented with a disc hammered up from the under side.
The hemispherical implement of black glass (which is here shown in Fig.
26), is the most peculiar object found in this grave. In shape it nearly
resembles the bottom of a common black bottle, though flatter in the
concavity and scarcely so large, being 3 inches in diameter and 1½
inches in thickness. It has been made by “throwing” a lump of glass in
fusion, and has evidently been “thrown” in this special form for a
special purpose. That purpose, as we shall see hereafter, is indicated
by the marks of use on its convex side,—which is considerably rubbed and
striated, chiefly towards the centre where the surface is most
prominent.
[Illustration: Back view.]
[Illustration: Front view.]
[Illustration: Section.]
Fig. 26.—Implement of Black Glass, from grave No. 2 at Ballinaby (3
inches in diameter).
Lastly, a little cylinder of bronze plated with silver, about 2 inches
in length and scarcely so thick as a common pencil-case, contains in its
interior, adhering to one of its sides, what seems to be the point end
of a needle of bronze.
From this detailed examination of the objects associated with these
interments, we perceive that they are for the most part objects
presenting a strongly marked individuality of character. The weapons
form a peculiar group, consisting of a long, broad-bladed, double-edged
sword, with short, straight guard and triangular pommel; a light wooden
shield with a truncated boss of iron, and a long, stout-bladed, and
unbarbed spear. The ornaments also form a peculiar group, the brooches
being large, oval, and bowl-shaped, and covered with patterns of
zoomorphic decoration, imperfectly expressed. Reverting to the remarks
made on the essential qualities of this peculiar style of decoration, it
will be remembered that it differs widely in character and spirit from
the decoration of the Celtic school with which we have now become
familiar; and if the general teaching of these Lectures, in regard to
the value of decoration as an index to the archæological relations of
the objects on which it is found, has been successfully applied, it must
be obvious that there is no Celticism apparent in these objects. We are
unable to compare the forms of the weapons and implements with forms
obtained from Celtic burials, because no iron sword, no iron spear, or
wooden shield has ever been found in Scotland in association with any
burial demonstrably of Celtic character. And no such group of implements
as axes and smithy-tools of iron has ever been found in association with
any interment on the mainland of Scotland. The obvious inference is that
these two burials, with their associated groups of weapons, implements,
and ornaments possessing such strongly marked and unusual
characteristics, may be outlying examples of a form of burial and
associated types of objects, whose special area is not Celtic, and
therefore probably not in Scotland.
I have already explained that since it is difficult, if not impossible,
to point to any given area which has remained unaffected by movements of
populations, invasions, colonisations, and other changes not dependent
on purely physical conditions, we must be prepared for the occurrence,
among the products that are indigenous to the soil, of other products
archæologically characteristic of other areas; and I have endeavoured to
show how these are separable from the purely indigenous types by their
difference in character and decoration, and how they are assignable to
their parent area by their identity with the types native to the region
from which they are derived. This is the problem we have now to deal
with.
The most prominent features of the form of burial exhibited by these
Islay graves are that it is burial unburnt, and with grave-goods. I have
already shown that these are features that are common to almost all
forms of Paganism. But there seems to be a special suggestiveness in the
character of the group of objects deposited in the man’s grave. Since he
took with him his sword and spear, his axe and shield, and took also
with him his smithy-tools to keep them in repair, it seems a fair
inference that his form of faith must have taught him to look for a
continuance of warfare in the life beyond the grave. We know that such a
faith existed, and that the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland were
overrun by men who held it at a time when such implements and weapons of
iron were in common use. The special feature which distinguished the
wild creed of the Northmen from most other forms of heathenism was that
it promised a place in Odin’s Hall to all men wounded by arms or slain
in battle. Spears supported the ceiling of this Valhalla; it was roofed
with shields, and coats of mail adorned its benches. It was the
perpetual pastime of its inmates to fight and slay each other every day,
to be revived again before evening, and then to ride back to the feast
of boar’s flesh and mead. If, therefore, it can be shown that the forms
of the weapons, implements, and ornaments thus found in these Islay
graves are the forms of the Norwegian area, and that, when they occur in
Scotland, they are found in those portions of Scottish territory that
were possessed and colonised by the Norwegians—and found only there—the
demonstration of the character, period, and relations of these burials
will be complete.
The materials for forming an estimate of the typical character of the
burials of the Viking time in Norway are ample, and they have been very
fully described by the Norwegian archæologists. Upwards of a thousand
graves of this period are known. The form of burial which they exhibit
is burial with grave-goods. The burial is usually covered by a mound,
either round or oblong in shape. The mounds vary greatly in size, but
they differ from those of the early Iron Age, and of all previous ages,
in being usually unfurnished with either cist or chamber. Stones are
often found set round the burial, which, when the body was unburnt, was
simply laid on the natural surface, and the mound heaped over it. In
Norway the custom of burning the body exceeds in frequency the custom of
burying unburnt by about four to one. Where the body has been burnt it
is usually found that the grave-goods have also passed through the fire,
but this is not always the case. The burnt remains are either found
spread over the area of the base of the mound or gathered together in a
heap in the centre. Very frequently they are found placed in an urn. The
urns of the Viking time are very rarely made of clay, but are either
hollowed out of some soft stone, such as steatite, or they are caldrons
made of thin plates of iron riveted together, or beaten out in bronze.
The grave-goods buried with these interments include the clothing,
weapons, implements, or ornaments used or possessed by the deceased, and
the furnishings of the grave are thus rich in proportion to the wealth
and station of the individual.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.—Sword found at Vik, in Norway.]
The sword which is characteristic of these interments in Norway is a
peculiar weapon. It is long, broad-bladed, often double-edged, and
usually furnished with a short, straight guard and a triangular pommel.
One which was ploughed up from a grave-mound at Vik, in Flaa Sogn in
Norway, in 1837, is shown in Fig. 27 for comparison with those of the
same type found in Scotland. I have said that we have no Celtic sword of
this type. It is the type which prevailed in Scandinavia during the last
three centuries of their heathen period. It differs from the types that
preceded and succeeded it in Norway, and it differs also from the types
of swords of the later Iron Age in other countries of Europe. It is
specially the sword of the Norwegian Viking.
As the sword is the most characteristic object among the grave-goods of
the man, the brooch is also the most characteristic object among the
grave-goods of the woman. The brooch, which is constantly found in these
interments in Norway, is a most peculiar ornament. It is always of
brass, massive, oval, and bowl-shaped in form, and is distinguished from
all other brooches that are known, not only of this, but of every other
area and every other time, by the fact that it is an article of personal
adornment which (though as capable of being used singly as any other
form of fibula might be), is almost never found singly, but constantly
occurs in pairs—the one being usually an almost exact duplicate of the
other. This singular type of brooch is the special ornament of the
female dress which prevailed in Norway during the last three centuries
of their heathen period.[21] It differs entirely from the types that
preceded and succeeded it; and it differs as completely from the types
of the later Iron Age in all other European countries.
-----
Footnote 21:
For this reason the geographical distribution of these brooches marks
the range of the Scandinavian conquests of the ninth and tenth
centuries. In Iceland, in Russian Livonia, in Normandy, in England, in
Ireland, and on our own shores in Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and
Sutherland, and in the Hebrides, including even the remote St. Kilda,
their presence attests the historical fact of the Viking settlements
from Norway. But the area in which they are specially abundant, of
course, is in Scandinavia itself. I find on comparing the different
records that there are now upwards of five hundred of them known in
Norway. When we add the number known in Sweden, which exceeds four
hundred, and those of Denmark, which only amount to thirty-eight, we
have a gross total of nearly a thousand, of which the larger portion
are from Norway. No archæological period in any country is marked by
such a distinctly peculiar and characteristic type.
-----
We therefore see that if the sword thus found in Islay had been dug up
in Norway it would have taken its place as one in a great series of the
ordinary Viking type, and these brooches from the woman’s grave would
have matched exactly with some hundreds of similar pairs from Norwegian
graves.[22] The whole group of objects would have corresponded with the
special characters of many similar groups preserved in the Christiania
Museum. The special forms of each of the members of the groups—as, for
instance, the forge-tongs, the hammer, the adze, the axes,—are all forms
that are abundantly represented in Viking graves there. Nicolaysen gives
twenty-three instances of smithy-hammers, and seventeen instances of
forge-tongs among the articles found in grave-mounds of the Viking time
described by him, in Norway. Several of these grave-mounds contained
more or less complete sets of smith’s tools, including anvils, chisels,
files, as well as hammers and tongs. Along with an interment of this
period at Thiele, in Jutland, there were two anvils of different forms,
four different kinds of hammers, four varieties of pincers or
forge-tongs, two chisels, two implements for drawing wire, four files,
two melting pans, a pair of scales and weights, and a quantity of other
implements. It was natural that the smith’s craft should hold a high
place in the estimation of a people wholly devoted to the use of arms,
and as famous for their skill in forging, tempering, and ornamenting
weapons as for their prowess in using them. But such homelier objects as
the pot and the saucepan of the Islay graves are common accompaniments
of these interments in Norway, and the counterparts of the implement of
black glass found in the woman’s grave may be seen in the museums of
that country, and their purpose demonstrated by specimens that are
actually still in use. Nicolaysen describes them as lumps of glass
formed like the bottom of a bottle, and the character of the objects
usually associated with them may be indicated by the contents of one
grave-mound in which this implement occurs. The mound was a large one,
44½ feet long, and 73 feet broad, set round the base with large stones.
It contained an interment after cremation. The ashes were gathered into
a bronze vessel, 8 inches high, and 17 inches in greatest diameter, over
which was inverted a pot of steatite, both vessels enclosing a quantity
of iron implements cemented into a solid mass of oxidation and burnt
human bones. Among the implements were a lump of glass like the bottom
of a bottle, a knife-blade, the rings of a bridle-bit, an axe, a
sickle-blade, a whetstone, some bronze ornaments, and an ox-horn.
Alongside of the bronze vessel were a spear-head and a frying-pan of
iron, 8½ inches diameter, with 7 inches of the handle remaining, and all
around were large quantities of clinker nails. Here the associations of
the glass implement are similar in character to its associations in the
Islay graves. Its purpose is demonstrated by the facts recorded by
Nicolaysen and Lorange, who state that in Mandal Amt and in several
remote districts on the west coast of Norway, the women still use them
for giving a gloss to their white linen caps, and generally for getting
up a gloss on linen by friction.[23]
-----
Footnote 22:
In a letter to me acknowledging receipt of a copy of my “Notes of the
Relics of the Viking Period of the Northmen in Scotland,” Professor
Rygh, Curator of the Museum at Christiania, says:—“Among the oval
brooches which you have figured, there is not one that might not have
been found in Norway. The brooch from Pierowall is of a form
exceedingly common with us, of which I know no fewer than one hundred
and eight specimens. The commonest form of all in Norway is that of
the brooches from Islay and Tiree, of which we have one hundred and
eighteen examples. The brooches from the Longhills at Wick belong to a
variety of the last form well known with us, and that from Castletown
in Caithness has many analogous examples here in Norway, although they
are not so common as the two previously mentioned types.”
Footnote 23:
When showing the relics from the Ballinaby graves to a lady, she
remarked that in her home in Caithness she remembered seeing a similar
article of glass, which she was told was formerly used for a similar
purpose. Though now resident in Edinburgh, she believed the implement
was still preserved, and at my request she made search for it, found
it, and sent it to the Museum. It is an implement so similar in form
to the ancient specimen, that there can be no question as to the
identity of type. It is of black bottle glass, 3 inches in diameter,
and 1¾ inch thick, and is here engraved (Fig. 28) to the same scale as
the specimen from the Ballinaby grave (Fig. 26). That the discovery of
this lump of glass in a Pagan grave should be the means of bringing to
light the existence of similar implements in Scotland which had
continued in use till within living memory, is a curious illustration
of the rapidity with which the knowledge of special implements and
special processes becomes extinct when the implement has been
superseded by a new form and its use rendered obsolete by an improved
process. The placing of this specimen (of the modern type) in the
Museum has brought to light other three specimens of modern
calendaring implements of glass. They are of larger size and furnished
with handles, which are also of glass.
-----
[Illustration: Back view.]
[Illustration: Front view.]
[Illustration: Section.]
Fig. 28.—Linen Smoother of Black Glass, modern (3 inches diameter).
It has thus been demonstrated that every feature of these two Islay
burials, and every object associated with them, is clearly of Norwegian
type, and of the heathen period of their Viking time—that is, of the
period ranging between the beginning of the eighth and the end of the
tenth centuries—and that the sword of this peculiar form and the
bowl-shaped brooch of this remarkable type are the most characteristic
objects associated with this class of burials.
The next question that presents itself for determination is, What is the
range or area of this type of burial, associated with these types of
objects, in Scotland?
[Illustration:
Fig. 29.—Brooch found at Ballinaby, Islay, in 1788.
One of a pair (4¼ inches in length).
]
On this same estate of Ballinaby, in Islay, a grave was discovered under
a large standing-stone in the year 1788. There is no precise record of
the circumstances beyond the fact that a pair of oval bowl-shaped
brooches (Fig. 29) were found in it. They were presented to the National
Museum, and are thus preserved. They are of the same variety of type as
those previously described, but differing somewhat in the patterns of
their ornamentation. They are 4¼ inches in length, 2⅞ inches in breadth,
and 1¼ inch in height. Their pins were of iron and are gone, but the
hinge and catch remain in both. The central ornament of the upper shell
is a raised boss, cast hollow in the metal, chased on the upper surface,
and pierced with four holes. The channels cut in the bands of unpierced
metal between the patterns of pierced work, and the holes through which
the plaited strands of silver wires had passed, are visible, but the
wires themselves are gone. The holes for the pins that fastened the
studs of coloured paste on the circular spaces at the junction of the
bands are there, but pins and studs are both wanting. The patterns of
the ornamentation are zoomorphic, representing winged, dragon-like
animals placed face to face. The band round the lower part of the under
shell of the brooch is filled with a suggestion of zoomorphic patterns
in panels, and the flange or flat border underneath it is divided into a
series of raised and sunk spaces, produced apparently by a triangular
punch.
[Illustration:
Fig. 30.—Brooch found in a grave near Newton, Islay.
One of a pair (4⅛ inches in length).
]
In 1845 a similar burial was discovered in the strath near Newton
Distillery, also in Islay. No record of the circumstances is preserved,
but two oval bowl-shaped brooches (Fig. 30) and an amber bead, which
were found in the grave, are in the possession of Mr. John Campbell of
Islay. The brooches are each 4⅛ inches in length, 2¾ inches in width,
and 1 inch in height. The pins had been of iron and are gone, but the
hinge and catch are still traceable. These brooches differ from those
that have been already described, inasmuch as they are not double
shelled but cast in one piece, that is, they are made of a single shell,
which is chased, but not pierced in open-work patterns. The division and
the arrangement of the patterns are much the same as in those first
described, but there are no channels in the partitions for silver wires,
and the partitions themselves are ornamented with a species of fret. The
circular spaces at the junctions of the partitions have been ornamented
with studs of paste pinned on, but studs and pins are both gone. The
patterns of the ornamentation are executed with a graving tool, but they
exhibit so little coherency of design that it is impossible to call them
zoomorphic.[24]
-----
Footnote 24:
A similar grave was found in Mull, and the brooches are in the
possession of Lord Northampton at Torloisk, but I have no further
information regarding them.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 31.—Brooch found in Tiree.
1. Under Shell of Brooch, gilt.
2. Upper Shell of pierced and chased work.
]
In the old Statistical Account of Tiree it is stated that, in digging at
Cornaigbeg, there were found at different times human skeletons, and
nigh them skeletons of horses. Swords, it is said, were also found, but
diminished with rust,—silver-work preserved the handles; there were also
shields and helmets. In March 1847 an oval bowl-shaped brooch of this
special character, which had been found in Tiree, was exhibited to the
Society by Sir John Graham Dalzell, but it was not left in the Museum,
and it is not now known what became of it. But in 1872, the late Rev.
Dr. Norman Macleod presented to the Museum a brooch of this character
found in Tiree (Fig. 31), which is almost precisely of the same pattern
as those first found in Islay. It is 4¼ inches in length, 2¼ inches in
breadth, and 1½ inch in height. It is double, and is here figured with
the upper and under shells separated from each other so as to show the
manner in which they were fitted and pinned together, so that the
smooth-gilded surface of the under shell might shine through the pierced
work of the upper. This brooch also presents a peculiar appearance
common to them all, but which, in this instance, is strongly marked. The
interior of the under shell is impressed with the texture of coarse
cloth so distinctly, that the size, number, and interweaving of the
threads are as visible as in the web. The cloth seems to be coarse
linen, and the appearance is really an impression cast in the metal.
These under shells were probably cast in moulds prepared in this way—the
side of the mould corresponding to the convex surface with its
ornamental border was cut in soft stone, a thickness of wet cloth was
then fitted into it corresponding to the thickness of the metal, and
over this a lump of clay was rammed hard; the clay was lifted and the
cloth removed, thus leaving a cavity for the metal;[25] the clay became
one side of the mould and the stone the other, and, when the metal was
run in, it produced a cast of the impression of the cloth retained upon
the backing of clay. Thus these brooches present castings in metal of
the textile fabrics of the eighth and ninth centuries, showing the
thickness of its threads, the method of weaving, and the general finish
of the fabric. But there is a still more interesting circumstance
connected with them in respect to the cloth of the period when they were
made and worn. In some instances they have not only preserved casts in
the metal of the impression of cloth in the clay of the mould, but have
actually preserved portions of the dress in which they were worn, or in
which they were fixed when committed to the grave with the body of the
wearer. I have already stated that they have usually had pins of iron,
now represented by a lump of oxidation. In this brooch from Tiree, and
also in one which I brought from Hakedalen, near Christiania, I have
ascertained by careful examination of this lump of oxidation that it has
enclosed and protected from decay a minute portion of puckered cloth
which had been caught between the point of the thick pin and the iron
catch into which it slipped when the brooch was fastened on the dress. I
have been able to remove and mount for microscopical examination some
small scraps of this cloth. It appears to be linen, but with a partial
admixture of another fibre, which may be hemp, and I can detect no
material difference between the cloth in the specimen from Norway and
that from the island of Tiree on our own western coast.
-----
Footnote 25:
The metal of which these brooches are made is not bronze but a very
soft brass. Professor Rygh has given the details of the analyses of
four, and the composition of the metal is as follows:—
Analyses of bowl-shaped brooches. Copper. Zinc. Lead.
1. From Stromsund, Norway 74·78 10·44 14·36
2. From Braak, Norway 72·85 11·90 15·71
3. From Gardness, Norway 88·00 11·90 ...
4. From Denmark 84·44 11·00 3·77
-----
Continuing our inquiry as to the area over which these peculiar relics
have been found in Scotland, we ascertain that there are other instances
of their occurrence in the Hebrides. On the island of Barra a large
grave-mound, crowned by a standing stone 7 feet high, was opened by
Commander Edge in 1862. The grave contained a skeleton placed with the
head to the west, and along with it there were found an iron sword, 33
inches in length, with remains of the scabbard, a shield-boss of iron
and some remains of the shield, a whetstone, two oval bowl-shaped
brooches of this type, and a comb of bone, 8 inches in length.[26] A
similar burial was found “in the island of Sangay” (probably Sanderay)
“between Uist and Harris.” The grave contained a skeleton, and with it
were found a pair of these brooches (closely resembling Fig. 48, from
Pierowall in Orkney), together with a brass pin and a brass needle.[27]
Even in remote St. Kilda the evidences of the occurrence of this typical
form of burial are not wanting. A pair of these oval brooches found in
that island are preserved in the Andersonian Museum, Glasgow.[28]
-----
Footnote 26:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond._ 1861–64, p. 230. The comb is there said to
have been of boxwood, but it seems more likely that it was of bone.
Footnote 27:
One of these brooches is figured in the _Vetusta Monumenta of the
Society of Antiquaries of London_, vol. ii. pl. xx., and it is there
said that “the fellow of it is in the British Museum.”
Footnote 28:
One of these is figured by Worsaae in the _Aarboger for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed_ for 1873.
-----
Coming now to the mainland of Scotland, we find that one of these
brooches is preserved in Ospisdale House, Sutherlandshire, of which
there is no precise record; but there is every reason to conclude that
it is one of a pair found somewhere in the neighbourhood. Another pair
were found in a grave in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin Castle, and the
under shells of them are preserved in the Duke of Sutherland’s museum
there.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.—Bowl-shaped Brooch, found with a Skeleton at
Castletown, Caithness (4½ inches in length).]
In Caithness there have been occasional discoveries of interments of
this character, but unfortunately no one seems to have thought a burial
which was associated with “rusty pieces of old iron” worthy of careful
investigation. The Rev. Mr. Pope records, incidentally,[29] a remarkable
discovery of swords “in a peat bank near the house of Haimar” in the
neighbourhood of Thurso, and dismisses the subject with the remark that
“they were odd machines resembling plough-shares, all iron.” A pair of
oval bowl-shaped brooches of great beauty were found at Castletown in
Caithness in 1786. One of these (Fig. 32) is in the National Museum.[30]
It is 4½ inches in length and 3 inches in width. It is double-shelled,
and the gilding, both on the under and upper shells, is still visible,
although the “double row of silver cord along the edge,” which is noted
in the first description of the brooches when they were presented by
James Traill of Rattar in 1787, is now gone. The centre of the convexity
of the brooch is surmounted by a bold ornament, in form somewhat
resembling a crown. The ornamentation is distinctly zoomorphic, the four
projecting ornaments below the centrepiece being carved into the form of
animals’ heads. These brooches were “dug out of the top of the ruins” of
a Broch near Castletown, and were found “lying beside a skeleton, buried
under a flat stone with very little earth above it.” This evidently
implies that the interment had been made in the upper part of the mound
covering the ruins of the Broch.[31]
-----
Footnote 29:
Pope’s Translation of Torfaeus, Wick, 1866, p. 169.
Footnote 30:
The other was given to Mr. Worsaae on the occasion of his visit to
Scotland, and I had no difficulty in recognising it in one of the
cases of the Museum at Copenhagen.
Footnote 31:
It was the custom of the Northmen to bury their dead in mounds raised
in their honour, but they also took advantage of mounds already
raised, and of natural or artificial mounds which were convenient for
the purpose. See also the remarks on the use of the mounds covering
the ruins of Brochs as burial-places in the subsequent Lecture on
Brochs.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 33.—Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch, found in a cist in the
Longhills, Wick.]
Another pair of these oval bowl-shaped brooches from Caithness is also
in the National Museum. They were found in a cist in the top of a
natural mound of gravel called the Longhills, on the north side of the
river, a little above the bridge of Wick, in 1840. Although found
together they differ in pattern, one being nearly similar to the Tiree
brooch, while the other (Fig. 33) differs from all the Scottish
specimens in having eight bosses of open work arranged round the central
boss. They retain portions of the twisted strands of fine silver wire
which lay in the channeled depressions of the upper part.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.—Sword found in Rousay (39¼ inches in length).]
Passing from Caithness to Orkney, we find abundant evidence of the same
form of burial associated with objects of similar character. At
Sweindrow, in the island of Rousay, there is a field in which there are
many graves, from which objects of iron were occasionally turned up by
the plough many years ago, when the soil had been less frequently
disturbed. In the year 1826 a fine specimen of the peculiar type of
sword associated with these burials (Fig. 34) was thus turned up by the
plough in close proximity to the spot where previously the iron boss of
a shield had been similarly discovered.[32] The sword is a long,
broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, with short straight guard and
triangular pommel. It measures 3 feet 3¼ inches in total length, the
blade being 2 feet 8 inches in length. The guard is 5 inches in length
and 1¼ inch in depth. The grip measures 3¼ inches in length. The pommel
is 4¼ inches in width and 3 inches in height. The blade, which is 2⅛
inches wide at the hilt, has been in the scabbard at the time of its
deposit, and blade and scabbard are now converted into a mass of
oxidation. The scabbard has been made of thin laths of wood, the fibre
of which is still visible, covered in some places with leather. There
are also some remains of the side-plates of bone or horn which made up
the grip, and the gilt metallic mounting which adorned both ends of the
grip still remains. The ornament closely resembles that of the silver
mounting of the rim of a horn or beaker (Fig. 35), which was dug up at
Burghead some time previous to 1826, and is now in the Museum. But the
ornament of the sword has a distinctly zoomorphic feeling, and still
more closely resembles the decoration of a similar mounting of the hilt
of a sword of the Viking type dug up at Islandbridge, near Dublin, and
preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
-----
Footnote 32:
This fine sword, now broken in many pieces, was presented to the
Museum in 1874 by the representatives of the late Professor Thomas S.
Traill, through the Rev. G. R. Omond, Free Church minister at Monzie,
one of the oldest Fellows of the Society.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 35.—Silver Mounting of a Drinking-Horn found at Burghead
(2¾ inches diameter).
]
Except in the island of Westray (in which seven specimens have
occurred), there is no record of the discovery of the oval bowl-shaped
brooches elsewhere in Orkney. I shall describe the remarkable group of
graves in Westray in connection with the phenomena of burial, merely
remarking here that the presence of these brooches and this type of
sword carries the area of this form of burial into the Orkney Islands.
Two oval bowl-shaped brooches, having the usual mark of cloth on the
inside of their inner shells, are also in the museum at Lerwick. They
were found at Clibberswick, in the north end of the island of Unst, the
most northerly island of the Shetland group. Along with them there were
found a plain silver bracelet, two glass beads ornamented with twisted
streaks of white and blue, and a trefoil-shaped brooch of a type which
is also peculiarly Scandinavian, covered with a zoomorphic ornament
consisting of dragonesque forms, whose feet twist under and grasp parts
of their bodies.[33]
-----
Footnote 33:
This trefoil-shaped brooch closely resembles one figured in the
_Memoires de la Société des Antiquaires du Nord_, 1840-44.
-----
The range of these burials, distinguished (among other features peculiar
to themselves), by the presence of this peculiar type of sword and this
remarkable type of brooch,[34] has thus been traced through the western
and northern isles from Islay to Unst, in Shetland, touching the
mainland only in the counties of Sutherland and Caithness. This area,
established on archæological evidence, coincides exactly with the area
established by historical record as that which was colonised and
possessed by the Norwegians in the time of their heathenism.
-----
Footnote 34:
Including those found in the Viking cemetery at Pierowall, in Westray,
Orkney, the total number of these brooches found in Scotland is
thirty-two. The total number of Celtic brooches that I was able to
enumerate was fourteen. The difference is striking, and the fact that
the foreign form occurs in larger numbers than the native form is so
opposed to what is naturally expected, that the explanation becomes of
some interest. It is simple, but significant. The largeness of the
larger number is an archæological result of Paganism. The smallness of
the smaller number is an archæological result of Christianity. The
effect of Paganism was that those who had brooches were buried with
them. The effect of Christianity was that brooches ceased to be buried
with those who had them. The tendency of the one system was to take
all the brooches ultimately into the soil with the remains of the
generations that wore them; the tendency of the other system was to
keep the brooches from going underground. Hence we see that the
preponderance of these foreign relics in the soil of Scotland (which
is almost destitute of native relics of the same age and purpose) is
an archæological result which is directly dependent on the difference
between Paganism and Christianity.
-----
* * * * *
I now proceed to notice other instances in which burials with
grave-goods of a similar character, though differing more or less in
certain special features, have been observed. It is but recently that
they have attracted attention, and the interest and significance of
their peculiar phenomena is only beginning to be understood.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.—Sword-hilt of the Viking time, from a
Grave-mound in the island of Eigg (7¼ inches in length).]
About fifty years ago, a grave-mound situated between the chapel of St.
Donan and the shore in the island of Eigg, was levelled by the tenant of
the land. No observations of the phenomena of the burial were made, but
the objects found were fortunately preserved.[35] The principal object
found in this grave-mound was a sword-hilt of bronze (Fig. 36), 7½
inches in length. In its form it resembles the hilt of the Islay sword,
but is greatly superior to it in the beauty of its ornamentation and the
skill of its workmanship. Indeed, I know no finer or more elaborate
piece of art workmanship of the kind, either in this country or in
Norway. It is constructed in four pieces—the triangular pommel, the
cross-piece under it, the grip, and the guard. Each of these has been
cast and worked separately, and they are all united by [Illustration:
Fig. 37.—Side view of Pommel of Sword-hilt.] the tang of the blade which
passes up through them. The decoration is difficult to describe, but it
is not difficult to perceive the harmony, elegance, and fitness of the
general design. Each of the four parts is treated with reference to its
decoration as a separate whole, but they also combine to give to the
entire object a completely harmonious design. The triangular pommel is
placed upon a cross-piece answering in character to the cross-piece
below the grip, and the grip answers in character to both. The ends of
the pommel are formed as heads of animals, the zoomorphism more
suggested than expressed, and more distinct in the front view of the
whole hilt (Fig. 36) than in the side view of the pommel alone as here
represented (Fig. 37). The grip and the cross-piece below it are all
decorated in the same style, with a beautiful pattern formed of a series
of arcaded spaces with quadrate ornaments between. The patterns chased
in the arcaded spaces are apparently zoomorphic in character, and the
quadrate ornaments between them are plates of silver pinned on to the
bronze, a circle being incised round every pin head, and each pair of
circles connected by a line drawn from the right side of the one to the
left side of the other, so as to resemble an S-shaped scroll. The edges
of the grip (Fig. 38) are ornamented with three sunk panels of
interlaced work alternating with four plain panels. The upper side of
the guard (Fig. 39) has two ornaments of similar character, each
consisting of four loops round a pellet, the bands composing the loops
crossing each other in the centre of the figure. There is nothing that
is distinctively Celtic in the style of this interlaced work. Indeed,
there is so little of it, that it would be difficult, from this specimen
alone, to form any opinion as to the relations of interlaced ornament to
the system of decoration characteristic of the Viking period. I have
already stated that the mere presence of interlaced work is not a
feature which can be relied on as a certain indication either of the
Celtic or the Scandinavian character of the ornament of which it forms a
part. In consequence of the close intercourse which subsisted between
the areas of the two distinctive schools of art during the Viking time,
the influence of the one upon the other is traceable in such
transitional styles as that of the Manx crosses and the decorations of
the Skaill brooches to be hereafter described. And the Celtic manner,
with a Scandinavian spirit, is distinctly discernible in the decoration
of a sword-hilt (Fig. 40) found in a grave-mound of the Viking time at
Ultuna, in Sweden.[36]
-----
Footnote 35:
They are now deposited in the Museum, and have been fully described by
Professor Norman Macpherson, LL.D., in an elaborate paper, read before
the Society, on the Antiquities of Eigg.
Footnote 36:
The tumulus contained the remains, still distinctly recognisable, of a
ship in which a warrior had been entombed along with his arms and two
horses. The iron nails which fastened the planks together were still
visible in their places. The vessel appeared to be a galley of no
great size, carrying a single mast. Alongside of the body, which was
unburnt, was found a sword, the blade of iron, and the splendid hilt
of gilt bronze decorated with interlaced patterns of extreme beauty
and elegance. Remains of the wooden sheath and its gilt mountings were
also found. A helmet of iron was also found, having a crest or ridge
of bronze, containing zinc as an ingredient—the only helmet of the
Pagan period in Sweden hitherto known. There were also found a
magnificent umbo or boss of a shield, in iron plated with bronze, and
adorned with patterns of interlaced work, the handle of the shield,
nineteen arrow-heads, the bits of two bridles, a pair of shears, all
in iron; thirty-six table-men and three dice, in bone. Besides these
there was an iron gridiron and a kettle of thin iron plates riveted
together, with a swinging handle, as also bones of swine and geese,
probably the remains of the funeral feast.—_La Suede Prehistorique_,
par Oscar Montelius, Stockholm, Paris, and Leipzig, 1864, p. 114.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 38.—Edge of Grip of Sword-hilt.]
[Illustration: Fig. 39.—Upper side of Guard of Sword-hilt.]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.—Sword-hilt found in a Grave-mound at Ultuna,
Sweden.]
In the grave-mound at Eigg there were found, along with the sword-hilt,
a buckle or fastener of a belt of bronze or brass (Fig. 41), attached to
a thin plate of the same metal, and a solid lump of metal apparently of
a similar alloy, 2½ inches in length, which appears to have been one of
the feet of a large three-footed pot.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.—Buckle of Bronze (actual size), from a
Grave-mound in the island of Eigg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 42.—Ground-plan and Sections of Grave-mounds in
Eigg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 43.—Brooch of Bronze, silvered, from Grave-mound in
Eigg (2½ inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 44.—Belt-Clasp (actual size).]
Two other grave-mounds in the same neighbourhood were excavated in 1875
by Professor Macpherson, and I had the opportunity of seeing them
subsequently. The ground-plans and sections of them which are here given
(Fig. 42), were made by Mr. Arthur Joass. The largest mound was about 40
feet in diameter and from 6 to 7 feet in height, with a circular
depression in the centre. In an enclosure roughly formed of stones in
the centre of the mound and on the original level of the surface, there
were found traces of an interment, with grave-goods, of the usual Viking
character. They consisted of an iron sword in the sheath, similar to
that found in the Islay grave, an iron axe-head, a spear-head of iron, a
penannular brooch of bronze plated with silver and ending in knobs of
the shape of thistle heads (Fig. 43), an agrafe or belt-clasp of bronze
or brass, ornamented with a scroll-like pattern in relief (Fig. 44); a
small whetstone (Fig. 45), and several portions of dress consisting of
cloth of three different varieties of texture (Fig. 46), one of which is
trimmed with fur.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.—Whetstone (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.—Specimens of Cloth found in the Grave-mound.]
The smaller grave-mound, a few yards distant, contained the fragments of
an iron sword, a whetstone, a plain penannular brooch with knobbed ends,
of a slightly flattened form, in bronze or brass, and some beads of
amber and jet.
Perhaps the most remarkable cemetery of graves belonging to this
intruded Paganism of the Norsemen was that excavated by Mr. William
Rendall, of Pierowall, in the island of Westray, in Orkney, in 1849. The
graves were situated in the sandy links at the north-west side of the
head of the bay of Pierowall. Mr. Rendall’s notes are brief and
imperfect. I have twice gone over the ground explored by him, with the
view of ascertaining certain points in connection with these interments,
and I think there is evidence on the spot that each of them was placed
on the original surface of the ground, that they were surrounded by
roughly made enclosures of stones, and covered by a mound of greater or
less bulk. Mr. Rendall explored two groups of these grave-mounds, the
one containing four and the other five interments.
In the first group, grave-mound No. 1 contained a human skeleton laid on
its right side, north and south, the skull cleft, apparently before
burial, and only one half of it found. Deposited with it there were a
number of iron weapons or implements, among which Mr. Rendall recognised
an iron axe and what he calls the half of a helmet, which I have no
doubt was half of the globular boss of a shield. Grave-mound No. 2
contained the remains of a man, a horse, and a dog. It is not said
whether the whole skeleton of the horse was in the grave, but the remark
is made that the horse was of small size, and the bridle-bit remained
between its jaws. Many pieces of iron were found, among which were a
buckle and a spear-head or part of a sword. Grave-mound No. 3 contained
the remains of a man and a horse with fragments of iron implements.
Grave-mound No. 4 contained a skeleton only.
At a little distance to the north-east of this group of grave-mounds was
the second group. In grave-mound No. 1 was the skeleton of a man. At his
head lay the cup-shaped boss of his shield; at his left side his sword.
A whetstone, a comb, and several glass beads were also found, and many
pieces of iron of whose form and purpose there is no suggestion. In
grave-mound No. 2 was a skeleton, which Mr. Rendall concluded to be that
of a female. Two oval bowl-shaped brooches of brass were found on the
breast, and a little below them a circular ornament and a pin of the
same metal. There were no traces of iron, or remains of iron implements
or weapons. Grave-mound No. 3 contained a small skeleton with two oval
bowl-shaped brooches and a small circular-headed pin on the breast, and
two long single-edged, round-backed combs of bone (Fig. 47) lay on
either side of the neck. No. 4 had been previously disturbed. In No. 5
were two brooches, two combs, and a pin similar to those in No. 3.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.—Round-backed Comb from a Grave-mound in
Westray.]
In 1851 Mr. Rendall presented to the National Museum the contents of a
grave which is not described in these notes but was found in the same
locality. It contained the skeleton of a man, with which there had been
deposited an iron axe, a spear-head of iron, and the iron boss of a
shield, an oval bowl-shaped brooch (Fig. 48), and a penannular brooch of
Celtic form, ornamented with interlaced work of purely Celtic style.[37]
In this remarkable cemetery we have the same type of burial and the same
typical forms of weapons, implements, and ornaments, as in Islay and in
Eigg. Of the whole group of objects found in all these graves there is
but one, viz. the Celtic brooch last mentioned, that is of a type native
to the soil in which they are found.
-----
Footnote 37:
Figured in the previous series of Lectures—_Scotland in Early
Christian Times_, p. 29, Fig. 22.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 48.—Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch from a Grave-mound in
Westray.]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.—Iron Key, from a Grave-mound in Westray (5¾
inches in length).]
But a still more remarkable set of graves was found at Pierowall by Mr.
Farrer and Mr. George Petrie. Unfortunately there is the same absence of
any precise and detailed record of the phenomena. The first, which
contained the bones of a man and a horse, had been found at the sands of
Gill by Mr. George Petrie in 1841, and the relics from it were deposited
in the Kirkwall Museum. When that museum was broken up and its contents
sold, they were purchased by Colonel Balfour of Trenaby, and sent to the
National Museum. They consist of the bronze cheek-ring of a bridle with
part of the iron bit, and fragments of wood with iron rivets which were
supposed to be the remains of a shield. The second grave was explored by
Mr. Farrer in 1855. There is no record of the phenomena of the burial,
but the objects found were sent to the museum. They are an iron knife, a
small sickle of iron, an iron key of peculiar form (Fig. 49), and a
bronze mounting of a sheath or scabbard-end plated with silver, and
ornamented with an engraved pattern suggesting [Illustration: Fig.
50.—1. Sheath-mounting from a grave in Westray, Orkney. 2. Plan of its
ornament.] a grotesque face (Fig. 50). With these were found large
quantities of decayed wood pierced with iron rivets which were also
supposed to be the remains of a wooden shield. The third grave-mound was
explored by Mr. Farrer and Mr. Petrie in 1863. No record of the
phenomena exists, but the articles found were two iron buckles
apparently of saddle girths, and a quantity of pieces of decayed wood
varying in thickness from 1 to 2 inches, pierced by iron rivets, and
also suggested to be portions of a wooden shield.
In these three instances the principal feature of the interment is the
presence of quantities of wooden planks, sometimes as much as two inches
thick, pierced by iron rivets. When these are closely examined it is
seen that the wood is of oak, that the rivets are peculiar in character,
having round heads on one side and square heads on the other, and that
they frequently pass through the wood obliquely. These are the
characteristics of the clinker-nails which fastened the planking of the
Viking ships. They were square-headed on one side and round-headed on
the other. The fact that these rivets pass through the wood obliquely is
more suggestive of a boat than of a shield. The thickness of wood
between the rivet-heads is more than twice that of any shield of the
time whose thickness is known. No shield-boss or handle was found with
any of these interments, and no shield of oaken planks fastened with
such rivets is known. In point of fact, no shield could be used whose
thickness was two inches of solid oak, and the quantity of wood and iron
found with the interments seems much in excess of what would be required
for shields. I therefore conclude that, in these three instances, the
form of burial was that in which the Viking was laid in his ship—drawn
up on the strand, and set on even keel to receive him and his
grave-goods—and a mound raised over all.
The testimony of the earlier sagas is unanimous that the common mode of
sepulture in the heathen Viking time was by raising a mound over the
remains of the dead, who were placed in their grave-mounds honourably,
with abundance of goods, weapons, ornaments, and costly garments, horses
and sometimes even thralls or slaves. Thus we are told that a great
store of goods was placed in the grave-mound with Hravnkel Freysgode,
and all his war-suits and his good spear. So also we learn that
Skalagrim was laid in his grave-mound with his horse, his weapons, and
his smithy-tools, and Egil was buried with his weapons and his clothing.
Thorgrim, priest of Frey at Sæbol was buried in his ship, over which
they raised the mound after the ancient fashion. But the most striking
of all the saga notices of heathen burial is that of the sepulture of
King Harald Hildetand, who was slain on Braavalla Heath by his nephew
Sigurd Ring, in the middle of the eighth century. After the battle the
victor caused search to be made for the body of his uncle, which he
placed in his chariot in the midst of the grave-mound; then his horse
was slain and laid beside the dead; and Sigurd caused his own saddle to
be placed beside the horse, so that Harald might have his choice and
ride or drive to Valhalla as he had a mind. Then Sigurd made a great
funeral feast, and the nobles threw massive rings and splendid arms into
the grave-mound in honour of the dead king.
Thus we gather from the early literature of the Scandinavians a very
vivid impression of the character and accompaniments of their heathen
burial. Yet this literary evidence is characteristically defective on
special points that are of paramount interest to the archæologist.
Hence, when it is attempted to be used scientifically, the result is
what might be expected of a scientific operation conducted with
unscientific materials. For instance, Dr. Dasent, gathering the literary
evidence into one generalisation, concludes that the burial took place
in a how or cairn, and that the body was laid in the how with goods and
arms, sometimes in a sitting posture, sometimes even in a ship, but
_always_ in a chamber, formed of baulks of timber or blocks of stone,
over which earth and gravel were piled. Since it is the main object of
our science to attain to great and wide generalisations from completed
evidence, it is manifest that such a generalisation as this, which gives
us what _always_ was the special character of the sepulchral structure
for a given period, would be one of the most precious and costly fruits
of scientific research. Founded on purely archæological evidence, it
could only be the result of the completed investigation of all the
grave-mounds of the period. As here given, it is arrived at by a much
shorter process, viz. the comparison and critical interpretation of a
few texts, for it is not expressly stated in any text, but is an
inference from incidental expressions in several of them.[38] And the
interest with which we must regard the inference lies in the fact that
this special form of sepulchral mound, which is deduced from the
literary evidence as having been _always_ the form in use throughout the
Viking period, is a form which is almost archæologically unknown in that
period.
-----
Footnote 38:
Sometimes the description of a burial mentions the digging of a grave
instead of the raising of a mound. When Thorolf died, Egil took his
body and prepared it according to the custom of the time, then they
dug a grave and placed Thorolf in it with all his weapons and raiment,
and Egil placed a gold bracelet on each of his arms, then they placed
stones over him, and earth over all.
-----
It is to be observed also that the saga evidence is defective as to the
customs connected with cremation.[39] The only literary evidence we
possess in regard to them is to be found in the strange narrative by
Ahmed Ibn-Fozlan, an eye-witness of the ceremonies attending the
incremation of the dead body of a Northern chief.[40] The scene is on
the banks of the Volga, and the date is towards the close of the Viking
time. The narrator tells us that there was a temporary interment till
all the preparations were made; that a female slave who had elected to
die with her master was given in charge to an old hag, who as mistress
of the ceremonies was significantly styled “the angel of the dead;” that
the dead man’s ship was hauled up on the strand and prepared to be his
funeral pile; that, when all was ready, the corpse was taken out of its
temporary grave, arrayed in fur-mounted and gold-embroidered garments,
and laid in state on the deck, where a banquet was spread for him; that
his weapons were placed ready to his hand, and two horses, two oxen, his
dog, and two fowls were hewn in pieces with swords and cast into the
ship; that the woman who was to die, after taking leave of her friends,
was first drugged with strong drink and then brutally slaughtered with a
big knife by the “angel of the dead,” while two men pulled the ends of a
cord wound round her neck and the crowd beat upon their shields to drown
her shrieks; that she was then laid beside her dead lord and the pile
fired by his nearest relative, and after it had burnt out a great mound
was raised over the ashes.
-----
Footnote 39:
Suorri says that the custom of burning the body was over before the
time when the historical sagas begin their chronicle of events. The
fact that it is represented in the mythological sagas as the burial
rite of the Æsir, in the Twilight of the Gods, shows that it was out
of memory as a human custom in Iceland.
Footnote 40:
A translation of this narrative is given in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ix. p. 518.
-----
Turning now to the evidence derived from the grave-mounds themselves, we
find that it corroborates and supplements the literary evidence in a
remarkable manner. For instance, close above the strand at Möklebust, in
Norway, there is a semi-globular mound 12 feet high and 92 feet in
diameter; round its base there is a ditch 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep,
interrupted on the south and east by accesses on the natural level. The
whole base of the mound was covered by a layer of burnt ashes. In an
oval, about 28 feet long and 14 feet wide, lay a quantity of iron rivets
and nails as they had settled down among the ashes when the planks they
had fastened were consumed. Around the circumference of this oval, and
among these rivets, were found no fewer than forty-two shield-bosses,
mingled with pike-heads, axes, swords, knives, and other implements of
iron. Near the centre of the oval lay a large bronze pot or caldron,
one-third full of burnt human bones, over which were heaped the bosses
of thirteen shields, now firmly rusted to each other and to the sides of
the pot. The pot itself was splendidly enamelled round the rim; in fact,
an exquisite work of art. Among the bones within it was an iron
pike-head, which M. Lorange, who explored the mound, concluded to have
been the weapon by which the Viking met his death. Recounting the whole
phenomena and circumstances of the burial as observed during the process
of exploration, he says: "It seems that the sea-king’s men had drawn his
ship up on the strand, with all its fittings as it was on the day of his
death, laid the dead man in it clad in his best and with his arms and
horse; then they hung their shields round the gunwales as they used to
do when going on a cruise, hoisted the sail, piled wood under and
around, and fired the vessel as she stood. Then, when the fire had done
its work, they gathered the burnt bones into this splendid pot, covered
them with the bosses of the burnt shields, and placed them in the centre
of the heap of ashes over which the great mound was finally reared."
But more frequently the vessel and its contents have not passed through
the fire. One such ship I have seen. It was found under a mound at Tune,
and is now preserved in connection with the museum at Christiania. The
mound was 12 feet high and 80 yards in circumference. The vessel stood
on the original surface on even keel. It is clinker-built; the planks of
oak, the ribs of fir. The keel is 43½ feet in length, and the ship is
low and narrow for her length, which is no more than that of a
first-class herring boat of the present day on the east coast of
Scotland. Each side was of eleven planks, an inch thick, fastened with
clinker nails, having round heads outside and square heads inside. The
seams were caulked with tarred oakum of neat’s hair. The ribs, thirteen
in number, are built of three different layers of wood fastened with
oaken trenails and iron nails. The mode in which they are fastened to
the skin of the boat is peculiar. The upper boards alone are fastened
with oaken trenails, and the lower ones are merely attached to the
planking by ropes of bast passed through holes in the ribs, and then
through corresponding holes in wooden clumps on the planks. The mast was
secured in a step on the bottom lining, and the vessel was steered by a
side rudder. The Viking’s body, which was unburnt, was placed on a
wooden platform abaft the mast. Beside it lay the bones of a horse, with
remains of the saddle. The rest of the grave-goods were of the common
character, comprising merely a few beads of coloured glass, a few
fragments of clothing, a sword of the ordinary Viking type, a
spear-head, a shield-boss, a rolled-up coat of mail, and some tools and
implements of iron.
Another of larger size was discovered last summer in a mound at Gokstad,
near Sandefiord, and is now placed beside the Tune specimen. Its length
is about 80 feet, with a breadth of beam of 17 feet. It is of oak, and
clinker-built, the planks and the frame-timbers connected in the same
peculiar manner as in the Tune ship. All the planks have planed and
moulded edges both inside and out, but there is no trace of the use of
the saw either in the planking or framework of the vessel. Her lines are
well laid; stem and stern are alike sharp and finely modelled. She has
neither deck nor seats for the rowers, although her sides are pierced
for sixteen oars each. The oars, some of which were found on board, were
20 feet long. In rowing, they were passed through circular holes 18
inches below the gunwale, and having narrow slits cut on each side of
them to allow the passage of the blade of the oar. Like all her kind,
she had but one mast and one sail, square in form, and she was steered
by a side rudder. The vessel, though showing signs of wear, had been
comparatively new when drawn on shore to enhance the funeral honours of
its owner. A sepulchral chamber was built of timbers in front of the
mast reaching to the prow. In this chamber the dead Viking was laid,
surrounded with his grave-goods, his arms, and ornaments. That these
were numerous and costly there can be little doubt, but the mound was
broken into at an early date, a great hole cut in the side of the ship,
and the funeral chamber rifled. The few relics that were left, chiefly
mountings of belts and harness, exhibit the finest art of the Viking
time, and the completeness of the equipment of the vessel, from the row
of painted shields round the gunwale down to her cordage and anchor, and
the cooking utensils of the crew—together with the fact that the mound
also contained the remains of three boats and the bones of eight or nine
horses, as many dogs, and a peacock—testify to the wealth and
consideration of the man whose burial rites were thus celebrated.
I have described these Viking burials found in Norway and in Scotland
partly because they enable us most vividly to realise the peculiar
characteristics of Pagan burial, but chiefly because I am unable to
illustrate the burial phenomena of the Iron Age Paganism of Celtic
Scotland from its own remains. The archæology of Scotland is absolutely
destitute of recorded data for this purpose. The uninstructed excavators
have some respect for stone and bronze, but old iron is shovelled into
oblivion without a moment’s hesitation.
LECTURE II
(20TH OCTOBER 1881.)
NORTHERN BURIALS AND HOARDS.
It has now been shown that the intrusion of the Norwegian Paganism into
the northern and western area of Scotland produced an extension into
this country of types and phenomena which are purely indigenous to the
Scandinavian area. But along with the types and phenomena that are
purely Norwegian we also find, within the area of this intruded
Paganism, a series of modified types—neither purely Celtic nor purely
Scandinavian, but partaking to some extent of the distinctive
characteristics of both. This has already been demonstrated in so far as
the products of this commingling of distinctive styles and customs have
been characterised by indications of Christianity;[41] but there still
remain to be discussed a group of phenomena and objects of this mixed
character which either present no distinct indications of Christian
associations or exhibit characteristics that are distinctive of
Paganism.
-----
Footnote 41:
_Scotland in Early Christian Times_ (second series), pp. 226-232.
-----
I therefore proceed to describe a series of burials occurring within the
same area in which the distinctive form of burial with arms, implements,
and ornaments of purely Norwegian types also occur, but differing from
these, inasmuch as though they present unequivocal indications of
Paganism they do not so distinctly indicate their origin. As we examine
their characteristics it will be seen that they form a group strictly
local in its range, and possessing affinities which are rather Norwegian
than Celtic.
[Illustration:
Fig. 51.—Sectional view of Burials in Stronsay, Orkney.
1. Section of Cist with Stone Urn.—_a_. Urn, seen in section, 17
inches deep _b_. Burnt bones in the urn. _c_. Cist of flagstones, 2
feet square. _d_. Boulder stones supporting sides of cist.
2 and 3. Double cist with burnt bones, close to No. 1.
]
In July 1869 the late Mr. George Petrie investigated the contents of a
burial-mound, situated on the crown of a ridge overlooking the sea, at a
place called Orem’s Fancy, in the island of Stronsay, Orkney. The
burial-mound is a low, elongated accumulation of stones and earth,
partly indistinguishable from the natural ridge, and apparently about
fifty yards in length. Several burials had been discovered in it from
time to time in the process of bringing it under cultivation. One of
these (Fig. 51, No. 1), which was carefully examined by Mr. Petrie, was
contained in a cist of rough slabs, the sides being 25½ inches and 22
inches in length, and the width and depth of the cavity about 23 inches.
The bottom of the cist was formed of a rough slab, and the covering
stone of a larger slab of the same character. The cist contained a large
and somewhat irregularly-shaped urn of stone, hollowed evidently by a
metal tool. The urn (Fig. 52) stood on the bottom slab of the cist (as
shown in the foregoing section) and was covered by a thin slab of clay
slate, rudely dressed [Illustration: Fig. 52.—Urn of Steatitic Stone
from Cist No. 1, at Orem’s Fancy, Stronsay (17 inches high).] at the
edges to a circular shape. The urn was filled to a depth of about 5
inches with burnt bones, largely mixed with vitrified matter, and run
together in masses. No fragments of implements, weapons, ornaments, or
other articles were present among the bones. The fragments of bone were
greatly comminuted, but portions of the long bones, vertebral processes,
and fragments of the skull were recognisable. The urn of stone was
therefore the only remarkable feature of the interment. It is a
rudely-formed vessel of irregularly-conical form, narrowing from the
brim to the bottom. At the brim, which is oval in form, it measured 20¾
inches in its longer, and 18 inches in its shorter diameter. Its depth
is 17 inches, and the greatest width across the bottom 15 inches. The
rim is smooth and slightly rounded, and the marks of the tool by which
the vessel was scooped out of the block of stone are distinctly visible.
The stone is a soft and easily-worked steatite.
Adjoining this cist there was another 31 inches long, 21 inches wide,
and 12 inches deep (Fig. 51, No. 2), which had been previously opened,
and contained nothing but earth. Underneath it was a smaller cist, 13
inches long, 9½ inches wide, and 12½ inches deep (Fig. 51, No. 3). On
the bottom stone of this under cist was a quantity of clay, in the
centre of which there was a bowl-shaped cavity (_i_) nearly filled with
burnt bones, and covered with a thin slab of clay slate, dressed to a
circular form, over which was another layer of clay (_k_) about 2 inches
thick, with a depression (_h_) in the middle, leaving a portion of the
centre of the stone visible when the upper cover of the cist was lifted.
At a little distance another burial was discovered, placed simply in the
mound without the protection of a cist The deposit of burned bones was
contained in an urn of stone similar to the first, but slightly smaller,
measuring across the mouth 19 inches in the longer and 15 inches in the
shorter diameter, and 15 inches in depth. The urn had been simply set in
the ground, the mouth covered with a flat stone, and a quantity of
stones and earth heaped over it, so that its covering stone was scarcely
more than 18 inches beneath the surface.
Another urn of the same character was found, also set in the ground
about a foot below the surface. It had no covering stone. Two small
cists containing burnt bones and ashes, but no urns, were also found in
the mound separately. At a distance of seven yards from one of these
there was a circular enclosure, formed of oblong beach stones, each
about a foot long, and standing on end about a yard apart. Within this
circle two other cists were discovered, each containing the usual
indications of a burial after cremation—burnt bones, ashes, and
charcoal—but no urns and no deposit of arms, implements, weapons, or
ornaments.[42]
-----
Footnote 42:
Described by Mr. Petrie in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
367.
-----
In a large burial mound at Stennis, Orkney, excavated by Mr. Farrer[43]
in December 1854, another burial was found, accompanied by an urn of
stone of this special character. The mound was 62 feet in diameter, and
about 9 feet high, circular and flat on the top, the sides sloping at a
considerable angle. Near the centre of the mound, and at a height of
about 3 feet above the original level of the ground, there was a cist
formed of massive side stones about 6 feet in length, and end stones
about 2 feet in length, set in the middle of the space between the side
stones, so that the cavity enclosed was only about 2½ feet long, 2 feet
wide, and 2 feet deep. In the cist was an urn of steatitic stone (Fig.
53), 22½ inches [Illustration: Fig. 53.—Large Steatite Urn, found at
Stennis, Orkney (20 inches high).] diameter across the mouth, and 20
inches high. It was filled to about one-third of its depth with calcined
bones, largely mingled with vitrified matter. It differs from the
Stronsay urn in having a triply incised border immediately underneath
the rim. The burial-mound also differs from the Stronsay mound in being
higher and more regularly-shaped. like the Stronsay mound, it contained
more interments than one, although the excavation only revealed two.[44]
The second burial was a little beyond the centre of the mound, to the
northward of the first, and at about the same height above the original
surface of the ground. It was contained in a cist formed of rough
flagstones placed on edge, which measured 33½ inches in length, and 19
inches in width. A small urn of baked clay, 5 inches diameter, and 5
inches deep, stood in the north-west corner of the cist. It contained
fragments of calcined bones, and was unaccompanied by any other relics
whatever. The urn fell to pieces, and has unfortunately not been
preserved. In his account of it Mr. Petrie does not state whether it was
plain or ornamented, and we are thus left with no more definite
indication of its characteristics than that it was made of clay.
-----
Footnote 43:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. ii. p. 50.
Footnote 44:
The unscientific method of opening a burial mound by driving a trench
across it cannot be too strongly condemned. No such investigation can
be regarded as scientific which leaves any part of the mound or of the
site beneath it unexamined; and no one should touch a burial-mound who
is not prepared both to investigate and record its phenomena in a
scientific manner.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 54.—Urn of Steatite, found at Corquoy
(7 inches high).
]
Quite recently a cluster of burial mounds at Corquoy, in the island of
Rousay, Orkney, was examined by Mr. George M'Crie. The largest mound was
about 50 feet in circumference, and 5½ feet high. It contained a cist in
the centre, and on the level of the surrounding ground, composed of four
side stones, a bottom stone, and a covering stone, the joints being
coated with tempered clay. The cavity of the cist measured 2½ feet in
length, by 2 feet in width, and 18 inches in depth. It was almost filled
with clay, ashes, and fragments of bones. In the centre was an urn of
steatite (Fig. 54), oval in shape, with a slightly bevelled rim. It
measures 9¾ inches in its longer, and 8 inches in its shorter diameter,
across the mouth, and stands 7 inches high.
The other mounds contained cists, but no urns or remains of any kind
except comminuted fragments of bones.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.—Urn of Steatite from Rousay, Orkney (7½ inches
high).]
There is in the Museum another urn of this material (Fig. 55) also from
the island of Rousay, but unfortunately there is no record of the
circumstances of its discovery. It is of steatite, oval in shape, the
sides bulging from the bottom upwards. It measures 11 inches by 10
across the mouth, and stands 7½ inches high. It is rudely ornamented by
incised lines cut round the outside immediately under the rim, and is
still about one-third full of calcined human bones.
[Illustration: Fig 56.—Urn of Steatite found in Shapinsay, Orkney (4
inches high).]
An urn of the same character (Fig. 56) was recently found in making a
road through a sand hill about a mile north-east of Balfour Castle, in
Shapinsay, Orkney. It was enclosed in a cist in a small tumulus, the
cist being composed of four slabs for the sides and ends, and a slab for
the bottom, with another flat stone for a cover. When found the urn was
in fragments, but the fragments had been united by some kind of string,
the fibrous texture of which was discernible in the holes which had been
bored on either side of the fractures, and through which the cord had
been passed to repair the breaks.
In 1874 a small burial mound, about 8 feet in diameter and 2½ feet high,
was removed in the course of the construction of a road between the
North and South Havens in Fair Isle, lying midway between Orkney and
Shetland. In the mound there was found a large, oval-shaped,
rudely-formed, and unornamented urn of baked clay. Although imperfect it
measures upwards of 12 inches in height. Beside it there was a smaller
urn of steatite (Fig. 57), also oval in shape, but [Illustration: Fig.
57.—Urn of Steatite, found in Fair Isle (4 inches high).] much more
neatly formed. It measures 5½ inches in its longer diameter, and almost
5 inches in its shorter diameter across the mouth, and stands 4 inches
high. Under the rim is a bevelled band, giving it something of an
ornamental character. Close by this mound, in a flat space, there were
found at intervals a number of flat stones, from 6 to 12 inches under
the surface, and below each stone there was observed what is described
as “a carefully-rounded hole, about 6 inches deep by 10 inches broad,
very smooth in the inside, and lined with about an inch thick of a soft,
black, adhesive substance, resembling a mixture of peat-moss and clay,
and containing in the bottom a whitish substance resembling bone ash.”
These phenomena thus imperfectly observed indicate in all probability a
small cemetery of urns set in the ground, with stone covers, and having
no mounds heaped over them.
In 1821 a mound in the island of Uyea, in Shetland, yielded a group of
six interments, each consisting of an urn of this character filled with
burnt human bones and ashes. Hibbert describes one of the urns as a
well-shaped vessel, constructed of a soft magnesian stone, having the
bottom made of a separate piece, and fitted into its place by a
groove.[45]
-----
Footnote 45:
Mr. Petrie notices a similar instance in Orkney, the bottom being
formed of a lozenge-shaped piece of stone, fitted into its place by a
groove cut round its circumference.
-----
In the month of August 1863, when some excavations were being made on
the summit of an eminence called the Meikle Heog, at Haroldswick, in the
island of Unst, Shetland, for the purpose of planting a flag-staff as a
fishing signal, the labourers broke into a place of sepulture formed of
upright flagstones, and enclosing a number of skulls and bones. Further
examination disclosed another cist similarly formed. Unfortunately there
is no record of the dimensions of these cists. In the one last mentioned
there were found a human skull, some bones of the ox, and six urns or
vessels of chloritic schist or steatite.[46] They were of different
shapes and sizes, as follows:—
-----
Footnote 46:
These vessels are figured and described by Mr. G. E. Roberts in the
_Mem. Soc. Anthrop. Lond._, vol. i. p. 296.
-----
No. 1, a flat-bottomed vessel, with an unsymmetrical four-sided outline,
the corners slightly rounded, and the sides bulging from the bottom
upwards, about 7 inches high.
No. 2, a tolerably symmetrical four-sided vessel of similar form, but
thinner and better made, measuring 5½ inches in length, 5¼ inches in
width, and 3½ inches high.
No. 3, a rude thick-sided vessel of the same form, 6½ inches long, 4½
inches high, and 4½ inches wide.
No. 4, a rudely-made and unsymmetrical vessel, oval in outline,
flat-bottomed, the sides bulging from the bottom upwards, and slightly
contracting towards the rim, about 4 inches in length, 3¾ inches in
width, and 4 inches high.
No. 5, a small cup-shaped vessel, oval in shape, 4½ inches long, 3
inches broad, and 2¾ inches high.
No. 6, a rather neatly-made oval vessel, 4½ inches long, and 4 inches
wide at the brim, contracting to 2½ inches long, and 2 inches wide at
the base. It is the only one in the group which bears any ornament, the
ornament consisting of two incised lines scored round the upper part of
the vessel, immediately under the rim.
These burials in the Meikle Heog differ from all the others that have
been described, inasmuch as they are burials unburnt. The character of
the vessels is also different, inasmuch as they are not cinerary urns
placed in the grave for the purpose of containing the burned bones of
the interment. But the general form of the vessels is similar to that of
those which are found in Orkney and the Fair Isle, containing burnt
bones, and the character of the ornament and the nature of the material
of which they are made is identical.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.—Vessels of Sandstone, found at Aucorn, Caithness
(13 inches and 8 inches high).]
Two vessels of stone, of the same irregularly oval shape, but slightly
more ornate in character (Fig. 58), were turned up by the plough on the
farm of Aucorn, in the parish of Wick, in Caithness, in 1853. The larger
vessel is flat-bottomed, oval, and furnished with handles projecting
from its ends. It measures 17 inches in its longest diameter, and 16
inches in its shortest diameter at the mouth, and stands 13 inches high.
The smaller vessel is without handles, measures 10 inches in greatest,
and 9 inches in its least diameter at the mouth, and stands 8 inches
high. The ornamentation of both these vessels is similar in character to
that of all the others, consisting of incised lines drawn round the
outside, immediately below the rim. Unfortunately their contents were
neither examined nor preserved, but Mr. Rhind states that it has been
observed that the grain grows greener and richer on the spot where they
were turned up than anywhere else in the field; and he infers from this,
as well as from the character of the vessels themselves, that they were
deposited with an interment or interments after cremation.
The largest vessel of this description which has been recorded is one
which was presented to the museum in fragments in 1834. It was dug out
of a mound called Wilkie’s Knowe, in the island of Westray, in Orkney,
and an account of its discovery, which has not been preserved, was read
to the Society in April 1835. The form of the vessel is oval, narrowing
from the brim downwards. The circumference of the upper part is about 6
feet, and the thickness of the sides of the vessel 1½ inches. The
material is the same chloritic or steatitic stone of which the others
are formed.
These examples will suffice to show the general characteristics of this
peculiar class of interments. They are interments of bodies usually
burnt, but sometimes unburnt; usually placed in cisted mounds, sometimes
singly, at other times in groups; and generally unaccompanied by any
manufactured article except the urns. The character of the urns is
peculiar. They are not of clay, but of stone. They are not circular, but
oval or irregularly four-sided in shape. They vary extremely in size,
the largest known being 6 feet in circumference, and the smallest less
than 5 inches long and 3 inches high. They are characterised by extreme
simplicity of form and decoration. When they are ornamented the
decoration is confined to the scoring of two or more lines underneath
the rim, and rudely parallel to it. Their range, so far as is at present
known, is confined to Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland, the area proper
of the old Norwegian Earldom of Orkney.
Urns of steatitic stone are of common occurrence in the burial mounds of
the Viking time in Norway.[47] But they are rarely placed in cists of
stones, and they are usually accompanied by such deposits of arms,
implements, and ornaments, as have been described in the previous
Lecture. This form of burial, which is found in the area of the
Norwegian colonisation of the north of Scotland, is not completely
comparable to the common form in Norway. But it presents as its
characteristic feature the single point in which Norwegian burials of
that period differ from all others. Nowhere else in Europe are urns of
steatite the characteristic feature of any class of burials. In this
respect, therefore, these northern interments in Scotland link
themselves with interments of the Viking time in Norway. But they are so
far differentiated from the common Norwegian type as to constitute a
distinct variety of that type peculiar to the area proper of the
Norwegian colony which founded the earldom of Orkney in the time of the
Scandinavian Paganism.
-----
Footnote 47:
A few notices of these are appended to show the character of the
burials:—At Hof, in the district of Hedenmarken, round the church are
several grave-mounds. In some of these there were found, in 1842, four
axe-heads, three spear-heads, fragments of two double-edged swords, a
pair of stirrups, two bridle-bits, ten arrow-points, a fire-steel,
fragments of a shield-boss, a ring, a kind of pincers, and other
fragments, all of iron, along with two vessels of steatite, the one
having an iron handle, and the other containing burnt bones and
oxidised iron fragments.—_Nicolaysen’s Norske Fornlevninger_, p. 59.
In a circular grave-mound at Gaarden, Ostre Alm, Hedenmark, there was
found an urn or vessel of steatite with remains of its iron handle, a
two-edged sword contorted and broken into three pieces, a bent
spear-head of iron, an iron axe-head, two shield-bosses of iron, a
bridle-bit, a pair of stirrups, a strap-buckle and two iron tags, a
portion of a comb of bone, pretty long, and toothed only on one side,
made of small pieces of bone held between two slips of bone riveted
together, two hemispherical table-men of bone, and a small figure in
bone of animal resembling a dog. In the urn lay ashes.—_Foreningen for
Norske Fortidsmindesmækers Bevaring_, 1866, p. 88. At Nordby Sagbrug,
Akershus, there were found in a small low grave-mound, the pieces of a
bowl-shaped urn of steatite, 7 inches diameter, in which were ashes
and burnt bones, and along with it a two-edged sword of iron, the
blade 30¼ inches long, a spear-head, an axe-blade, and other iron
relics.—_Foren. for Norske Fortids. Bev._, 1867, p. 49. At Elset, in
Solum parish, province of Bratsberg, there was found a bowl-shaped urn
of steatite of the kind so commonly occurring in graves of the later
Iron Age. It had an iron hank round the rim and an iron bow-handle,
and was full of burnt bones.—_Foren. for Norske Fortids. Bev._, 1868,
p. 115.
-----
* * * * *
I now pass to the description of another series of objects, having no
distinct connection with interments, but possessing associations and
characteristics which also link them with the intrusion of the Norwegian
element into the northern districts of Scotland.
In the month of March 1858 a boy, chasing a rabbit into a hole in the
links of Skaill, in the parish of Sandwick, Orkney, found a few
fragments of silver which had been unearthed by the rabbits at the mouth
of their burrow. The news of this discovery soon spread in the
neighbourhood, and a number of people having joined in the search, a
large quantity of silver articles were found in the sand. Mr. George
Petrie of Kirkwall (a zealous corresponding member of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland) was speedily upon the spot, and fortunately
succeeded in securing the bulk of the articles, which had become
dispersed in various hands, and they finally found their way through the
Exchequer to the National Museum. The aggregate weight of silver thus
recovered amounted to 16 lbs. avoirdupois.
The hoard, which had apparently been deposited in one spot, consisted of
three classes of objects—personal ornaments, ingots of silver, and
coins. The personal ornaments formed the bulk of the deposit. They were
of three varieties—brooches, neck rings, and arm rings, all of silver.
[Illustration:
Fig. 59.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(15 inches long).
]
The brooches are of great size, and unusually heavy and massive in their
construction. The metal is brittle, and most of them are more or less
broken. The largest of those that are entire (Fig. 59) consists of a
plain penannular ring, formed of a solid cylindrical rod of silver, ¼
inch thick, the ring forming an incomplete circle 6¼ inches diameter,
and terminating in bulbous knobs, which are furnished with expansions
giving them a strong resemblance to thistle heads. These knobs are each
1¼ inches in diameter. They have been cast hollow, with a short
cylindrical collar at either side, through which the ends of the ring of
the brooch pass, to be riveted at their terminations. A similar knob
with similar collars at either side fits loosely on the ring of the
brooch. Its upper part terminates in the conventional thistle head, and
its lower part is prolonged into a stout pin of great length. This pin,
which is fitted by a socket at its upper end upon a projection of the
bulbous head, is, like the ring of the brooch, a solid rod of hammered
silver, cylindrical in the upper part, passing into a squarish section
in the middle of its length, and tapering gradually to a bluntish point.
The total length of the pin from head to point is 15 inches. The only
parts of the brooch that are ornamented are the knobs and their collars,
and the terminal expansions which give their suggestive resemblance to
thistle heads. The spherical surfaces of the knobs are plain on one
hemisphere, and the other is decorated with engraved designs of
zoomorphic character (Figs. 71-73), to which I shall direct attention at
a subsequent stage, for the purpose of determining the typical
relationship of the style of ornament. The collars are decorated by a
series of bands of engraved parallel lines, passing obliquely across the
spaces they fill. The terminal expansions are decorated with triangular
spaces, filled with parallel lines, and alternating with spaces that are
plain.
Another brooch, the pin of which is gone, is a similar ring of hammered
silver, ¼ inch thick, and 6¾ inches diameter, with bulbous knobs, which
are plain, though the collars and terminal expansions are ornamented
with a T-like fret, and with bands of triangles filled with parallel
lines.
Among the other brooches there are three which present a different
variety in the ornamentation of their bulbous extremities. The largest
of these is formed of a solid cylindrical bar of silver, ⅜ of an inch in
thickness, bent into an incomplete circle 8 inches in diameter, and
terminating in bulbous expansions 1½ inches in diameter. The pin of this
brooch is gone, but if it bore the same proportion to the diameter of
the ring as is exhibited by that of the brooch first described, it could
not have been much under 20 inches in length. The bulbous knobs of this
brooch are differently ornamented on their opposite hemispheres. The
surface of the one hemisphere is covered with a peculiar prickly
ornamentation, which intensifies their suggestive resemblance to thistle
heads. These prickles have been cut out of the solid. They are square at
the base, cylindrical, and slightly tapering at the points. They stand
somewhat over an eighth of an inch in height, and each has been
separately finished in the upper part by a hollow drill. The opposite
hemispheres of the bulbs are ornamented by engraved circular patterns of
interlaced work (Fig. 68), and the collar of the expanded part is also
ornamented with a running pattern of interlaced work (Fig. 70.)
[Illustration:
Fig. 60.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(5½ inches diameter).
]
The second of these three brooches (Fig. 60), is equally massive and
handsome, though smaller. The ring is a solid cylindrical bar of silver,
¾ inch in thickness, bent into an incomplete oval 5½ inches in diameter.
The bulbous ends of the penannular ring are decorated on the one
hemisphere with the prickly ornament which has just been described, and
on the other hemisphere by a T-shaped fret, enclosed in a circle placed
in a lozenge-shaped space, bordered by incised lines, as shown in the
woodcut under the figure of the brooch.
The third of these brooches consists of a penannular ring, formed of a
solid cylindrical rod of silver ¼ inch thick, and 6½ inches diameter. It
wants the pin, but the head, which is still on the ring, is furnished
with a tapering projection, which fitted into a socket in the upper end
of the pin. The bulbous extremities are not ornamented on one hemisphere
with the prickly ornament, but have the one hemisphere plain and the
other decorated with patterns of zoomorphic character (Figs. 75 and 76),
while the bulbous head of the pin, which still remains on the ring of
the brooch, has the remarkable anthropomorphic ornamentation shown in
Fig. 77, and on the circular top of the pin-head is seen the interlaced
ornament shown in Fig. 69.
[Illustration:
Fig. 61.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(5 inches diameter).
]
Another brooch with bulbous extremities, which also wants the pin, has
its bulbs plain. Along with these bulbous ring-brooches there are other
three examples of the same type which present variations in the form of
the extremities of the pin and the penannular ring.
The largest of these (Fig. 61) consists of a solid cylindrical rod of
silver, ¼ inch in thickness, bent into an incomplete circle 5 inches in
diameter. The pin, which wants the point, has a bulbous head of the same
character as those previously described, but the prickly ornamentation
is merely indicated by incised lines crossing each other diagonally. The
other hemisphere of the bulbous head of the pin is decorated with a
circle enclosing an equal-armed rectangular cross. The top of the pin
presents a similar ornament, which might be described as a St. Andrew’s
Cross; but there is nothing in the character of either of these figures
which might not be present in a purely geometric ornament, and they need
not therefore be supposed to possess a symbolic significance. The ends
of the penannular ring of the brooch, instead of being furnished with
bulbs, are slightly flattened and expanded, and their ornamentation
consists of a simple dotted margin, with a triplet of larger dots placed
in triangular form at the extremities of the expansions of the ring.
Other two brooches of this form are smaller, and their pins have no
bulbous heads, but are simply looped on to the ring of the brooch. The
smaller of the two is perfectly plain; the larger has the expanded ends
of the ring ornamented with zoomorphic interlaced work, slightly
engraved in the silver with a very fine point.
It is thus evident that the special peculiarity of these brooches is
their excessive size, their massiveness and solidity of construction,
the bulbous form of their terminal expansions, and their prickly and
engraved ornamentation.
We pass now to the examination of the neck and arm rings found with
them. The commonest form of the neck rings is a circlet of about 5
inches diameter, composed of a series of thicker and finer strands,
twisted spirally together, and passing at the ends into flattened
expansions, terminating in hooks. One, 5¼ inches diameter (Fig. 62), is
composed of two thick strands, spirally intertwisted with two sets of
finer wires, each set consisting of a plait of two very thin wires,
bordered by a single fine wire on each side. These lie in the hollows of
the twists between the thicker strands, and add greatly to the beauty of
the necklet. The ends of all the strands are united together, forming
terminal flattened expansions, which are provided with recurving hooks
to fasten the ring when worn. There are ten examples of this type,
differing only in the arrangements of thicker strands, with twisted
wires of various degrees of fineness.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.—Neck Ring of Silver found at Skaill (5¼ inches
diameter).]
Another variety, an example of which is shown in Fig. 63, is formed of
seven hammered rods of equal thickness, closely interplaited like the
thong of a whip. The central portion of the ring is a solid knob, oval
in shape, from which the strands decrease in thickness towards the
extremities, where they are soldered together and drawn out into a
cylindrical tapering rod, which is coiled into a spiral termination, and
the two ends recurved so as to hook into each other when the ring was
worn.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.—Neck Ring of Silver found at Skaill.]
Another of these interplaited rings (Fig. 64) is formed of three plaits
of two strands each, spirally twisted together, and intertwisted with
double strands of very small wires, also plaited together, which lie in
the interstices of the larger plaits. The thicker wires taper slightly
towards the extremities, where they are soldered into solid flattened
ends, one of which terminates in a hook, while the other is furnished
with an eye to fasten the ring when worn. The flattened ends are
ornamented with punched triangular depressions, having a raised dot in
the centre.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.—Neck Ring found at Skaill (5¼ inches diameter).]
There are two of the arm rings which are of the same construction as the
neck rings. Both are closed rings, though both are treated with respect
to their ornament as if they were penannular. One is formed of a series
of thick strands and finer wires, spirally intertwisted. The other (Fig.
65) is of more elegant design. It is 3¼ inches in its inner diameter,
and is formed of four sets of two strands of wire, each set being
separately twisted, and the four double twists intertwisted spirally.
The strands decrease in thickness from the middle of the armlet towards
the ends, where they are soldered to a bar, formed into the semblance of
two animal’s heads, grasping in their mouths the part which forms the
junction between the penannular ends of the ring.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.—Armlet of Silver found at Skaill (3¼ inches
diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 66.—Armlet of Silver found at Skaill (3¼ inches
diameter).]
Besides these neck rings and armlets formed of intertwisted rods and
wires, there were in the hoard twenty-five solid penannular rings of
silver, bent to an elongated oval, and tapering slightly towards the
extremities. They vary in size from 2½ to 3¼ inches in the long
diameter, and are thus of a size sufficient to enclose the wrist. They
are either quadrangular or circular in section, and, except in one
instance, they bear no ornament whatever. The solitary exception (Fig.
66) is ornamented by a series of triangular markings impressed by a
punch, having three dots in the field. Another armlet of a different
form (Fig. 67) is a flat thin band of silver, wider in the middle than
towards the ends, and terminating in a hook at one extremity, the other
being broken. This example is the only one of its kind in the hoard. It
is also ornamented with a double row of impressed triangles, having two
dots in the field.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.—Flat Arm Band found at Skaill (2¾ inches
diameter).]
With these personal ornaments of various kinds, which constituted the
bulk of the hoard, there was a small quantity of bullion, and a few
coins.
The bullion consisted of a number of ingots of silver, some entire,
others cut, and a quantity of fragments of brooches and arm-rings
chopped up into small pieces, as if with an axe or chisel. The largest
ingot is 3¼ inches in length, and weighs 1089 grains.
The coins were few—at least few were recovered—although from their small
size and thinness they were more liable to be overlooked in the hasty
and promiscuous grubbing of many treasure-seekers. One is a St. Peter’s
penny struck at York, of tenth century date. Another is a penny of King
Æthelstan (A.D. 925), struck at Leicester. All the others are Asiatic,
of the time when the seat of the Mohammedan Caliphate was at Cufa or
Bagdad. Three of these Cufic coins belong to the Abbaside Caliphs, and
seven to the Samanian dynasty. They range in their dates between A.D.
887 and 945, and the places of mintage, still legible, are Al-shash,
Bagdad, and Samarcand.
Let us now group the characteristics of this deposit. It is a hoard
buried in the earth, but with no indication of its having been in any
way connected with the rites of sepulture. It is a large hoard,
altogether amounting to 16 lbs. in weight. It is entirely of silver, and
consists of personal ornaments, ingots, and coins. The ornaments are
brooches, neck rings, and arm rings. The brooches are of penannular
form, but differ in their character from those we have learned to
recognise as distinctively Celtic. The neck rings and arm rings present
no features of a specially Celtic character. The coins are Cufic and
Anglo-Saxon, dated mostly in the end of the ninth and the first half of
the tenth centuries.
No similar hoard has been discovered in any other part of Scotland. But
in its general composition the Skaill hoard resembles a considerable
number of other hoards of similar articles which have been found in
other countries. They are most abundant in the eastern parts of Sweden,
less common in Norway, and of occasional occurrence in Denmark. In none
of these countries has there been found a hoard consisting of such a
large number of personal ornaments as that found at Skaill, but the
forms and the character of the ornaments found in these hoards of
silver, associated with mintages of the ninth and tenth centuries, are
always the same. The specialty of these hoards so found in Scandinavia
is that they are largely composed of Cufic and Anglo-Saxon coins.[48]
The personal ornaments associated with them consist for the most part of
large rings for the neck, formed of intertwisted rods and wires; arm
rings of similar character, or of solid bars, circular or quadrangular
in section, bent into a penannular oval, and ornamented with the
peculiar triangular patterns impressed by a punch, with dots in the
field. The brooches, with long pins and bulbous ends like thistle heads,
are less common, but occur occasionally in such hoards in all the three
Scandinavian countries. In many of the hoards there are also ingots, and
dismembered ornaments cut and hammered into lumps of mere bullion. “This
fact,” says Hildebrand, “shows that they had no value with the people
who possessed them, except the intrinsic value of the metal.” Weighing
scales and weights are sometimes also found with them, and close
examination reveals the fact that the ornaments and portions of
ornaments have been often tested with a cutting instrument to try their
purity. This again reveals the trafficker rather than the plundering
Viking, who carries off his spoil without any such careful examination;
and, according to this view, Mr. Hildebrand concludes that the silver
ornaments and the Cufic coins must be considered as equally foreign to
Scandinavia. “There can be no doubt,” he says, “that these ornaments,
ingots, and lumps of silver were brought with the coins from Asia, where
silver is more easily obtained than in the northern parts of Europe.”
With reference to this conclusion it may be remarked that while the
derivation of the Cufic coins needs no demonstration, and while it may
be admitted that other products of the Arab civilisation of the time
were brought by the same stream of commerce through Russia to the
Scandinavian countries, and thence to Scotland, England, and Ireland, it
still remains to be shown that these silver ornaments are Oriental in
their origin. This can only be demonstrated by showing that they are
allied by their forms and ornament to the Oriental types of that period;
or, if this cannot be done, it must at least be shown that they differ
so widely in form and ornament from the types of the western lands in
which they are found as to forbid the supposition that they may be of
western origin.
-----
Footnote 48:
Upwards of 20,000 Cufic and 15,000 Anglo-Saxon coins have been
enumerated from hoards of this period in Sweden alone.
-----
We have no knowledge of the types of personal ornaments in use in Asia
at the time indicated by the dates of mintage of these Cufic coins. It
is impossible, therefore, to establish the Oriental origin of these
silver ornaments by demonstrating their identity of type with Oriental
ornaments of that period. The question which remains for discussion,
therefore, is, whether their forms and ornament present such relations
to the forms and the ornament of any of the western countries in which
they are found, as will correlate them with known types of native
origin.
In 1840 a large hoard of silver ornaments, weighing upwards of a
thousand ounces, along with a quantity of silver coins, from six to
seven thousand in number, was discovered concealed in a leaden chest,
and buried in the soil at Cuerdale, near Preston, in Lancashire. The
coins consisted chiefly of Anglo-Saxon pennies, with a few of French and
some Cufic mints, and the inference from the data they afford is that
the deposit was probably made at some time subsequent to the
commencement of the tenth century. The personal ornaments in the hoard
consisted chiefly of rings of various sizes and of similar character to
those that have been described as occurring in the deposit at Skaill.
Some of the larger rings were composed of interplaited rods and twisted
wires like those from Skaill, and the solid rings were also ornamented
with patterns produced by impressions of a triangular punch, with dots
in the field. There were also some fragments of the peculiarly-shaped
brooches, with bulbous knobs and prickly ornamentation. One object in
the hoard was distinctively Scandinavian—a small Thor’s hammer of
silver, such as were commonly worn as amulets in the heathen time. Among
the fragments described at the time as incapable of being determined,
there are four which may now be said with certainty to be portions of
penannular brooches of the distinctively Celtic form. This Celtic
relationship was not perceived by Mr. Hawkins (who described them),
except in one instance, which he recognises as “so much resembling the
patterns on early crosses and architectural remains, that it is
difficult to assign to it any other than a Northern origin.” But his
general conclusion is that “it is scarcely consistent with sound
reasoning upon all the facts of the case to assign any but an Oriental
origin to these objects.” In this he is supported by Mr. Worsaae, who
says that as these silver ornaments are not found in the west of Europe
except in association with Cufic coins, and do not occur at all in the
interior or southern parts of Europe, he regards it as without doubt
that Mr. Hawkins has been perfectly right in giving an Oriental origin
to at least a great part of the silver ornaments found at Cuerdale.
Setting aside these conclusions, in so far as they are merely
conjectural, it appears established that the area over which these
deposits of silver ornaments are found is limited to the three
Scandinavian countries and the British Isles. It is certain that among
the ornaments so found some are distinctively Scandinavian, and others
distinctively Celtic, while the remainder, which constitutes the bulk of
the deposits, is of unknown derivation, but has been conjecturally
assigned to an Oriental origin, on account of its association with the
Cufic coins. I therefore proceed to the examination of these objects
which are of undetermined origin, with the view of ascertaining the
special characteristics and relations of their form and ornament.
I have already remarked that the form of these bulbous brooches is that
which is distinctive of the Celtic brooch—penannular, with expanded
ends. Its special peculiarities are exaggerations of the specialties of
form by which the Celtic type is distinguished from all others; and in
this respect the form assumed by these bulbous brooches, though Celtic
in type, is so strongly differentiated from the purely Celtic form, that
it may be regarded as a distinct variety. No other form of brooch is so
huge and massive, with such a length of pin. The Celtic brooch-maker was
so much more of an artist than the mere silversmith that he flattened
the ring of the brooch and broadened its terminal expansions in order to
provide space for the elaborate surface decoration in which he
delighted. The maker of these bulbous brooches, on the other hand, is so
much more of the silversmith than of the artist that the bulk of his
work is merely finished with the hammer—the ring and the pin are beaten
into form, and the expansions made globular instead of flat. The form of
these brooches, therefore, agrees with the Celtic form in its main
features, its penannular character, and its length of pin, loosely
looped on the ring of the brooch.
But if the form of these brooches be thus closely allied to the Celtic
form, their ornament is no less closely allied to the Celtic system of
ornamentation. The peculiar prickliness of the bulbs, which is the most
marked feature of their character, is not distinctively Celtic, but a
suggestion of it is occasionally found on Celtic silver-work, as, for
instance, on the almost globular head of a Celtic brooch in the National
Museum, and on a gold brooch found near Coleraine.[49] But the reverse
hemispheres of the bulbous terminations of the Skaill brooches, which
present this prickly ornamentation on the obverse, are also decorated
with engraved designs. These are of two varieties, simple interlaced
ribbon patterns and zoomorphic patterns. The character of the interlaced
work so closely resembles the Celtic style that it may be said to be
more Celtic than Scandinavian. The character of the zoomorphic work, on
the other hand, is more Scandinavian than Celtic, and is suggestive of
the style and treatment of the designs on the Manx crosses, while it
more closely resembles some of the more characteristic designs of the
purely Scandinavian metal-work of the heathen time.
-----
Footnote 49:
The gold brooch is figured in the _Ulster Journal_, vol. iv. p. 1.
-----
The interlaced work is present on the reverse hemispheres of the bulbs
of one of the largest of the prickly brooches, in the form of a circular
pattern (Fig. 68) which is common in Celtic work, and may be seen on
several of the sculptured monuments of the east coast of Scotland.
Another circular pattern of interlaced work (Fig. 69), differing in its
construction, but possessing the Celtic peculiarity of the divided
bands, is found on the head of the pin of another brooch. The collars of
the first-mentioned example are also surrounded by bands of interlaced
work in a running pattern (Fig. 70), which is common on Celtic stone and
metal work.
[Illustration:
Fig. 68.—Circular pattern on reverse of the bulbs of the brooch
described p. 80 (actual size).
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 69.—Circular pattern on the head of the pin of brooch, described
pp. 81-82 (actual size).
]
[Illustration: Fig. 70.—Pattern on the reverse of the bulbs of the
brooch described p. 80 (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 71.—Zoomorphic pattern on bulb of the brooch in the
Skaill hoard, shown as Fig. 59.]
[Illustration: Fig. 72.—Ornament on bulb of brooch, shown as Fig. 59
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.—On the pinhead of brooch, shown as Fig. 59
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 74.—On a single bulb of a brooch in the Skaill hoard
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 75.—On one of the bulbs (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 76.—On one of the bulbs (actual size).]
The zoomorphic patterns consist mostly of animal forms, which are
treated in a freer manner than is usual in Celtic work. One of these
occupying the reverse of a single bulb with prickly ornament, is shown
in Fig. 74. The irregularity of the design, its want of balance and
symmetry, and the tendency of the interlacements of the intertwisted
members to break off in scroll-like terminations, are all features which
are usually present in Scandinavian work, and as usually absent in the
work of the pure Celtic school. The body of the beast, seen sideways, is
outlined with a double line, as is usual in the Celtic style. Its head
is thrown back, its mouth open and tongue protruding; a single tooth
appears in each jaw. Its feet are furnished with two toes, and its tail
and crest, convoluted with the body and limbs, terminate in irregular
scrolls. The patterns on the bulbous terminations of another brooch
(Figs. 71, 72, 73), have a curious resemblance to this one, while
presenting points of difference. It is the same beast, almost in the
same attitude, but differing in the treatment of the details in both
representations. In Fig. 72 the body of the beast is covered with
scale-like markings, and the same tendency of the convolutions of the
crest to break off in scroll-like terminations is visible in both. The
figure [Illustration: Fig. 77.—On the bulbous head of the pin (actual
size).] on the bulbous head of the pin of this brooch (Fig. 73) differs
from those on the bulbous terminations of its ring in being more
bird-like than beast-like, and its convolutions more broken into
indefinite scrolls and whirls. It is noticeable, however, that the
crest, the eye, and the two-toed foot of this bird-like figure are the
same as those of the beast which appears in the patterns previously
described, and re-appears in conjunction with a more remarkable figure
on another brooch (described pp. 81-82) in the Skaill deposit. The
figures on its [Illustration: Fig. 78.—Axe-head inlaid with silver, from
the Mammen How, Denmark.] bulbous terminations (Figs. 75, 76) are finely
engraved. They represent the same beast which is figured on the others,
with but slight variations of detail, but the bulbous head of the pin
shows quite a remarkable deviation from the general form of these
representations. Instead of the conventional beast, we see here (Fig.
77) a quasi-human figure worked up into a pattern of interlacements. The
treatment of this anthropomorphic form is peculiar. It presents a
bearded face, which is curiously elongated and triangular in outline;
the nose is represented by a curved line, and the eyes are connected by
double lines across the upper part of the nose. The hands are bound with
interlacements, and the body is treated as the bodies of the beasts
commonly used for zoomorphic patterns. This bearded, broad-nosed,
goggle-eyed figure has no Celtic relations, but we meet with the same
typical face in Scandinavia, occasionally placed in association with
zoomorphic patterns, which are almost identical with those of the Skaill
brooches in motive and style.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.—Thor’s Hammer in silver, from Skane, Sweden
(actual size).]
For instance, the motive and the style of the decoration of an iron
axe-head (Fig. 78), inlaid with silver, which was found in a grave-mound
of the heathen time called the Mammen How, near Viborg, in Denmark,[50]
are almost identical with those of the engraved designs on the Skaill
brooches. There is the same scale-covered beast, in the same attitude,
rendered with the same conventionality of treatment, and the
convolutions of the tail and crest which interlace with the limbs and
body of the creature exhibit the same tendency to break off in scrolls.
In the upper part of the axe we have the same triangular, broad-nosed,
goggle-eyed face which also appears on one of the brooches from Skaill.
The same face appears on the pendants representing Thor’s Hammer, which
are occasionally found in hoards of personal ornaments of the heathen
period in Scandinavia. They are usually of silver, sometimes
parcel-gilt, and decorated with filigree work. One of these (Fig. 79),
found in Skane, Sweden, bearing the typical face with the goggle-eyes
and the bar between them, is here figured of the actual size.[51] The
same face occasionally occurs on Runic monuments of the heathen time. It
is seen on a stone 5 feet high by 3 feet broad, and from 2 to 16 inches
thick, at Skjern, in North Jutland (Fig. 80), which is here reproduced
from the engraving given by Professor Stephens, who thus describes the
figure:—“In the centre is the head of Thor, wild and bearded. There is
no manner of doubt that he is here introduced and invoked to bless and
protect the deceased and his tumulus, grave-stone, and funeral-marks.”
That the face is really intended for that of Thor appears to be
demonstrated by its occurrence upon the small amulets representing
Thor’s Hammer in silver, and by such monumental sculptures as that on a
stone at Aby, in Sodermanland, Sweden (Fig. 81), where a similar face,
though less conventional in treatment, occurs in association with a
sculptured representation of a Thor’s Hammer. But it is quite immaterial
to our present purpose to determine whether this peculiar type of face
is more of a mythological conception than a conventionality of art. The
point which concerns our inquiry is that we have localised the typical
form definitely within the Scandinavian area, and demonstrated its
association with the art of the monuments and the metal work of the
Scandinavian heathen time.
[Illustration: Fig. 80.—Runic Monument at Skjern, North Jutland, with
Thor’s face (5 feet high).]
-----
Footnote 50:
In this remarkable sepulture the body was found in a pit 6 feet
beneath the natural surface, under the centre of the mound, laid in a
chest constructed of oaken planks, axe-dressed, and fastened together
with large round-headed iron nails. The chest had somewhat of the form
of a closed bedstead, for it was supported by six posts driven into
the soil at the bottom of the pit. On the bottom planks of this rough
bedstead the skeleton lay extended on cushions filled with feathers,
with the head to the north-east. It had been clothed in garments
worked with gold thread, of excessive richness and beauty. The
fragments preserved include portions of a girdle of silk, ornamented
with fretwork and gold tissue; a mantle of woollen cloth, with a band
of foliageous scroll-work interwoven with figures of human heads and
hands, and further ornamented with figures of animals, and patterns
worked in gold thread; and portions of cuffs or bracelets, also of
silk, ornamented with gold thread. In the interior of the chest or
bedstead, along with the skeleton, there were found the fragments of a
sword and scabbard, with its mountings, inlaid with silver, and two
axes, of which the one was plain, the other inlaid with zoomorphic
patterns in silver, as shown in Fig. 78. On the lid of the chest there
stood at the one end a cauldron of thin brass, two buckets,
constructed of oaken staves hooped with iron, and at the other end lay
a wax candle, 22 inches in length, which had burned for some time,
probably during the funeral ceremonies.—La sepulture de Mammen, par J.
J. A. Worsaae, in the _Memoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires
du Nord:_ Copenhagen, 1870.
Footnote 51:
This and the two following figures are copied from Professor Stephen’s
_Thunor the Thunderer:_ Copenhagen, 1879, folio.
-----
The general result of this examination of the typical form and
ornamentation of these bulbous brooches is that they are found to
possess features that are Celtic, in combination with features that are
distinctive of the art of the Scandinavian heathen time. The obvious
inference is that the birthplace of the type is to be looked for in an
area in which the population were partly Celtic and partly Scandinavian
in their extraction. At the period indicated by the range in date of
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—Runic Monument at Aby, with representation of
Thor’s Head and Hammer.] these silver hoards,[52] and for a considerable
time previous to the earliest date assigned to them, this was the
character of the mixed race of the Gall-gael of the Western Isles, and
it was also to a certain extent the character of the inhabitants of the
northern isles of Orkney and Shetland, though there the Celtic element
was feeble and the northern element strong. But this is precisely the
nature of the mixed art of these brooches. It is more northern than
Celtic, and seeing that the deposit is found in the very area where this
was the special character of the population, the conclusion seems
irresistible that the type is the product of the area in which it is
found. There is no evidence whatever of its having come from the east—no
evidence of its having come from Scandinavia itself. The only other
example of the type that has occurred in Scotland—the plain bulbous
brooch of silvered bronze—which was found with a heathen burial in the
island of Eigg (Fig. 43), also occurs within the area of the mixed
population. A few specimens have occurred sporadically in England,[53]
but there they are confined to the north-western area—that is, the
portion adjacent to the insular territories possessed by the Norse
colonists of the Western Isles. A few specimens have been found in
Ireland, chiefly isolated, but in one remarkable instance associated
with brooches and other metal work of pure Celtic types.[54] In
Scandinavia itself they do not occur in such abundance as to suggest
that they were common ornaments characteristic of the people or the
time. While, therefore, they are partially Scandinavian in the character
of their art, they occur so sparsely in the Scandinavian countries that
they cannot be considered as products that are characteristic of that
area, or indigenous to it, and their presence in such limited numbers in
the archæological deposits of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, is not
inconsistent with the conclusion that the type may have had its
birthplace in the Scandinavian colonies planted in Celtic soil, between
whom and the fatherland there was always such a closely-knit connection
and continuous intercourse.
-----
Footnote 52:
The approximate dates of the hoards are indicated by the coins found
with them.
Footnote 53:
Besides the fragments that occurred in the Cuerdale hoard, two entire
brooches of this type have been found in England—one near Kirby
Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, 5½ inches diameter; and one near Penrith,
in Cumberland, which is the largest on record, the ring being 8¼
inches in diameter, the pin 21 inches long, and the weight of the
whole brooch 25 ounces avoirdupois.
Footnote 54:
One of these brooches occurred in the remarkable hoard of silver
objects found in the Rath of Reerasta, Ardagh, in Limerick, in 1868.
The hoard consisted of a silver chalice of exquisite beauty, one other
vessel of bronze, three brooches of pure Celtic type, decorated like
the chalice with interlaced designs in panels, in the best style of
the art, and a fourth brooch of the bulbous or “thistle-headed”
form.—_Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. xxiv. p. 433.
-----
In passing finally from the examination of these brooches, it may be
desirable to refer briefly to the materials composing the dress in which
such gigantic ornaments were worn. The perishable nature of these
materials precludes the possibility of obtaining such specimens of them
as would suffice to show the form and appearance of the garments
themselves. But there are occasional instances in which the natural
circumstances of the deposit have been more than usually favourable to
their preservation, and there may be cases in which exceptional
carefulness in the examination of these circumstances may preserve not
only the texture but even the form and appearance of the garment. I have
already alluded to the fact that small portions of the dress from a
grave of the Viking time in the island of Eigg exhibit distinctly the
texture of the woollen fabric, and retain portions of its mountings of
fur. Similar discoveries in Denmark and Norway have established the
truth of the Saga narratives, which testify to the excessive richness of
the ornamentation, and the costly nature of the materials of the dress
of this period.
[Illustration:
Fig. 82.—Hood found in a Moss in St. Andrew’s Parish, Orkney.
(27 inches in length.)
]
The fact that a few examples from Scottish graves have shown the
possibility of obtaining even from these perishable materials the
tangible evidence of the form and fashion of the garments that clothed
the men and women who made and wore these ornaments, gives room for
hope that with increasing interest and greater care the products of
future investigations may complete this evidence. In the meantime we
have but one piece of dress which retains its form, and which may with
some degree of probability be attributed to the mixed population of
the Scandinavian colony. It is a hood of a coarse woollen fabric (Fig.
82), woven with a peculiarly twilled texture, and decorated with a
long fringe of pendent and knotted cords, formed by twisting the
doubled end of a thread with two contiguous threads of the warp. It
was dug up in a peat moss in the parish of St. Andrews, in the
mainland of Orkney, many years ago, and came into the possession of
the late Mr. George Petrie of Kirkwall, after whose death it was
acquired for the National Museum, along with his general collection.
It measures 32 inches in height and 17 inches in greatest width. The
border to which the fringe is attached is 3 inches in width. The
fringe itself is 15 inches in depth. The fabric of which the body of
the hood is composed is worked in alternate stripes, presenting at
their junction the appearance shown in the woodcut (Fig. 8383). The
fringe of two-ply cords (Fig. 84), which is its most peculiar feature,
presents a striking similarity to the fringe (Fig. 85) of a portion of
the dress of a woman whose body was discovered in 1835 in digging
peats in the Moss of [Illustration: Fig. 83.—Portion of the Fabric of
the Hood.] Haraldskjaer, in Jutland. The body, which was stretched on
its back, was pegged down in the moss by hooked branches of trees
driven into the peat so as to fasten down the legs and arms at the
knees and elbows, and further secured by other branches placed across
the breast and abdomen, and staked down at the ends. The dress was
well preserved when first discovered, but only a few fragments were
saved, and among them is a portion with a fringe of two-ply cords
(Fig. 85), bearing a suggestive similarity to the fringe of the Orkney
hood. This similarity, so far as it has any value as an indication of
relationship, links the Orkney specimen with the Scandinavian, and
thus gives apparent ground for the inference that the hood may belong
to the period of the Scandinavian colonisation of the islands, and
that, like the brooches, it may represent a typical variety of
head-dress peculiar to the colony.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.—Part of the Border and Fringe of the Hood.]
[Illustration: Fig. 85.—Woollen Fabric from the Moss of Haraldskjaer,
Jutland.]
The typical form of neck ring and arm ring (Figs. 64, 65), which is
associated with the bulbous brooches in these hoards, composed of
hammered rods and intertwisted wires of silver plaited manifoldly, and
formed into a circlet by soldering the ends, does not occur again in
Scotland. But it has obvious relations with a group of personal
ornaments in gold, which present similar features of form and
construction. They are of smaller size than the silver rings, all that
are known being obviously finger-rings.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.—Gold Rings found at Stenness (actual size).]
Two of these (Fig. 86, Nos. 2 and 3) were dug up in the month of August
1879, in a field near the shore of the Loch of Stenness, in Orkney, and
are now in the National Museum. The largest is formed of two double
twists of gold wires, hammered round, and tapering to the small ends,
which are connected by a lozenge-shaped bezel. The smaller of the two is
composed of three strands of gold wire, similarly shaped by the hammer
alone, and intertwisted, and the small ends soldered together. With them
there were also found two plain flat hoops or circlets of gold, of about
an inch in diameter, ¼ inch wide in the widest part, and tapering to the
ends, which are unjoined (Fig. 86, No. 1).
There is also in the Museum a hoard of gold objects of this character,
consisting of six finger-rings of plaited wires, a plain solid ring
formed of a tapering rod (Fig. 87), with the ends unjoined, two portions
of plaited rings cut off, and two portions of plain solid rings
similarly cut. Two of the plaited rings (one of which is shown in Fig.
87) are formed of three wires each, intertwisted, and the ends soldered
together; the wires or rods are simply rounded by the hammer and tapered
to either end. The other four rings are slightly larger. They are
composed of eight wires, each similarly fashioned by the hammer alone,
and ingeniously interplaited, so that two strands of the plait form a
ridge all round the convexity of the ring, the ends united and worked
flat to form a bezel. Unfortunately we are unable to localise this hoard
more closely than that it was found somewhere in the Hebrides.
[Illustration: Fig. 87.—Gold Rings found in the Hebrides (actual size).]
Another hoard of somewhat similar character was found in June 1863, in
the island of Bute, about 300 yards distant from the old church of St.
Blane, in Kingarth. The hoard, [Illustration: Fig. 88.—Ingot of Silver
(actual size).] which was deposited beneath a large stone, consisted of
two gold rings, three long, narrow fillets of thin gold, a small ingot
of silver (Fig. 88), weighing 228 grains, and a number of silver coins,
of which twenty-one were pennies of David I. of Scotland, three of King
Stephen, and one of King Henry I. of England. Of the two gold rings, one
(Fig. 89, No. 1) is a plain solid ring, formed of a rod rounded by the
hammer, and tapered to both ends, and the ends unjoined. The other,
shown in Fig. 89, No. 2, is composed of three similarly-hammered rods or
wires twisted together, and the ends joined into a lozenge-shaped bezel.
The largest of the three fillets found with them is (Fig. 90) 17 inches
in length, and about 3⁄16 inch wide in the centre, tapering to both ends
until it expands into a small terminal loop. The others are similar in
form. They are scarcely thicker than stout writing-paper, and the
largest, though 17 inches in length, weighs only 55 grains. Their
ornamentation consists of zig-zag running patterns, and beaded work in
_repoussé_.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.—Gold Rings found in Bute (actual size).]
It is thus evident that this typical form of construction of personal
ornaments in the precious metals by interplaiting and intertwisting
slender rods of metal, rounded and tapered by the hammer alone, and
their ends soldered together, comes down at least to the twelfth
century, and appears in associations in which there is no suggestion of
an Oriental origin. Its area, so far as our present knowledge enables us
to define it, appears to be limited to the northern and western isles,
no well-authenticated instance having been recorded from the mainland of
Scotland. On the other hand, the area of the type extends eastwards into
Scandinavia, but there the type itself is regarded as one which is not
indigenous.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.—Terminal portions of two Gold Fillets found in
Bute (actual size).]
The type of penannular arm ring, which is of rounded or quadrangular
section, with tapering or slightly flattened ends, of which so many
examples were associated with the twisted rings and bulbous brooches in
the Skaill hoard, has not occurred in any other metal than silver. Like
the other types associated with them, they have not been found in
Scotland beyond the area of the Scandinavian colonisation. Within that
area, however, they appear not unfrequently. Wallace records the
discovery of a hoard of nine in one of the mounds at Stennis, in Orkney.
Another hoard, of which the precise number is not given, was found in
1774 at Caldale, near Kirkwall, with a horn containing 300 silver
pennies of Canute the Great. In 1830 six or seven were found at
Quendale, in Shetland, with a horn full of Anglo-Saxon coins of
Ethelred, Ethelstan, Edwy, and Edgar.
In 1850 a hoard of at least six were found in the island of Skye, but in
circumstances of which there is no record.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.—Penannular Arm-ring of Silver, one of a hoard of
eight, found at Burn of Rattar, Caithness (3½ inches diameter).]
In 1872 a hoard of eight were found in a cist of stones in or close to
an ancient burying-ground near where the burn of Rattar enters the
Pentland Firth, in Caithness. One of these is shown in Fig. 91.
All these are similar in form to each other, and to the rings of the
same type found in Scandinavia in association with the other types of
silver ornaments previously described. They are more frequently plain
than ornamented, and when ornamented their decoration consists simply of
a series of impressions formed by a triangular punch, with one, two, or
three dots in the field. This species of ornamentation is only found on
these silver ornaments in Scotland, but in Scandinavia it is common to
them and to the oval bowl-shaped brooches of brass which were the
characteristic personal ornaments of the closing period of the
Scandinavian Paganism.
It follows from this enumeration of the characteristics of form and
ornament exhibited by the different varieties of these silver ornaments
which have been deposited in hoards within the area of the Scandinavian
colonisation of Scotland, that they possess a character which is
distinctive and peculiar, being neither wholly Celtic nor wholly
Scandinavian, but owing its individuality to an intermixture of
characteristics derived from forms and systems of ornament which are
peculiar to each of these racial areas.
The deposit of such hoards of ornaments and coin is a custom more
characteristic of the Scandinavian than of the Celtic area. Deposits of
this character may have been placed in the soil for simple concealment
at any time, but they are much more frequent in this particular period
than in any other, and there was a motive connected with the Pagan faith
of the people which may have operated to increase their abundance. We
learn from the Saga of Egil Skalagrimson that there was a belief among
the Pagan Northmen that treasure thus buried during their lifetime would
be available for use or display in the life to come.
But whatever may have been the manner or the motive of their
concealment, the fact, which is of special importance for the purpose of
the present investigation, is that they are for the most part relics
which, by their forms and the characteristics of their art, are but
feebly linked with the forms and art of the Celtic area in which they
are found, and strongly linked by their art characteristics with the art
of the Scandinavian Paganism, which was contemporary with the art of the
Christian Celtic school. The soil in which they are found is within that
area of Scotland which was occupied by a mixed population, composed of
the two races whose special art instincts are visible in the mixed art
of the objects—the dominant race, moreover, being that whose art is
dominant in their decoration.
The colonisation of the northern and western coasts of Scotland by the
heathen Northmen forms an episode in the history of our country only
second in importance to the earlier colonisation of its southern
districts by the Romans, and far surpassing it in the interest of its
historical annals. Its archæological interest may be estimated by the
number and variety of the relics which have now been shown to belong to
the Viking period of the Northmen in Scotland—a period of singular
interest alike in connection with its history, its archæology, and its
art.
LECTURE III.
(OCTOBER 24, 1882.)
THE CELTIC ART OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.
In this Lecture I shall deal with certain groups of relics which present
in their forms and their decoration features which we have learned to
recognise as distinctively Celtic.
About the year 1820 a singular object was found in a morass on the farm
of Torrs, in the parish of Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire. Having passed
into the possession of Mr. Joseph Train, it was presented by him to Sir
Walter Scott, and it still remains in the Museum at Abbotsford.[55] It
is of the form of an elongated mask (Fig. 92), somewhat resembling the
frontal of a horse. It measures 10½ inches in total length, but the tip
is apparently imperfect. Its breadth in a straight line across the lower
margin is 3⅝ inches, and about 8½ inches on the round outside. Its
greatest breadth in a straight line across the back is 6 inches, and 11
inches on the round outside, immediately above the insertion of the
horns. At a height of 3 inches above the lower straight margin are
placed two circular holes, one on each side, each measuring 2 inches in
diameter. From between these eyelike holes, and a little above the level
of their centres, two curiously curved, cylindrical, tapering horns
spring close together on either side of the median line. The diameter of
each of the horns at the base is 1⅜ inch, and they rise to a height of
8¾ inches to the top of the curve, the whole length of the perfect horns
along the curve of the outer edge being 16½ inches. The horns are
hollow, the whole object being formed of thin beaten bronze.
-----
Footnote 55:
This and many of the other objects referred to in this Lecture have
been described in the _Proceedings_ of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland by Dr. John Alexander Smith, who has specially illustrated
the interesting relics which I regard as belonging to the closing
period of Scotland’s Paganism. They have been referred by Mr. Franks
and others to a special school of art which they have denominated the
“Late Celtic,” but from my point of view I must regard them as the
work of the early Celtic school, which was the precursor and parent of
the greater school of Celtic art of the Christian time which I have
already described.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 92.—Bronze object found at Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire
(10½ inches in length).]
Its ornamentation is as peculiar as its form. It consists of a series of
irregularly divergent spirals in _repoussé_ work repeated symmetrically
but not identically on either side of the median line of the front of
the object. These spirals or scroll-like figures are formed of curves
which are long and flattened, passing suddenly into curves of quicker
motion, and ending in volutes. These curves, though proceeding in the
same direction, do not proceed at parallel or regular distances from
each other, but converge and diverge so as to enclose between them
alternate spaces of varying extent of surface. The spaces enclosed
between the curves are raised, and the spaces enclosed by their
convolutions are flat, but the raised spaces are modelled so as to
express the confluence of solid curves of the peculiar forms already
indicated. These trumpet and spiral scrolls, as they are called,
enclosing irregularly formed curvilinear spaces, and producing designs
which are similar but unsymmetrical, are repeated in different varieties
of pattern on the outer sides of the horns (Fig. 93). In the terminal
convolutions of the scrolls the curves are sometimes arranged so as to
produce a zoomorphic effect, which differs from the later zoomorphism of
the metal-work of the Christian time and of the later manuscripts, in
being more geometrical in form and character. The zoomorphic termination
of the horns has also more of a geometric character than is usual in the
Christian period.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.—Plan of the Horns and their Ornament. (1) The
right horn. (2) Zoomorphic termination of the right horn seen frontwise.
(3) The left horn.]
The object being incomplete, its purpose is not obvious. But it is
suggestive of the probability of its having formed part of a helmet that
Diodorus Siculus, writing only a few years after the conquest of Gaul by
Julius Cæsar, describes the military equipment of certain Gallic tribes
as including “bronze helmets with lofty projections rising out of them,
which impart a gigantic appearance to the wearers; for upon some are
fixed pairs of horns, upon others the shapes of birds and beasts wrought
out of the same metal.” These horned helmets are represented on some of
the consular medals, and the whole description of the Gallic equipment
is so similar to what we know of the habits of the Celtic tribes of
Britain, that it may be concluded that in this respect their customs may
not have been greatly dissimilar.[56] And, in point of fact, there is in
the British Museum a bronze headpiece found in the river Thames, near
Waterloo Bridge, which, from its peculiar form, was at first considered
to be a jester’s cap. But Mr. Franks has shown that it is a military
helmet of native workmanship. It consists of a cap of thin bronze, with
an additional plate at the back, decorated with scrolls of this peculiar
character in low relief, among which are cross-hatched discs once coated
with red enamel. From each side of the cap projects a conical horn
terminating in a moulded button, and upon one side of the horn runs a
string of small projecting studs.
-----
Footnote 56:
The common denarius of the family Furia exhibits a trophy formed of
the horned helmet, the tunic of mail, the peculiarly ornamented oval
shield, and the large war trumpet. On a denarius of Servilia a Gaul
wearing the horned helmet appears aiming a back-handed blow with his
long sword at a Roman antagonist. The name “Cornuti” itself is
suggestive of this peculiarity.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 94.—Bronze Plaque found in Oland (actual size).]
It is therefore not improbable that this object at Abbotsford may have
been the front part of a military helmet, or of a headpiece used for
display. Such a headpiece with similarly large and curving horns,
terminating in similar zoomorphic endings is seen (Fig. 94) on the head
of a warrior who appears to be engaged in mimic combat with another
accoutred as fantastically as himself, and whose grotesque headpiece
bears a resemblance still more remarkable to another bronze object of
the same character which I have next to describe. These representations
occur on a bronze plaque dug up in the island of Oland, and they have
therefore no necessary connection with the usages of the Celtic people.
They merely show that in assigning such a purpose to these objects we
are not attributing to them a purpose to which they were never applied.
But the special use of the object is really of no great moment for the
purpose of the present investigation. That purpose is fulfilled when we
are enabled to say, from an examination of its special characteristics,
that it has certain typical relations linking it with other objects,
forming a distinct group and occupying a definite place in the series of
types which characterise the area now termed Scotland. I therefore
proceed to the description of other objects distinguished by the same
characteristics.
[Illustration: Fig. 95.—Bronze object in the form of a swine’s head
found at Liechestown, Deskford, Banffshire (8½ inches in length).]]
At Liechestown, in the parish of Deskford, Banffshire, about the year
1816, a remarkable relic (Fig. 95), now in the Banff Museum, was found
in a mossy piece of ground, at a depth of about 6 feet, and resting on a
bed of clay at the bottom of the moss. This object, which is equally
peculiar alike in respect to its form and ornamentation, is in the shape
of a boar’s head of thin beaten bronze 8½ inches in length by 5½ in
greatest breadth. The lower jaw is movable. The eyes are circular holes
1¼ inch in diameter. The whole head is formed of four plates of bronze,
the snout, the palate, and the lower jaw (Fig. 96) having been each made
separately, and attached to the posterior part of the head, which
consists of an embossed plate bent to the shape. A disc-like plate,
which was found with it, is now attached to the open back of the head,
but does not quite fit, and it is doubtful whether it had been so placed
originally. The ornamentation of this singular object is of the same
character as that of the Torrs bronze, but simpler, being merely a
series of trumpet-shaped ridges in _repoussé_ work round the eyes. But
this ornament, simple as it is, is quite sufficient to determine the
relations of the relic to that general group of objects of which it and
the bronze from Torrs are the most remarkable specimens.
[Illustration: Fig. 96.—Plates of thin bronze forming separate parts of
the swine’s head. (2) The lower jaw. (3) The palate. (4 and 5) Posterior
and lateral views of the palate.]
[Illustration: Fig. 97.—Sword-sheath found near Mortonhall (23½ inches
long).]
It is obvious that if these objects had any relation to military
equipment, we ought to find the very peculiar art which is so
conspicuous in their decoration, also exhibiting itself in the
decoration of the weapons and other war-gear in use among the same
people. Diodorus, in fact, informs us that the Gauls used oblong shields
as tall as the man, and painted after a peculiar fashion. Some of these
shields, he also says, had figures of animals in relief of bronze, not
merely for ornament but also for defence, and very well wrought. It has
been already remarked that it is probable that the military equipment of
the Gallic tribes resembled that of the British; and it is the fact that
oblong shields, decorated with the peculiar patterns characteristic of
the style of art exhibited by the two headpieces which have been
described, having these patterns further adorned by coloured enamels,
and also possessing the distinctive feature of figures of animals in
relief in bronze, have been found in England.[57]
-----
Footnote 57:
A bronze shield, found in the river Witham, 3 feet 8½ inches long, and
nearly 14 inches wide, with straight sides and rounded ends, is
decorated with studs of red coral, and had the figure of an animal
attached to it by rivets. Another, found in the Thames, 2 feet 6½
inches long and 14½ inches wide, is ornamented with enamelled patterns
in this peculiar style, and of singular beauty and remarkable
excellence of design and workmanship. They are figured in colours of
the originals in the _Horæ Ferales_, edited by A. W. Franks, of the
British Museum (4to. London, 1863), Plates XIV.-XV.
-----
No shields of this character have yet been discovered in Scotland, but
there are other objects of a military kind which exhibit the same
peculiar art in a sufficiently characteristic manner. One of these is a
sword-sheath (Fig. 97) of bronze, 23½ inches in length by 1¼ inch in
width, which was found at the foot of the Pentlands, near Mortonhall,
and is now in the Museum. It is formed of thin beaten bronze; the
ornamental cup-shaped expansions at the lower end are solid castings,
and the ornamental strap carrying the loop in front is fastened on with
pins. The back of the sheath is a thin slip of bronze sliding in grooves
in the inner margins of the two sides. This is the only example of a
sword-sheath of this style and period known to have been found in
Scotland. Several sheaths of the same character have been discovered in
England. Perhaps the most characteristic of these is one in the
collection of Canon Greenwell at Durham, which exhibits, in a very
special manner, the peculiar style of ornament of which I have given so
many illustrations. The swords which these sheaths contained were of
iron and have perished. One found in the Thames has the blade still
within it, 3 feet 1½ inch in length, but a mere mass of oxide.[58] These
swords differ greatly in the length and form of the blade from the
leaf-shaped swords of bronze which were in general use at an earlier
period, and their sheaths differ still more widely in form and ornament
from the sheaths of the leaf-shaped swords.
-----
Footnote 58:
The specimens of these iron swords with bronze sheaths found in
different parts of England are enumerated by Mr. Franks in the
_Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London_, vol. iv. p.
166; and several are figured in _Horæ Ferales_, Plates XIV.-XVIII.
-----
Another class of objects, which are more of the nature of
harness-mountings or horse-furniture, also exhibit this peculiar style
of ornamentation, in some cases combined with the remarkable feature of
having their sunk spaces filled with coloured enamels.
[Illustration: Fig. 98.—Mountings of Cast Bronze (5 inches in length).]
A pair of massively-formed objects (Fig. 98), the precise use of which
is not apparent, were found in a bank of clay on a spur of the Cheviots
at Henshole on Cheviot. They are of cast bronze, and consist of an
oblong body, hollow, rounded at one end and flattened at the other; the
upper and lower surfaces inclined towards the small end, which is
narrower than the width at the middle. A stout tang of about 2 inches in
length is carried on a bar which crosses the open part of the small end,
and the convexity of the larger end bears the mark of hammering as if to
drive the tang home. They are destitute of surface decoration, but they
seem to be allied by the characteristics of their form to other objects
which are less indefinite in the indications of their art.
[Illustration: Fig. 99.—Bronze Ornaments found in a Cairn at Towie,
Aberdeenshire.]
In a large cairn on the farm of Hillock Head, in the parish of Towie,
Aberdeenshire, which covered an interment placed in a cist with an urn,
there were found a number of bronze objects, all of which were lost
except two (Fig. 99), which are now in the Museum. They are in the form
of oval hollow rings, expanding on the inferior side, and having an oval
opening in the under part, which shows the remains of an iron pin
fastened at each side of the opening with lead. Their general appearance
is suggestive of the mountings of horse-harness, but their precise
purpose is not obvious, and the articles found in association with them
are undescribed. Although the testimony is singularly defective on that
point, it is not probable that they had any connection with the
interment in the “short cist” which contained bones and an
[Illustration: Fig. 100.—Mounting in Cast Bronze from Dowalton Loch (2
inches in diameter).] urn. A similar object in bronze, also presenting
the remains of iron fastenings in the lower part, was found under a
large stone on the hill of Crichie, near Kintore, along with a number of
globular balls of shale each about 1¼ inch in diameter, slightly
flattened on one side, and having the remains of iron loop-like
fastenings in the flattened side.[59] A number of rings and
harness-mountings found at Middleby, in Annandale, in 1737, and now
preserved in Penicuick House, exhibit the same style of decoration in a
more pronounced and characteristic manner.[60]
-----
Footnote 59:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. v. p. 111.
Footnote 60:
They have been figured by Dr. Daniel Wilson in _The Prehistoric Annals
of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 156.
-----
A mounting in cast bronze (Fig. 100), 2 inches diameter, the sunk spaces
of which had probably been filled with enamels, was recently found in
the dry bed of the loch of Dowalton, which was drained about eighteen
years ago. It is formed of a combination of segmental spaces, the curves
of which are those of the divergent spiral, each space being surrounded
by a raised border, and the sunk surfaces roughened with a tool.
[Illustration: Fig. 101.—Bridle-bit found in a Moss at Birrenswark,
Dumfriesshire (6¾ inches in length).]
A bridle-bit (Fig. 101), found in a moss at Birrenswark, in Annandale,
before 1785, and now in the National Museum, exhibits the
characteristics of this peculiar phase of art in a very striking manner.
It is no less peculiar in its design and construction than in the
character of its ornamentation. It is a single casting of bronze. The
loops of the cheek-rings have been cast within the loops of the
centre-piece, an operation implying technical skill and experience of
complicated processes of moulding and casting. The design, however, is
the most remarkable feature of the object. It is designed as carefully
as if it were a piece of jewellery. The rings, though cast in one piece
with the loops, are penannular in form, grasping the neck of the loop
between their expanded ends. The two rings differ slightly in size, and
the loops differ greatly in form. The one is treated as a loop formed of
a cylindrical rod bent to the shape of a loop, and carrying the
ornamented open-work of its terminal part as between its extended ends.
The other loop is treated as a solid form, and in its ornamental
termination there is no open work. The two rings are similar, but not
identical. The idea of openness suggested by the modelling of the one
loop is carried into the construction of the terminal portions as open
work, and the idea of solidity is similarly carried out in the other
loop. The surface decoration of the terminal portions of the loops is of
the same character in the parts of both that are similar, and is partly
carried also into the parts of the one which are wanting in the other.
It consists of red and yellow enamel _champléve_, the colours
alternating in alternate rows of triangular and oval spaces. A double
spiral and trumpet pattern appears in the open work of the one loop. The
loops and rings are greatly the worse for wear, and have been
strengthened by thin pieces riveted on.
It is certainly a peculiar feature of an art so singularly decorative
that it was applied so largely to the ornamentation of objects that were
appropriated to the commonest uses. Enamelled horse-trappings of the
most finished and beautiful workmanship have frequently been found in
England, sometimes associated with the remains of chariots.[61] Not only
is the use of enamel in the decoration of such objects unknown beyond
the area of the British Isles, but the special system of design which
accompanies its use is also confined within that area. And it is an
interesting fact that there is historical evidence as to the nationality
of these remains. The only classical author who mentions the art of
enamelling is Philostratus, a Greek sophist in the household of Julia
Domna, wife of the Emperor Severus. In a notice of the variegated
trappings of the horses in a painting of a boar-hunt he accounts for
their peculiar appearance as follows:—“They say that the barbarians who
live in the Ocean pour such colours on heated brass, and that they
adhere to it, become as hard as stone, and thus preserve the designs
that are made in them.” It is matter of inference what people they were
who are thus styled “barbarians in the ocean,” but it is matter of fact
that horse-trappings of bronze (or brass) decorated with coloured
enamels have hitherto been found in the British Islands alone.
-----
Footnote 61:
They have been found at Polden Hill, near Bridgewater (_Archæologia_,
vol. xiv. p. 90); at Hagbourn Hill, Berkshire (_Archæologia_, vol.
xvi. p. 348); at Stanwick, Yorkshire, with chariot-wheels (York Volume
of the Archæological Institute, p. 10); at Arras and Hessleskew, in
the same county, with chariot-wheels and the bones of horses (_Ibid._
p. 28), and other places. A synopsis of the whole group of objects
characterised by this decoration is given by Mr. Franks in _Horæ
Ferales_ (4to., London, 1863), pp. 172, 196, and many figures in the
coloured plates (Plates XIV.-XX.).
-----
But this peculiar style of art was not confined to the decoration of
such objects as parts of military equipments or harness of horses. It
was largely employed in the decoration of personal ornaments and objects
of personal use.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.—Quern Stone of sandstone found at Balmaclellan
(14 inches in diameter).]
In the parish of Balmaclellan, in Kirkcudbright, a number of bronze
articles were found in draining a bog. It is stated that they were found
about 3 feet under the surface in four parcels, each wrapped in coarse
linen cloth. Close by them the upper stone of a quern was also found.
The quern stone (Fig. 102) is ornamented, but the ornament possesses
none of the distinctive features of the decoration of the bronzes. They
consisted of a circular mirror with handle, and a number of thin plates
of bronze, some being long narrow bands, others curved and cut into
various shapes. The mirror (Fig. 103) is of the form so commonly seen on
the sculptured monuments of the Celtic Christian time in Scotland. The
circular part is 8 inches in diameter, and the handle 5 inches in
projection from the circumference of the circular part. [Illustration:
Fig. 103.—Bronze Mirror found at Balmaclellan (8 inches in diameter)]
The body of the mirror is a thin plate of bronze, surrounded by a
plain-rolled edging. The handle, which is also a thin plate of bronze
similarly edged, is attached to the circular plate by rivets, and the
junction is concealed by a finely-ornamented plate (Fig. 104),
presenting a pattern composed of those peculiar raised surfaces formed
by the meeting of curves rising from the flat at different angles, and
traversing the ground also in curves, which converge and diverge in a
manner pleasing to the eye, but difficult to describe. The upper part of
this ornamental plate is tri-lobate, the lobes bounded by curves of
peculiar form, and bordered by an edging of studs embossed on the metal.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.—Ornamental Plate of thin bronze, embossed, at
the junction of the mirror with its handle (actual size).] The central
ornament of each lobe is a circular device, with a central boss
surrounded by a circle of oval-raised surfaces, and presenting a nearer
approach to the effect of a floral decoration than is usually seen in
this style of ornament. The handle of the mirror is pierced with three
segmental openings formed of the curves of the divergent spiral. A
crescentic collar-shaped plate of bronze (Fig. 105), 13 inches in
diameter, and 2 inches in the width of the band, is decorated with a
chased pattern of similarly convergent and divergent curves, the spaces
enclosed by the curves being hatched with parallel lines. [Illustration:
Fig. 105.—Half of the Crescentic Collar-like Plate of Bronze found with
the Mirror at Balmaclellan.] The remaining plates (Fig. 106), of which
there are a considerable number, are of various forms. Some have
straight outer edges, and the interior edges cut into curves, meeting
each other with long and short points; others are triangular pieces,
with one convex and two concave edges, while others again are long
narrow bands with straight edges. They are all bordered with an edging
of thin metal doubled over and pinned on, and they seem themselves to
have been attached by pins to some object of a more perishable nature.
What their precise purpose was—whether they were mountings on wood or
leather, or whether they formed parts of some object constructed wholly
of thin plates of metal (as the two objects previously described are
constructed)—it is not necessary to conjecture since the form and
condition of the objects themselves give no definite indications on
these points. Their being wrapped in cloth in separate parcels may imply
that they are not all parts of the same object, and their local
association with objects of such incongruous purposes, as a mirror and a
quern, may imply that they were not necessarily even associated with
each other when in use. There is no evidence that the deposit was in any
way connected with sepulture, although the mirror of this form, and
bearing precisely the same kind of ornamentation, has been found
associated with interments of Pagan time in Britain.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.—Ornamental Plate of thin bronze, embossed, at
the junction of the mirror with its handle (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 105.—Half of the Crescentic Collar-like Plate of
Bronze found with the Mirror at Balmaclellan.]
[Illustration: Fig. 106.—Form of the Bronze Plates found with the Mirror
at Balmaclellan (26 inches in length).]
At Mount Batten, near Plymouth, a series of graves were discovered in
1865,[62] which presented phenomena of a very peculiar character. They
were pits 4 or 4½ feet in depth, one foot of which only was soil, the
remaining three feet being sunk in the disintegrated surface of the
underlying rock. They were very numerous, sometimes close together and
irregular in form, and had mostly been refilled with the materials
removed in making them. They contained fragments of pottery of black and
yellow ware, and wheel-made. Some fragments of glass vessels, portions
of iron implements, among which were a pair of shears, bronze rings and
fibulæ, and jointed armlets of bronze, with a knife or dagger in a
sheath of thin bronze, were also found. But the most interesting part of
the discovery was the circular plate of a bronze mirror (Fig. 107), 8
inches in diameter, which lay on its face at the bottom of one of the
graves. It is a very thin plate of bronze, with a rolled edging. The
back is ornamented with three circular engraved patterns of spirals
formed of the same peculiar curves, converging and diverging, the spaces
between the lines forming the curves being filled with hatching. So
closely do the patterns resemble those on the collar-like object from
Balmaclellan, and so similar is the style of the work, that the
conclusion is unavoidable that the two objects belong to the same school
of art, and cannot be very far apart in time.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.—Bronze Mirror found in a grave at Mount Batten,
Plymouth (8 inches in diameter).]
-----
Footnote 62:
Described in a paper by Mr. Spence Bate in _Archæologia_, vol. xl. p.
500.
-----
Another mirror, which is almost precisely similar in form and
ornamentation, was found in 1833 at Trelan Bahow,[63] in the parish of
St. Keverne, Cornwall. In the course of the construction of a new road a
group of graves was discovered. Each grave was formed of six slabs set
on edge, two forming each side of the grave, and one at each end. They
were from two to three feet under the surface, and covered with large
stones. In one of the cists, apparently with the remains of a female,
there were found the bronze mirror almost perfect, some rings of bronze
or brass, fragments of fibulæ, and other personal ornaments, and several
beads of variegated glass. The mirror is circular, 6 inches in diameter,
with a looped handle 2½ inches in length. The back of the mirror plate
has a marginal ornament of triangular spaces alternately plain, and
filled with short parallel lines struck by a punch. Across the central
line of the mirror are two circles enclosing smaller circles and
curvilinear spaces alternately plain, and filled with punched lines in a
style similar to that of the ornament on the collar-like object from
Balmaclellan.
-----
Footnote 63:
_Archæological Journal_, vol. xxx. p. 268.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 108.—Back of a Bronze Mirror found in a grave at
Birdlip, near Gloucester (10⅝ inches in diameter).]
Another mirror of the same character, found at Birdlip on the edge of
the Cottiswold Hills, near Gloucester, in 1879,[64] exhibits the same
style of ornamentation. Three cists were discovered in a group,
containing skeletons placed with their feet to the south. The first and
third were apparently adult males, and with them no manufactured objects
were found. The second was apparently a female. On the face of the
skeleton was placed a large bronze bowl, 9 inches in diameter, inverted;
and among the other contents of the cist were a smaller bowl of bronze,
4 inches in diameter, a harp-shaped fibula of silver plated with gold, a
bracelet and four rings of brass, a key-handle, a knife-handle
terminating in the head of an animal, a string of large beads of jet and
amber, and a mirror made of a massive bronze plate, weighing 38¼ ounces.
The back of the mirror (Fig. 108), which is of a slightly oval form,
measures 10⅝ inches in its greatest, and 9¾ inches in its least,
diameter, and is beautifully ornamented with a triple scroll-like
pattern of flowing curvilinear spaces filled with hatchings of short
lines in chequers, or groups disposed at right angles to each other. The
pattern is so managed that the hatched spaces and the plain spaces
alternate and form symmetrical arrangements, producing a pleasing
effect. At the lower part, where the handle supports the mirror, is a
triple arrangement of trumpet-shaped scrolls in relief, enclosing spaces
which are similarly decorated. The handle is elegantly formed from a
prolongation of the marginal beading of the mirror, which gradually
thickens towards the lower margin to trumpet-shaped endings on either
side of the handle, which takes the form of a double-loop, drawn out
from the marginal bead, and terminating in a ring partly filled by an
ornamented disc.
-----
Footnote 64:
_Proceedings of the Bristol and Gloucester Archæological Society_,
vol. v. p. 137, and Plate XIV., from which the figure here given is
copied by permission.
-----
These mirrors all differ in their form and in the composition of the
metal from Roman mirrors, and they differ in certain characteristics of
their ornament still more widely from the Roman style. But the peculiar
characteristics which form the special features of their decoration are
identical with those of a large class of objects which we have now
learned to recognise by the character of their art as distinctively
Celtic.
[Illustration: Fig. 109.—Bronze Spoon-like object (one of a pair) found
at Weston, near Bath (actual size).]
The same character is exhibited by the ornamentation of a series of
spoon-like objects[65] found in England and Ireland, of which Fig. 109
is a characteristic example. Four of these are in the National Museum,
and though no specimens have yet been met with in Scotland, I notice
them here, because their decoration is so nearly related to that of the
Scottish school. In the case of the pair of these peculiar objects found
in excavating for a quarry at Weston, near Bath, the backs of the
circular projections or handles (Fig. 110) are ornamented with patterns
of this character in relief. The front of the disc is ornamented with a
series of circular concentric mouldings, and the bowl of the spoon is
quartered by incised lines. It is a peculiarity of these objects, that
though found in pairs, the two members of the pair, though similar, are
not identical. In some cases it is apparent that they have even been
cast in different moulds. Usually one of the pair has its bowl quartered
by incised lines, while the other has a small hole pierced near the edge
of the bowl. Another pair, also in the Museum, were found in 1861 in a
railway cutting in Llanfair parish, Denbighshire. They are slightly
smaller in size, and differ in the ornamentation of the front of their
discs. One of them (Fig. 111, No. 2) is here shown along with the second
of the Weston specimens.
-----
Footnote 65:
These have been conjectured to be of Christian time, and to have been
used in connection with the celebration of the Eucharist, but the
evidence is insufficient to carry this conclusion. See the papers by
Albert Way in _Archæological Journal_, vol. xxvi. p. 52; and by Rev.
E. L. Barnwell in _Archæologia Cambrensis_, vol. viii. (Third Series)
p. 208, and vol. x. p. 57.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 110.—Backs of the Handles of the pair of Spoon-like
objects found at Weston, near Bath (actual size).]
The same characteristic style of art is seen in the decoration of a
massive collar of cast bronze (Fig. 112), which was found in digging a
well at Stitchell, in Roxburghshire, in 1747, and is now in the National
Museum. Like the armlets found in the Plymouth graves, this collar is
jointed, opening on a hinge in the centre, and fastening in front by a
pin and socket. It is a very massive and heavy ornament, the width of
the opening being 6 inches by 5, and the breadth of the flattened ring
varying from 1¾ inch to ¼ inch. The character of the ornament is simple,
but highly peculiar, and bearing a strong family likeness to the double
escaping and divergent spirals of the later Celtic art. All the patterns
are in relief and cast in the solid, except those on the two panels on
either side of the central opening, which are in _repoussé_ on a thin
plate of bronze fastened to the collar by pins at the four corners.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.—Bronze Spoon-like objects found at Weston and
Llanfair.]
[Illustration: Fig. 112.—Jointed Collar of Bronze found at Stitchell,
Roxburghshire.]
Closely akin to this jointed collar in the idea of its construction and
the form of its ornament is an elegant armlet of thin bronze (Fig. 113),
found in 1826 near Plunton Castle, in the parish of Borgue, in
Kirkcudbright. It is of thin beaten bronze, 1½ inch wide and 2½ inches
in diameter, and, like the collar, it is made to open on a hinge in the
centre, and close by a pin and loops. It is ornamented by three raised
mouldings, beaten up from the back, which pass round it horizontally,
but these are concealed on either side of the hinges by two plates of
thin bronze of quadrangular form, ornamented in _repoussé_ by
trumpet-shaped ornaments connected by peculiar curves, and having studs
placed in the concavities of the curves. These plates are fastened to
the armlet at the four corners by pins, and bordered by a single row of
small studs.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.—Bronze Armlet found in the Parish of Borgue,
Kirkcudbright.]
In the month of March 1806 a herd boy, passing along the side of the
Shaw Hill, near the House of New Cairnmuir, in the parish of Kirkurd,
Peeblesshire, saw something glitter in the ground, and on scraping the
place with his foot he unearthed a hoard of gold objects, consisting of
two twisted arm-rings, each weighing 8 oz. 12 dwt., a broken ring of the
same form weighing 8 oz. 10 dwt., forty small studs, each weighing about
half a sovereign, and a hollow spherical ornament weighing 4 oz. 5
dwt.—the bullion value of the whole being about £110. One of the twisted
arm-rings passed into the possession of Sir George Montgomery of
Macbiehill; the spherical ornament and two of the small studs were
obtained by Mr. John Lawson of Cairnmuir and placed in the National
Museum; the rest of the hoard is believed to have been melted. The three
arm-rings are spirally twisted rods of gold, with flat circular ends
bent round to encircle the arm. The studs or pellets are nearly
spherical, about the size of a large pea, and marked on the surface with
a cruciform ornament in relief. The spherical ornament (Fig. 114) has
some resemblance to the pommel of a sword, although its form gives no
obvious indication of its purpose. It is 2½ inches in length by 2 inches
in width, and about 1¼ inch in thickness. It has been cast hollow, with
an opening through the centre of the rounded part, and must have been
made by a very skilful workman. One side of it is plain, the other
ornamented in _repoussé_ work of great beauty. The style of the ornament
is simple, elegant, and highly effective. The surface to be decorated is
broken up into irregular spaces by a system of the peculiar curves,
which are so characteristic of the style of art of the bronzes which
have been already described. Some of these spaces are further ornamented
by a peculiar pitting of the surface seen in some of the decorated stone
balls (Fig. 146); others are raised in solid curves of the same peculiar
form, while the interspaces follow the form of the object itself. Studs
and prominences, with spirals in relief, are introduced to give emphasis
to the general design, which commends itself at once to the eye of taste
as one of the most fitly beautiful and unaffected forms of
surface-decoration which could be applied to such a purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 114.—Gold Ornament found on the Shaw Hill, near
Cairnmuir, Kirkurd. Front and back views (actual size).]
In this group of objects in bronze and gold we have characteristic
examples of the work of this early school of decorative art, which in
some of its features bears certain relations to the work of the later
school of Celtic art of the Christian time. But the elements of its
decoration are fewer. It has no interlaced work and no fret—nothing but
curves and spirals. It does not systematically break up its surfaces in
panels, but distributes its decorative effects in spaces that are
circular or oval, or bounded by intersecting curves. Its prevailing
features are not the production of intricately symmetrical and
geometrically regulated patterns, but the production of effects of
balance and beauty by the rhythmic recurrence and variation of curves
and spaces with solid forms which, though not symmetrical, are similar.
Their characteristic curves, as seen in the outlines of their figures
and the sections of their solid forms, are specially peculiar, while the
marked preference for relief in metal-work is in striking contrast to
the general prevalence of chased and engraved designs in the later
school.
It is to this characteristic treatment of the decoration of their
metal-work by this early school of Celtic art that Mr. Kemble refers in
the following remarks:—“When, as is often the case in metal, this
principle of the diverging spiral line is carried out in _repoussé_—when
you have those singularly beautiful curves, more beautiful perhaps in
the parts that are not seen than in those that meet the eye, and whose
beauty is revealed in shadow more than in form—you have a peculiar
characteristic, a form of beauty which belongs to no nation but our own,
and to no portion of our nation but the Celtic portion. It deals with
curves which are not arcs of a circle; its figures are not of the class
we usually designate by the term geometrical; and above all it calls in
the aid of enamel to perfect its work—not _cloisonné_ like the enamel of
the East; not mosaic work of tesseræ like so many so-called enamels of
the Romans, but enamel _champléve_ as Philostratus has described the
island barbarians to have invented it. The engraved spiral line, with
double winding, is found from America to the Baltic, from Greece to
Norway, but the divergent spiral _repoussé_ in metal and ornamented with
_champléve_ enamel, is found in these British Islands alone.”
* * * * *
I now proceed to notice another group of objects in metal possessing
peculiar features still more strongly marked, but exhibiting also the
distinctive characteristics of the same style of art.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.—Bronze Armlet, with enamelled ornaments (one of
a pair), found at Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Front view (5¾ inches in
diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 116.—Bronze Armlet, found at Castle Newe,
Aberdeenshire. Back view (5¾ inches in diameter).]
A pair of these objects were found imbedded in the earth over the
entrance to a curious underground structure in the garden at Castle Newe
in Aberdeenshire. The structure was a long narrow curved subterranean
gallery about 50 feet in length and 7 feet wide on the floor. What
remained of the walls was only 4½ feet high, but showed that it had been
roofed over by bringing the walls gradually towards each other as they
increased in height, till the space could be covered with flat stones of
moderate length. [Illustration: Fig. 115.—Bronze Armlet, with enamelled
ornaments (one of a pair), found at Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Front
view (5¾ inches in diameter).] This form of structure, as we shall see
in a subsequent Lecture, is typical, and extends over the Celtic area.
The pair of objects found in association with this typically Celtic
structure are of quite a remarkable character. They are massively
formed, but highly decorated objects of cast bronze. It is obvious from
their form and decoration that they are designed for an ornamental
purpose. It is impossible that they could have been worn as personal
ornaments either with comfort or convenience, but that impossibility
does not necessarily invalidate the conclusion that they were personal
ornaments, because such things have been worn in all ages, although they
have entailed discomfort and inconvenience to the wearers. The special
form of the objects and the circumstance that a pair of them were found
together are suggestive of their use as armlets. Their form, as shown in
Fig. 115, is the typically Celtic form—penannular, with rounded and
slightly-expanded ends. These terminal expansions have circular spaces
in the centre, bordered by a double raised edging, and filled with
plaques of bronze [Illustration: Fig. 116.—Bronze Armlet, found at
Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Back view (5¾ inches in diameter).]
ornamented with chequered patterns of red and yellow enamels. These
bronze plaques are fixed in their places by iron pins. The body of the
armlet (Fig. 116) is divided longitudinally into three distinct ridges
or bands with convex surfaces, separated by narrow bands of a tooled
chevrony ornament, which lie along the furrows between the ridges. At
intervals there rise from the ridges solid, flattened, and curvilinear
projections of about ¾ inch in length, placed obliquely across the
ridges, and standing in rows from side to side of the armlet. These are
connected longitudinally by less highly raised trumpet-shaped scrolls,
slightly curved, and passing obliquely across till they meet in the
centre. The median ridge stops short at the circular spaces in the
terminal expansions, while the exterior ridges on either side pass round
to form the border of the expansion on which the projecting ornaments
are continued in a less pronounced form. The general contour of the
armlets is that of an oval slightly compressed from front to back. Their
greatest diameter is 5¾ inches, their greatest depth 4½ inches, and the
weight of each is 3¾ lbs. They do not commend themselves to our notions
of elegance and comfort as articles of personal decoration, but they
possess a strong individuality of character, combined with an ingenious
and highly-effective style of decoration which is not met with on any
other class of objects in metal.[66]
-----
Footnote 66:
A denarius of the Emperor Nerva was subsequently found close by the
place where the armlets were discovered. The underground structure
appears, like many of its class, to have been associated with an
overground habitation, the site of which was marked by fire-burnt
pavement, remains of querns, beads, etc., found near the present
surface.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 117.—Enamelled Plates of each of the pair of Bronze
Armlets found at Pitkelloney, Perthshire.]
Another pair of similar armlets found within a few feet of each other,
and slightly covered with earth, on the farm of Pitkelloney, near
Muthil, in Perthshire, are now in the British Museum. They are not
exactly similar in size, though their forms are similar, and their
ornamentation almost the same. One measures 16 inches in circumference,
the other only 15 inches, but the smaller is the heavier of the two,
weighing 3 lbs. 10 oz., while the larger only weighs 3 lbs. 3 oz. The
circular spaces in the expanded ends of the armlet are filled with
enamelled plates, fastened in their places by iron pins. The enamels are
_champléve_ in flat plates of bronze, the colours red and yellow. The
patterns (Fig. 117) are not chequered like those in the Castle Newe
armlets. One presents a plain rectangular cross-like figure in yellow on
a red ground, with a circle of red in the centre. The other has a double
quatrefoil in yellow and red on a red ground, with a yellow centre.
[Illustration: Fig. 118.—Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, Banffshire.
Front view (6½ inches in diameter).]
An armlet of similar character was ploughed up in a field on the farm of
Mains of Auchenbadie, on the estate of Montblairy, in Banffshire, in
1866, and is now in the National Museum. Seen in front (as in Fig. 118)
it is penannular and oval in shape, measuring 6½ inches in its longest
diameter, and 4 inches from front to back. Its width across the middle
of the back (where it is narrowest) is 3¾ inches, and its greatest width
across the terminal expansion is 5⅜ inches. [Illustration: Fig.
119.—Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, Banffshire. Back view (6½
inches in diameter).] Its weight is 3 lbs. 9 oz. Like those already
described, it is a solid casting of bronze, having its exterior surface
(Fig. 119) divided longitudinally into three bands—convex exteriorly,
concave interiorly—the middle band stopping short at the circular
aperture in the centre of the terminal expansion, the others passing
round it and uniting at the completion of the circle. [Illustration:
Fig. 120.—Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie,
Banffshire.] A boldly chased pattern of zig-zag ornament lies in the
furrow between each contiguous pair of bands, and along the slightly
depressed furrow at the edges of the outer bands. The convexity of the
exterior surfaces of the bands is studded at equal intervals with bold
projections nearly an inch in length, placed transversely across the
ridges, and standing in rows from side to side of the armlet. From the
outer edges of each of these to the inner edge of the next a slightly
curved and highly raised projection passes obliquely across the ridge,
those on the two outer ridges running parallel to each other, and those
on the central ridge in the reverse direction. The circular spaces in
the terminal expansions (shown in Fig. 118) have lost their enamelled
plates, but the traces remain of the pins and fastenings by which they
were secured in their places. The accompanying plan in outline (Fig.
120) of the form and ornamentation of the armlet, shown as it would
appear if completely flattened out and seen from above, will render
these details more intelligible. From this it appears that the system of
arrangement of the members of the ornament is that of the escaping
double spiral, while the solid forms of the projecting masses are
bounded and outlined by curves of the same formation.
[Illustration: Fig. 121.—Bronze Armlet found at Drumside, Belhelvie,
Aberdeenshire. Front view, seen sideways (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 122.—Bronze Armlet found at Drumside, Belhelvie,
Aberdeenshire. Back view (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 123.—Plan of the Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet
found at Drumside, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire.]
An armlet of similar character, found 6 feet under the surface at
Drumside, in the parish of Belhelvie, in Aberdeenshire, is also in the
National Museum. It is considerably smaller in size (though it is here
shown in Fig. 121 to a larger scale), and measures 4½ inches in its
longest diameter, and 4½ inches in greatest width across the centre of
the circular expansion of the terminal portion. Its weight is only 28
oz. Like the others, it is a solid casting in bronze, the exterior
surface (Fig. 122) triply ridged and studded with projections of the
same flattened oval character as those previously described. The less
highly raised ridges that pass obliquely from projection to projection
are more distinctly trumpet-shaped on the circular terminal part than on
the middle portion of the armlet, and a comparison of their forms with
the ornament round the eye-holes of the swine’s head from Banffshire
(Fig. 95) will show their relationship at a glance. In its form, and the
disposition of the members of its ornamentation (as shown on the
accompanying plan in outline, Fig. 123), this armlet presents a striking
similarity to the one from Achenbadie. It wants the chased border round
the exterior edges of the outer bands, but the furrows between the
ridges of the contiguous bands are similarly ornamented in both. Like
the Castle Newe and Pitkelloney examples, this armlet is one of a pair
which were found together. It is not known what became of the other
specimen of the pair.
[Illustration:
Fig. 124.—Armlet of Brass found near Aboyne (4¼ inches in diameter).
(1) Front view, seen sideways. (2) Back view.
]
Three others were found in ploughing a piece of new land three miles
north-west of Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, and are now in the possession of
the Dowager-Marchioness of Huntly. Two of the three are similar in size
and pattern of ornament, though not identical, one being slightly
smaller than the other. One (Fig. 124) measures 4¼ inches in the longer
and 3¼ in the shorter diameter internally, 2¼ inches in width or height
in the middle of the back, and 3 inches across the middle of the rounded
extremity. Its weight is 20 ounces. The other, which is precisely
similar in the pattern of its ornamentation, measures 4 inches in the
longer and 3 inches in the shorter diameter internally, and weighs 14¼
ounces.[67] Both these examples show an excess of wear at the edge on
one side, where fully half the width of the outer band is worn away. The
third armlet (Fig. 125) is broken and slightly twisted. It is much
plainer, and wants the bold projecting parts of the ornament which are
so conspicuous on the others.
-----
Footnote 67:
These armlets were analysed by Professor Church, and the composition
of the metal determined as follows:—
Armlet No. 1. Armlet No. 2.
Copper 86·49 88·19
Tin 6·76 3·64
Zinc 1·44 9·13
Lead 4·41 —
Loss ·90 —
——— ———
100·00 100·96
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 125.—Armlet found near Aboyne. Back and side view.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 126.—Bronze Armlet in the National Museum. Back and front views
(4½ inches in diameter).
]
An armlet of the same class, preserved in the National Museum (Fig.
126), has both its ends considerably cut away, so as to widen the
opening. It measures 4½ inches in greatest diameter, and 3¼ inches in
greatest width across the circular extremity. The locality in which it
was found is unknown, although there is some probability that it may be
one of two said to have been found in the neighbourhood of Bunrannoch,
Perthshire. In the pattern and arrangement of its ornamentation it has a
strong resemblance to the one next to be described. In all the previous
cases these remarkable objects have been found unassociated with other
articles, but in the case which follows there was an association which
is suggestive of the period of the type.
In 1876, Mr. Lindsay, the tenant of the farm of Stanhope, in
Peeblesshire, in searching for a rabbit underneath a large flat stone on
the hillside, found the following articles among smaller stones
underneath the larger one:—(1) a bronze armlet of the special character
of those that have been described; (2) two flat circular buckle-like
articles of bronze; and (3) a well made saucepan of bronze with a long
side handle. The place where they were discovered is a small hollow
close to the brow of a crag some 400 feet high, and lying below the
summit of the hill, so that it cannot be seen unless by coming close to
the brow of the hill overlooking it.
[Illustration: Fig. 127.—Bronze Armlet found at Stanhope, Peeblesshire.
Front and back views (4½ inches in diameter).]
The armlet (Fig. 127), which is similar in form and ornamentation to
those which have been described, measures 4½ inches in greatest diameter
internally, and 4 inches from front to back. It is 3 inches wide across
the middle of the back where it is narrowest, and 4½ inches across the
centre of the terminal expansions. Its weight is 1 lb. 14¾ oz. The
enamels which usually filled the circular spaces in the terminal
expansions are absent, and there is no trace of the fastenings which
held them in their places. The analysis of this armlet by Dr. Stevenson
Macadam shows it to be a true bronze consisting of:—
Copper 90·69
Tin 9·29
Loss ·02
————
100·00
[Illustration: Fig. 128.—Buckle-like object of Bronze found at Stanhope,
Peeblesshire.]
The buckle-like objects (Fig. 128) are slightly oval in shape, formed of
a single casting in bronze, consisting of an oval penannular ring 2¾
inches in diameter, convex exteriorly, and slightly hollow behind. It is
decorated with two oval ornaments, with bosses at one side, and
furnished with a somewhat rectangular projection, having a loop at the
back. The ornamentation presents the same character as that of the
armlet, but is lower in relief, consisting of curved and trumpet-like
forms projecting from the surface.
The saucepan (Fig. 129) is also a single casting in bronze, thin and
beautifully finished, and tinned inside. The bowl of the pan is 6 inches
wide at the mouth, the sides slightly bulging in the middle, and
contracting to a diameter of 3¾ inches across the bottom. Its depth
inside is 3⅞ inches. The bottom of the vessel is ornamented on the
outside by four projecting concentric bands which give it strength,
while the thinning of the metal in the interspaces would serve to
transmit the heat quickly. It is furnished with a flattened side handle
5½ inches in length, having a circular expansion at the end. This
special form of saucepan of tinned bronze, with the long flat side
handle terminating in a circular ornamented and perforated expansion, is
found all over the area of the Roman Empire.[68] They seem to have
spread over the area of the Roman colonisation with other products of
Roman manufacture, and when they are found in association with objects
that are not Roman in form and style of decoration, their presence is an
indication that the period of the deposit cannot be widely distant from
the time of the Roman occupation. The conclusion drawn from the
association of this saucepan with these objects of native workmanship
decorated in this purely indigenous style of art, is plainly that this
native style of art was already in the period of its highest development
at or about the time of the Roman occupation of the southern portion of
Scotland.
-----
Footnote 68:
Another saucepan of this form found in the Loch of Dowalton, and
bearing the maker’s name stamped on the handle, is described in
connection with the relics from Crannogs in Lecture VI.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 129.—Saucepan of Bronze found with the Bronze
Armlet, etc., at Stanhope, Peeblesshire.]
All these armlets are of one special variety of form, penannular, with
expanded ends, having the exterior surface divided into three parallel
bands, the middle band stopping short at the circular opening in the
expanded extremity, and the bands on either side of it passing round the
openings to unite as one endless band.
[Illustration: Fig. 130.—Bronze Armlet, locality unknown, but probably
from Bunrannoch, Perthshire (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 131.—Bronze Armlet. Back view.]
[Illustration: Fig. 132.—Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet.]
There is another variety of form exhibited by some armlets of this
character, which constitutes a link of connection [Illustration: Fig.
130.—Bronze Armlet, locality unknown, but probably from Bunrannoch,
Perthshire (4½ inches in diameter).] between them and an equally
remarkable class of armlets characterised by the same style of art, but
exhibiting in their form a more distinctly zoomorphic feeling. Of this
intermediate variety there are two specimens known in Scotland. The
locality of the first specimen (Fig. 130) is unknown, although there is
some probability that it may be one of the two previously mentioned as
having been found at Bunrannoch, in Perthshire. It [Illustration: Fig.
131.—Bronze Armlet. Back view.] measures 4¼ inches in its greatest
internal diameter, and 3 inches in greatest width across the middle of
the circular expansion at the extremity. Its weight is 31¾ oz. The
openings in the terminal expansions are smaller than in the other
armlets, and the projecting ornaments bolder and less uniform in
character. Seen from the back (Fig. 131) it presents an appearance so
similar to the form of those previously described that it is difficult
to detect the variation. But on comparing the plans of the armlet given
in outline (Fig. 132) with those of the other armlets (Figs. 120 and
123), the [Illustration: Fig. 132.—Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze
Armlet.] difference is apparent at a glance. By throwing the furrows
obliquely, which in the other armlets are parallel to the major axis of
the form, and by cutting off the marginal ridges abruptly at the
expansions of the rounded ends, the form of this armlet is changed into
the similitude of a continuous band folded back upon itself from the two
ends in opposite directions. Although it possesses no distinctly
zoomorphic character, it thus assumes a suggestively serpentine
appearance. This special variety of form is also exhibited by an armlet
(Fig. 133), found near Seafield Tower, in the neighbourhood of Kinghorn,
in Fife, which is at present exhibited in the Museum. Its ornament (Fig.
134) is somewhat different in character, and the projections less
prominent. It measures 5¼ inches in its longest diameter internally, and
2⅞ inches across the middle of the circular expansions at each
extremity.
[Illustration: Fig. 133.—Bronze Armlet found near Seafield Tower, Fife.
Front view, seen sideways (5¼ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 134.—Bronze Armlet found near Seafield Tower, Fife.
Back view (5¼ inches in diameter).]]
[Illustration: Fig. 135.—Bronze Armlet found near Newry, County Down,
Ireland (5 inches in diameter).]
From these descriptions it appears that there are two distinct varieties
of one strongly-marked typical form of massive bronze armlet, decorated
in a style of art which is remarkable for the special Celticism of its
characteristics. It is a form which is found over a wide area in
Scotland, and has only been once found out of Scotland. The single
example which carries the area of the form beyond the bounds of this
country was found near Newry, in County Down, Ireland (Fig. 135). It is
5 inches in its greatest diameter, and 3½ inches in height, and belongs
to the transitional variety, which links this typical form with the
zoomorphic type, which I next proceed to describe.
[Illustration: Fig. 136.—Bronze Armlet found in the sands of Culbin.
Front view (3½ inches in diameter).]
Some time before 1827 a man shooting over that wide waste of sand known
as the Culbin Sands, near the mouth of the Findhorn, accidentally lost
his gun-flint. He knew, however, that in a special locality among these
sand hills there is, on the site of an ancient settlement of the hunters
of prehistoric times, a spot which is thickly strewn with fragments of
flint, which these early hunters, who also used this material, had
accumulated in the manufacture of their arrow-heads and other
implements. Accordingly, he proceeded to this ancient flint factory to
furnish himself with a new gun-flint, and when looking about for a
suitable flake for his purpose he found a large and finely-made armlet
of bronze (Fig. 136), which he carried with him and sold to a shopkeeper
in Forres for half-a-crown. It subsequently passed into the possession
of Lady Cumming of Altyre, by whom it is now exhibited in the Museum. It
was described by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, and engraved in the
_Transactions_ of the Society so long ago as 1827. At that time it stood
alone, and was regarded more as a curiosity than as a work of art. Now
it stands as the representative of a peculiar class of art-products,
which, so far as we know, are confined to Scotland alone. Its form is
that of an armlet, formed of a coiled, double-headed serpent. It
measures 3½ inches in diameter, and the same in depth externally. Its
internal diameter is 2½ inches, and its weight 2 lbs. 9½ oz. It is a
single casting in bronze, convex externally, concave internally,
throughout the length of the coils, which, though closely contiguous,
are completely separate, so that a sheet of paper can pass between them.
There are three complete coils, and the middle coil (as seen in Fig.
137) is symmetrically ornamented with lozenge-shaped spaces, bounded by
curves, and of considerable prominence. Each end terminates in a
snake-like head, the eyes of which are set with blue glass. In front of
the eyes is a round disc, sunk in the metal, which has probably been
filled with enamel. The upper part of the head and neck is ornamented
with raised trumpet-shaped scrolls, and about three inches behind the
terminal head there is a simulation of a second head, the eyes of which
are also set with blue glass. Speaking of it as a work of art, Sir Henry
Ellis unhesitatingly calls it Roman work of the very best period, while
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes that its workmanship is most beautiful.
The taste which it displays, he says, is exquisite, and the detail
executed with the greatest delicacy. And he further remarks that the
natural form of the serpent has not been servilely and awkwardly copied,
“as one might expect that a workman in an infant state of society would
have done.” But there is nothing in the character of the work, or in the
nature of the art, to suggest that the workman belonged to an infant
state of society. The technical skill displayed in modelling and casting
such a difficult piece of work is undoubtedly of a very high order, and
he would be considered a good workman to-day who could turn out an
equally well finished casting of the kind. As to the design of the
decoration there can be but one opinion. It possesses the merits of
originality of conception, boldness of treatment, purity of style, and
freedom of execution. It is decoration, also, of that complex kind which
unites the effects of colour with those of form, and deals harmoniously
with the results of such diverse processes as modelling in relief,
chasing and engraving, the setting of jewels, and the fixing of enamels.
The qualities of brain and hand that conceived and executed this piece
of metal-work are not to be estimated solely by the results they have
obtained in this single example. The man who did this was capable of
much higher work if higher work had come in his way, and this solitary
specimen of the work of an unknown artist is at least as interesting for
the potentiality which it reveals as for the actual ability which it so
clearly displays.
[Illustration: Fig. 137.—Bronze Armlet found in the sands of Culbin,
Elginshire. Back view.]
[Illustration: Fig. 138.—Bronze Armlet found at Pitalpin, near Dundee.]
In the same year in which this armlet was first exhibited to the society
(_i.e._ in 1827) another of similar character (Fig. 138) was presented
to the Museum by the Dowager-Countess of Morton. It had been found at
Pitalpin, near Dundee in 1732; but no record of the circumstances in
which it was found is now extant. It is smaller than the one previously
described, though still of greater size and weight than would now be
considered convenient for wear as an article of personal adornment. It
measures 3 inches in diameter, and about 3¼ inches in width externally,
and has an internal diameter of 2½ inches. Its weight is almost 2 lbs.
It is a single casting of bronze, consisting of three coils, of a
serpentine form, convex externally and slightly concave within. The
serpent-like body of the armlet is ornamented with transverse grooves on
either side of a double furrow, running from end to end along the centre
of the coils. The terminal portions are formed into the similitude of
heads, but there are no settings for the eyes, and the zoomorphic
character of the work is but feebly expressed. Nevertheless it is
clearly an example of the same typical form and character of art as the
Altyre specimen.
Another example, of smaller size (Fig. 139), is also in the Museum, but
unfortunately nothing is known regarding its locality and the
circumstances in which it was found. Like [Illustration: Fig.
139.—Bronze Armlet (locality unknown).] the others it is a single
casting of bronze, of three coils of a serpentine form, closely
contiguous but not joined to each other by their edges. The coils are
ribbed or banded transversely, with smoothly rounded sections on the
surface between the bands. The ends are formed into the similitude of
animals’ heads. The metal is thin and finely patinated, and the size and
weight of the armlet are not excessive. Its internal diameter is 2½
inches, its depth across the coils 2¼ inches, and its weight 9¾ oz.
[Illustration: Fig. 140.—Bronze Armlet found at Grange of Conan, near
Arbroath, Forfarshire (2¾ inches in diameter).']
A fourth of these armlets (Fig. 140), closely resembling the last in
form and character, but slightly larger in size, was found in 1874 in
the course of the excavation of an underground structure at Grange of
Conan, near Arbroath, in Forfarshire. The structure was of the same
character as that in connection with which the pair of massive bronze
armlets with enamels (Figs. 115, 116) were found at Castle Newe, in
Aberdeenshire. The special features of these structures with their
contents, and their relations, will be discussed in a subsequent
lecture, and it is only necessary in this connection to mark the
association of the two forms of armlets with the one type of structure.
The armlet itself (Fig. 140) is a single casting of bronze, consisting
of three coils, of a serpentine form, divided from each other by a
somewhat wider interspace than in any of the other instances, and
slightly more convex externally. The metal is thin, and the size and
weight of the armlet are not excessive. Its internal diameter is 2⅝
inches, and its depth across the coils 2¼ inches, its weight being about
10 oz.
In these spiral snake-like armlets, we have a class of objects
exhibiting a distinct and strongly marked typical character. They are
articles of personal adornment, possessing a very special form and style
of ornament. Both by the peculiarity of their form and the specialty of
their style of ornament they are closely allied to the class of more
massive and more peculiar articles of adornment previously described.
Like them also they are peculiarly restricted in range. The area over
which they have been found, so far as we know, is confined to the
eastern portion of Scotland, between the Moray Firth and the Firth of
Tay. No specimen is known beyond the bounds of Scotland.
* * * * *
In this connection, also, there falls to be described a class of objects
of peculiar type, presenting features of decoration which are
essentially Celtic in character. They are mostly carved in stone, but
there is one example in bronze which supplies the link between them and
the metal-work to which by their decoration they are most closely
allied.
[Illustration: Fig. 141.—Ball of cast bronze, found at Walston,
Lanarkshire (actual size).]]
This object (Fig. 141) is a ball of cast bronze, found at Walston,
Lanarkshire, long in the collection of the late Adam Sim, of Coulter,
and now in the National Museum. It is 1½ inch in diameter, divided into
hemispheres, which differ considerably in the colour of the metal. Each
hemisphere has a different variety of ornament, although the arrangement
is the same in both. The surface of the ball is divided into six discs,
three in the one hemisphere and three in the other. The discs are
separated from each other by deeply hollowed grooves, and each disc in
the upper hemisphere is ornamented by a spiral groove, terminating in a
zoomorphic ending. The lower hemisphere is similarly treated, except
that the spirals are simply geometric in their character.
[Illustration: Fig. 142.—Ornamented Slate Ball, from Elgin (actual
size).]
A ball of clay slate, 2⅞ inches diameter, from Elgin (Fig. 142), of
which there is a cast in the Museum, has its surface divided into four
projecting discs of considerable convexity, one of which is completely
covered with a double spiral pattern, from which smaller spirals escape,
but not in the regular manner so characteristic of the double spirals of
the Celtic manuscripts and monuments of the Christian time. Another disc
shows the commencement of an unfinished spiral. The two remaining discs
are plain.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.—Ornamented Stone Ball found in the Glas Hill,
Towie, Aberdeenshire (3 inches in diameter).]
At the Glas Hill, in the parish of Towie, Aberdeenshire, in 1860, a
finely ornamented ball of this description (Fig. 143) was found in
digging a drain, and is now in the National Museum. It is of clay slate,
fine-grained in texture, and dark in colour. It measures almost 3 inches
in diameter, and has its surface divided into four boldly projecting
discs with considerable convexity, three of which are elaborately carved
and the fourth plain. Its ornamentation consists of double spirals, wavy
lines arranged concentrically, interrupted concentric circles and
escaping spirals, but the lines are not continuous, and the patterns are
not worked out with the regularity and precision so conspicuous in the
style of the Christian time when the escaping double spiral formed such
a characteristic element of Celtic decoration. In the triangular space
between the three ornamented discs is a group of three dots arranged as
a triangle.[69]
-----
Footnote 69:
This arrangement of triple dots is a very characteristic feature of
the illuminated Celtic manuscripts. It appears also on the monuments
and metal work of the Christian time. This is the only instance of its
occurrence on these balls, and though it may be held to suggest a
possible connection, the suggestion is too feeble to imply distinct
relationship.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 144.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Freelands,
Glasterlaw, Forfarshire (3 inches in diameter)]
[Illustration: Fig. 145.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Fordoun,
Kincardineshire (2¾ inches in diameter).]
A ball of fine-grained clay slate (Fig. 144) found at Freelands, near
Glasterlaw, Forfarshire, has six projecting discs of slight convexity
arranged upon its surface; but the discs are small in proportion to the
size of the ball and the interspaces wide. The discs themselves are
plain, but the interspaces are partially ornamented. In the space
between three contiguous discs is a pattern composed of three triangular
figures within each other, formed by the meeting of curved or segmental
lines. In the next contiguous space is a double spiral.
A ball of fine-grained dark-coloured sandstone (Fig. 145), found at
Fordoun, in Kincardineshire, has its surface divided into seven circular
compartments, some of which are simply incised with concentric circles,
while in others there is a border of chevrony ornament enclosing the
concentric circles.
[Illustration: Fig. 146.—Ornamented Stone Ball, in the collection of Sir
J. Noel Paton (2¾ inches in diameter).]
An example in the collection of Sir J. Noel Paton (Fig. 146) presents a
different style of ornament. It is of hornblendic schist, 2¾ inches in
diameter, and has its surface divided into six projecting discs, carved
with concentric bands of slight convexity, the bands increasing in width
and prominence towards the centre of the disc. The spaces between the
discs are ornamented by irregular scoopings of the surface as if with
the point of a gouge-like tool—a variety of decoration also seen in the
gold object found on Cairnmuir (Fig. 114).
[Illustration: Fig. 147.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Ballater,
Aberdeenshire (2⅞ inches in diameter).]
On the top of Craig Beg, near Ballater, previous to 1864, three stone
cists were found containing interments which, from the presence of ashes
and bones, were assigned to the Pagan custom of cremation. Each cist was
also surrounded by a number of boulder-stones arranged in a circle of
about 15 feet in diameter. Close to one of these cists a stone ball
(Fig. 147) was found, having its surface divided into six circular discs
of slight convexity, and some of the interspaces between the discs
ornamented with small, rounded, slightly projecting knobs.
[Illustration: Fig. 148.—Ornamented Stone Ball found in the Tay near
Perth.]
A ball of fine-grained claystone, in the Perth Museum (Fig. 148), which
is said to have been dredged up from the Tay, has its surface divided
into four circular discs which scarcely project beyond the circular
outline of the ball, and impinge upon each other. In one of the discs
the ornament consists of projecting knobs, arranged in rows both ways by
the channels between them crossing each other at right angles. The knobs
rise from a square base, and are rounded at the summits. This is also
the character of the prickly ornament of the hemispheres of the terminal
bulbs of the penannular brooches of silver found at Skaill, to which the
ornament on the disc of this stone ball has a distinct resemblance. The
treatment of the segmental spaces between the discs is also seen in the
example from Freelands, Glasterlaw (Fig. 144), and the simply incised
ornament of the remaining discs occurs on two other balls (Figs. 149,
150), which have each but one of their discs ornamented.
[Illustration: Fig. 149.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Inverawe (2⅝
inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 150.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Loch Lochy (3
inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 151.—Ornamented Stone Ball found in the Isle of Skye
(2¾ inches in diameter).]
An example from the island of Skye (Fig. 151) has its surface covered
with small hemispherical protuberances. This variety is akin to another
which has the whole surface studded with projections of a pyramidal
form. Two balls of this latter variety (Figs. 152, 153) were found in
one of the chambers of a curious composite structure, or group of
structures, situated close to the shore on the south side of the Bay of
Skaill, in the mainland of Orkney.[70] One of these (Fig. 152) has the
central portion pierced with a hole. The perforation is roughly made,
and considerably wider at its external orifices than in the centre,
where it is less than half an inch in diameter.
-----
Footnote 70:
This structure, which was explored by Mr. William Watt, consisted of
several sub-rectangular chambers with rounded corners, having small
cell-like constructions opening off them. The chambers were arranged
on both sides of a long winding passage. Their door-ways had checks
for the doors, and bar-holes behind them. The largest chamber was
about 20 feet square. From 6 to 8 feet of the height of the walls
remained. They were dry-built, and converged towards the upper part as
if to form beehive roofs. Hearths of square form, surrounded by
flagstones on edge, were found in the floors. Many implements of stone
and bone were found in the chambers, and a large accumulation of bones
and horns of animals, among which those of the red-deer and the _Bos
primigenius_ were abundant. Among the stone implements were several
polished celts. The collection is preserved at Skaill House.
-----
[Illustration: Figs. 152, 153.—Stone Balls found in an ancient structure
at Skaill, Orkney (3½ inches and 3 inches in diameter).]
Another Orkney example (Fig. 154) is allied to these two by the
character of its ornamentation. One of its ends is studded with
pyramidal projections, the middle portion is ornamented by a continuous
spiral, and the other end is filled by a peculiar arrangement of
segmental curves.
[Illustration: Fig. 154.—Ornamented Stone Ball found at Hillhead, near
Kirkwall, Orkney. Obverse and Reverse (2¾ inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 155.—Stone Ball found in Dumfriesshire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 156.—Stone Ball found at Dudwick, Aberdeenshire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 157.—Stone Ball found at Mountblairy, Banffshire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 158.—Carved Stone found at Muckle Geddes, Nairn.]
Many of these balls, however, have their discs destitute of ornament.
But whether decorated or undecorated, they usually present the strongly
marked typical form, which varies from the approximately circular with
rounded discs, like the examples shown from Dumfriesshire (Fig. 155),
and Dudwick, in Aberdeenshire (Fig. 156), to those from Mountblairy, in
Banffshire (Fig. 157), and Muckle Geddes, in Nairnshire (Fig. 158),
which take the form of a cylindrical axis with flat-ended cylindrical
projections radiating round its circumference.
In all their varieties of form, these objects present certain features
which are suggestive of a possible use as weapons. Their ornate
character, their specialty of form, which renders them capable of being
swung by thongs or bound to the end of a handle, and the fact that one
example is pierced by a hole, are indications in this direction.
Although there is no conclusive evidence of the fact, it is at least
conceivable that they may have been mounted as mace-heads similar to
those metal mace-heads with pyramidal projections which are found
occasionally among the relics of the Iron Age, and continued in use in
the early Middle Ages, and similar, at least in appearance, to the
mace-heads shown (Fig. 159) in the hands of unmounted men in the Bayeux
Tapestry.[71]
[Illustration: Fig. 159.—Unmounted men armed with maces. From the Bayeux
Tapestry.]
-----
Footnote 71:
Dr. John Alexander Smith has discussed this point fully in his
exhaustive notice of these Stone Balls in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._,
pp. 56-62. Dr. John Evans remarks that “it seems probable that they
were intended for use in the chase or in war when attached to a thong
which the recesses between the projecting discs seem well adapted to
receive.” He also states that "these Scottish Stone Balls seem to
belong to a recent period, as compared with that to which many other
stone antiquities may be assigned."—_Ancient Stone Implements, etc.,
of Great Britain_, pp. 377-379.
-----
But whatever may have been their special purpose or the precise manner
of their use, it is of greater importance for the purposes of our
inquiry that we should be able to determine their typical relations and
ascertain the area to which they are confined. It is clear that they
possess a typical form which has no distinctly definable relations with
any other class of stone implements. The type is so peculiar and so
strongly marked, that if it exists anywhere out of Scotland we should
probably have known of its existence. But, with a single exception, said
to have been found in Ireland, there is no record that I can discover of
the occurrence of any specimen beyond the bounds of Scotland. Within
that area it is widely diffused. There are so many specimens in private
hands of whose localities we possess no record, that it is impossible to
ascertain with any degree of precision the relative frequency of their
occurrence in different districts of the country. But their known range
comprehends an area which is but little short of the whole area of
Scotland. They are most abundant in the north-eastern districts, but
they occur as far north as Caithness and Orkney, as far south as
Dumfries, and as far west as Argyle. Whether they belong wholly to the
Pagan time or partly to the Christian period, it is clear that the
prevailing features of their decoration, though distinctly Celtic in
character, are not those of the fully developed style of Celtic ornament
which prevailed throughout the early Christian time. Nor does it possess
the most striking characteristics of the decoration of these objects in
metal, of which so many characteristic examples have now been given. But
the zoomorphic ending of the spiral pattern on the bronze ball from
Lanarkshire, and the double and escaping spirals of the Towie, Elgin,
and Glasterlaw specimens, are sufficiently distinctive to claim for them
a place in the same system of design which produced the peculiar
patterns of the Pagan period, and developed from them the more elaborate
systems of decoration so widely applied in the early Christian art of
Scotland.
* * * * *
In the whole group of objects described in this Lecture we have a series
of examples of the art which characterised the Iron Age Paganism of
Scotland—the period that lies beyond the Christian time and reaches back
until it merges into the Bronze Age culture. The outcome of the whole
examination thus appears to be that the early Christian art of Scotland,
although it had close relations with that of Ireland, was nevertheless
based upon a pre-existing system of Pagan art peculiar to the area of
the British Isles. Although remotely connected with certain developments
of art that appear obscurely among the Iron Age relics of Central and
Southern Europe, this special system of design received its highest
development and attained its full maturity in the British Isles alone.
There it became a distinctive school of decoration, exhibiting different
aspects in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and attaining in each of
these areas a separate development marked by a distinct individuality of
character. Its manifestations in Scotland are those of a peculiar and
highly characteristic style, confining itself to curvilinear forms,
combining its simple elements in a manner that is neither rigidly
geometric nor fettered by conditions of absolute symmetry, but producing
by the variation and rhythmic recurrence of its peculiar features a
series of designs characterised by beauty of form, balance of parts, and
harmonious combination. It differs from the art of the Christian time,
inasmuch as it presents no intermixture of forms and features that are
common to Greek, Roman, or Etruscan art—no interlaced work, no meanders
or key-patterns, or fretwork, and no similitude of foliage, or
foliageous scrolls. It is zoomorphic, but its zoomorphism is chiefly
apparent in the forms of the objects, and seldom exhibited in the
designs with which they are decorated. It is more partial to the
modelling of solid forms of ornament than to the elaborate enrichment of
surface by intricate engraved work, and these solid forms of its surface
ornament rarely become zoomorphic. When engraved or chased ornamentation
is employed, it is used chiefly to produce broad effects by the contrast
between plain spaces in the design and spaces filled with punctulations
or chequers of short parallel lines. We find this peculiar style of art
employed chiefly in the decoration of metal-work in bronze and gold. The
objects so decorated are personal ornaments, arms, harness, and
horse-trappings. The technical skill displayed in the fabrication and
finish of these objects is great, and the quality of the art displayed
in their decoration is high. There is implied in their production a
special dexterity in preparing moulds and compounding alloys, in
casting, chasing, and engraving, in the polishing and setting of jewels,
in the composition and fixing of enamels. But there is further implied
an artistic spirit controlling and combining the results of these
various processes, giving elegance and beauty of a peculiar cast to the
forms of the objects, and increasing the intrinsic elegance and beauty
of the form by the harmonious blending of its special varieties of
surface decoration, in which forms that are solidly modelled are
intermingled with chased or engraved patterns and spaces filled with
colour. A style of art characterised by such originality of design and
excellence of execution must count for something in the history of a
nation’s progress, must have its place to fill in the history of art
itself, when once we have begun to realise the fact that art was not the
exclusive privilege of classic antiquity.
LECTURE IV.
(28TH OCTOBER 1881.)
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BROCHS.
In this Lecture I have to deal with the products of a school of
architecture, Celtic in its character, and absolutely peculiar to the
Scottish area.
On the small uninhabited island of Mousa, lying off the east coast of
the mainland of Shetland, there stands a solitary stone structure,
massive in size, peculiar in appearance, and still more peculiar in
character. It is a tower of circular form, wide and lofty, but
constructed of undressed stones laid upon each other without mortar or
other binding material, so that the mass of its uncemented wall coheres
simply by its own vertical pressure.
Its situation is peculiar. The island is small, not over a mile in
length, and less than half a mile in width, bare, flat, and rocky. The
tower is placed on a small promontory on the west side of the island at
the point nearest to the mainland. It stands about 20 feet back from the
edge of the rocks, which slope irregularly to the tide-mark about 20
feet below. There are slight remains of an intrenchment on the sides
which look landward, those facing the rocks and the sea are protected by
the natural features of the ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 160.—Exterior View of the Broch of Mousa, Shetland.]
The material of which the tower is built is the fissile flag of the
island. The stones are flat, sometimes as much as 2 feet in thickness,
but mostly much less, and they rather diminish in size towards the top
of the tower. The stones bear no mark of a tool, and the masonry is not
coursed, but compactly fitted together. The wall goes up with a curve
like that of a lighthouse, and its external appearance (Fig. 160) is
suggestive of great solidity and strength. This suggestion of solidity,
which is due to the bulk of the building rather than to the character of
its masonry, is further intensified by the absence of external openings,
the whole exterior surface being unbroken by a single aperture except
the doorway. It is on the level of the ground on the S.W. side, and is
about 5 feet 3 inches high by 2 feet 11 inches wide, passing straight
through the thickness of the wall, but widening considerably at a
distance of about 7 feet from the outside and rising in the roof.
Entering by this tunnel-like passage through a wall 15 feet 6 inches
thick, the visitor finds himself in the interior of a circular well-like
court, open to the sky above, but completely surrounded by a wall of
that thickness and 45 feet in height. From the inner circumference of
this court (as seen in the ground plan, Fig. 161) there open at various
places other doorways leading into oval chambers constructed in the
thickness of the wall nearly on the ground level. These chambers are
three in number. One placed to right of the entrance is 16 feet in
length, 5 feet 9 inches wide, and 9 feet 9 inches high. Its doorway is
small, 3 feet high and 2 feet wide, passing through 4 feet of the
thickness of the wall. A second chamber opposite the main entrance is 14
feet long, 6 feet 10 inches wide, and 10 feet 6 inches high. Its doorway
is also small, 3 feet 4 inches high and 2 feet 9 inches wide, passing
through a thickness of 4½ feet of walling. The third chamber, situated
to the left of the main entrance, is 14 feet long, 5 feet 6 inches wide,
and 9 feet 6 inches high. Its doorway is 3 feet 2 inches high and 2 feet
3 inches wide, passing through 4 feet of walling. All these chambers are
irregularly oval in form on the ground plan. They are roofed in a
peculiar manner. At variable distances from the floor the walls begin to
be brought inwards by projecting each stone slightly beyond the face of
the stone below it. In this way the distance between the opposite walls
is gradually lessened as they rise in height until they come near enough
to admit of single stones being laid across the space between wall and
wall. This style of converging the walls inwards to obtain support for a
roof of single stones is not new to us. We have met with it in the
beehive houses of the early Christian monasteries and in the inverted
boat-shaped roofs of their churches, built of uncemented stones on a
rectangular ground-plan. It is the style of roof which is common to all
dry-built structures that are roofed, whether they be of Pagan or of
Christian time, because it is the style that is best suited to the
material and the manner of construction. The builders of this edifice
had no stones long enough to span chambers of six feet wide, and if they
had had them long enough they would have been too weak to bear the
superincumbent weight of a wall forty feet in height. Therefore they
made their chamber-roofs semi-vaulted, while the doors and passages,
which were narrow, were simply spanned with strong flat lintels. These
chambers on the ground floor are lighted by window-like openings above
the doorways, which rise one over the other, and serve not only to admit
light and air, but to distribute the weight to be borne by the lintels.
In each of the chambers there are small ambry-like recesses in the
walls, but no fireplace or chimney. They are small, dimly-lighted,
dungeon-like rooms, but neither smaller, worse-lighted, or more
dungeon-like than many rooms in the lime-built castles of the nobles of
the Feudal ages.
[Illustration: Fig. 161.—Ground Plan of the Broch of Mousa, Shetland.
(From Plan by Sir Henry Dryden.)]
Half-way between the chamber facing the main entrance and the one to the
left of it there is a doorway placed at a height of four feet above the
ground level. This doorway, which is higher and wider than those which
lead into the chambers, is slightly larger than the main entrance
itself, being 5 feet 4 inches high and 3 feet wide. It leads to a stair
constructed like the chambers within the thickness of the wall. At the
foot of the stair there is an oval chamber, from one end of which the
stair rises in a steep slope, but following the curve of the wall to the
top. The steps are single flat stones, varying in width from ten inches
to two feet, undressed, and laid above each other so that they give a
tread of about five inches and nearly the same of a rise. The upper part
of the tower which is traversed by the stair is differently constructed
from the lower part. To the height of about eleven feet above the ground
level the wall of the tower is carried up solid except for the vacancy
occasioned at intervals in its thickness by the chambers and their
accesses. But above this height the wall is carried up with a vacancy in
its centre (as seen in the section Fig. 162) so as to form a series of
circular galleries placed one immediately over another, and crossed
successively from the lowest to the highest by the rise of the stair
which gives access to them.
[Illustration: Fig. 162.—Section of the elevation of the Broch of Mousa.
(From Plan by Sir H. Dryden.)]
These galleries, situated in the heart of the wall, are six in number.
Each begins about 3 feet 9 inches in front of the stair, and goes round
the whole tower on the level till it comes against the back of the
stair, which closes it at that end, so that entrance to the gallery or
exit from it can only be obtained by stepping across the space
intervening between the end of the gallery floor and the steps of the
stair. The floors of the galleries are formed of flat undressed slabs,
the end of which reach into the walls on both sides. These slabs are
about 6 inches thick, and those whose under surfaces form the roof of
the first gallery present their upper surfaces as the floor of the
second, and so throughout. None of the galleries exceed 5 feet 6 inches
in height or 3 feet 2 inches in width, and some of the upper spaces are
now much narrower; but as the position of the upper walls has evidently
shifted, the original dimensions of the upper galleries cannot be
ascertained. Four of the galleries that now remain (for the tower is
incomplete at top) are lighted by four vertical ranges of windows all
looking into the interior court. One range of fourteen openings is over
the main entrance. Another of eighteen openings is over the entrance to
the stairs. The third set has seventeen openings, and the fourth is
imperfect, many of the lintels having been broken out. The peculiarities
of these windows are—(1) that they are placed close to each other,
vertically, with merely the thickness of a lintel between each opening;
(2) they are wider than they are high, the greatest width being 2 feet 9
inches, and the greatest height not exceeding a foot; (3) they diminish
in size gradually from the lowest to the highest; and (4) they do not
range so far upwards as to include the two upper galleries, which are
windowless.
Let us now group the main features of this singular building. It is a
circular tower, composed of a dry-built wall 15 feet thick, enclosing a
court 20 feet in diameter. The wall rises to a height of 45 feet, and
has no opening to the outside except the doorway which gives access to
the court. Opening from the court are a series of chambers on the ground
floor constructed in the thickness of the wall and rudely vaulted with
overlapping masonry. Above these are successive ranges of level
galleries, also in the thickness of the wall, each going round the
tower, and placed so that the roof of the one below always forms the
floor of the next above. These galleries are crossed successively by a
stair from which access to them is obtained by facing round in the
ascent and stepping across the vacant space forming the well of the
stair. The three lower galleries only are lighted, and the windows are
placed in vertical ranges so close to each other as to be separated only
by their upper and lower lintels.
Each of these features, taken by itself, is specially remarkable, and
the presence in the one building of such a group of features that are
wholly unfamiliar to us invests it with a character that is distinctly
peculiar. From this examination of its character, it becomes obvious
that although the construction and arrangements of the building are
clearly those of a place of strength, it is incapable of association by
way of relationship with any variety of castle known in historic times.
But a wider survey of the remains of the ancient strongholds of the
people who have occupied the land in times of which we have no distinct
or detailed historic record will show that it has relationships so close
as to amount to an almost actual identity with many similar structures
in different parts of Scotland.
[Illustration: Fig. 163.—View of external aperture of doorway of Broch
in Glenbeg. (From a Drawing by J. Romilly Allen.)]
[Illustration: Figs. 164, 165.—Ground plan and section of elevation of
doorway and passages through the wall of Broch in Glenbeg. (Drawn by J.
Romilly Allen.)]
For instance, in the small valley of Glenbeg, which runs nearly parallel
with Glenelg, in the west of Inverness-shire, there are two such
structures. One is situated on the edge of the meadow which lies in the
bottom of the valley. It is greatly destroyed; more than half the circle
of the wall is gone, and part of the height of the portion that remains
is wanting. The internal diameter of the tower, at the level of the
rubbish which encumbers the floor, is 33½ feet, and the thickness of the
wall 11 feet. The doorway (Fig. 163), which is the only opening to the
outside, is 3 feet 5 inches wide at the head, the lower part concealed
with rubbish. About 4 feet inside the outer plane of the wall there is a
rebate for a door (Fig. 164), with checks in the shape of large slabs
set edgewise in the wall. Within these checks the passage widens to 5
feet, and the roof rises as shown in the section, Fig. 165. On the south
side of the passage there is a guard-chamber opening from it, and
constructed in the thickness of the wall. Three galleries and part of a
fourth remain, but the stair is gone. The galleries are lighted by
vertical ranges of windows looking to the interior. The greatest height
of wall remaining is not over 30 feet, but 7 feet of its height were
taken by the contractor for the Bernera Barracks in 1722. It must
therefore, before that time, have been nearly as high as Mousa now is.
[Illustration: Fig. 166.—Section of the elevation of Broch in Glenbeg,
near Glenelg. (From Plan by Sir H. Dryden.)]
At the distance of less than a mile up the valley on the same side, and
placed on a considerable eminence, is another ruined structure of the
same kind (Fig. 166), but more dilapidated. No part of the height now
exceeds 25 feet. The diameter of the tower internally has been about 30
feet, and the wall is 12 feet thick. Traces of chambers on the ground
floor are visible, but choked with rubbish. The door and stairs are
gone. Three galleries remain in part. The first is 6 feet high and 4
feet wide, the second 6 feet high and 3½ feet wide, the third
inaccessible and somewhat smaller.
These structures, so far as their distinctive features remain
unobliterated, present a striking similarity alike in the manner of
their construction and the nature of their arrangements to those of
Mousa. They vary in certain details, as in size, in thickness of wall,
in the presence of a guard-chamber in connection with the passage, but
in all the essential features of plan, construction, and arrangements
they are substantially the same.
[Illustration: Fig. 167.—Ground plan of doorway of Broch at Loch Duich,
with its guard-chamber. (Wall 12 feet thick.)]
Near the head of Loch Duich, a few miles from Glenelg, is another ruined
tower. It stands on the slope of an eminence close under a high crag.
The lower part of the structure is entire, but little remains of its
height. Its internal diameter is 31 feet, its thickness of wall 12 feet.
The doorway is in the lower side of the building facing the N.E. It is 3
feet wide at the outside, and at 4 feet 3 inches within the outer plane
of the wall (Fig. 167) there is a rebate for a door with checks formed
of long slabs 9 inches thick, set edgewise in the wall. Behind these is
a bar-hole on either side for a long stout bar. The hole, on one side,
is long enough for the bar to lie in it permanently, and on the other
only long enough to receive its end when pulled across behind a door
either constructed of wood or formed of a slab of stone set up against
the checks. On the S.E. side of the entrance passage (Fig. 168) is a
doorway 18 inches wide and 3 feet high, giving [Illustration: Fig.
168.—Sectional elevation of S.E. side of entrance passage of the Broch
at Loch Duich, showing doorway of guard-chamber, and bar-hole (wall 12
feet thick).] access to an oval guard-chamber constructed in the
thickness of the wall, 12 feet long, 6 feet wide, and about 7 feet high,
roofed in the usual manner by overlapping masonry and flat stones laid
across. There are traces of other chambers on the ground floor, and part
of a gallery remains over the entrance, but all above is gone. The
masonry of this tower is more massive than that of those in Glenbeg, but
the general plan and manner of construction are precisely similar in
character. In point of fact there is so little deviation from the
typical plan of construction among all the examples that are known, that
the detailed descriptions of them are for the most part repetitions of
features that are closely similar. But as we are dealing with buildings
that are in ruins, and, as it appears, with a class of buildings of
which no complete example is now known to exist, it is important to
determine if possible whether there may be sufficient ground for
assigning to the class the general feature of height, of which, in the
majority of cases, no direct evidence now remains.
[Illustration: Fig. 169.—Broch known as Cole’s Castle, Sutherlandshire.
(From a Sketch by Dr. Arthur Mitchell.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 170.—Dun Dornadilla, in Strathmore, Sutherlandshire.
(From a Sketch by Dr. Arthur Mitchell.)]
There is distinct evidence on record that a number of these massively
built towers were of considerable height. George Low, in 1774, says of
the ruined tower or Broch of Burraness, in the island of Yell, in
Shetland, that it had an inside diameter of 31 feet, a thickness of wall
of 10 feet, and a total height of 20 feet. Of the Cullswick Broch he
says that its internal diameter was 26 feet 6 inches, its thickness of
wall 18 feet, and the total height remaining 23 feet. Castle Cole (Fig.
169), at the junction of the Blackwater and the Brora, was then 15 feet
in height, and part of it still remains of about that height. Dun
Dornadilla, in Sutherlandshire (Fig. 170), as described by Mr. Cordiner
in 1776, and Mr. Pope of Reay, in 1777, had an internal diameter of 27
feet, and the total height then remaining was estimated at 25 to 30
feet, with three galleries and part of the stair. Maitland, in 1757,
describes Dun Alisaig, in Ross, as being 30 feet internal diameter, with
12 feet thickness of wall, and three of the galleries remaining, which
implies a height of 25 to 30 feet. Dun Carloway, in Lewis, was 40 feet
high in the end of last century, and showed the plan of its galleries
with their vertical ranges of windows almost as completely as Mousa.
Judging from these examples, which still have, or which in recent times
have had a considerable portion of their height remaining, and taking
into account the quantity of material which envelops the bases of most
of those that have been reduced to the condition of mere mounds of ruin,
it seems established by evidence that there were many cases in which the
total original height could scarcely have been less than that of Mousa,
and that height, as well as bulk, was one of the main features of the
typical structure.
These examples will suffice to convey a clear idea of the distinctive
features of the type of structure with which we are dealing. Its main
features of distinction, by which it separates itself from all known
types, are (1) that it is a circular tower of dry-built masonry, wide
and lofty, and enclosing within it a central area open to the sky; (2)
that all its apertures, except the external opening of the entrance to
the central area, look into this enclosed interior court; and (3) that
its chambers, stair, and galleries are contained within the thickness of
this enclosing wall.
Having thus obtained a distinct conception of the type, we now proceed
to determine its range or area. For this purpose it is necessary to
ascertain what structures exist in Scotland, or out of it, possessing
these typical features.
[Illustration: Fig. 171.—General plan of Broch and its fortifications on
Cockburn Law, Berwickshire.]
On the northern declivity of Cockburn Law, in Berwickshire, there is a
natural platform projecting from the shoulder of the hill over the
valley of the Whitadder water, about 250 feet above the bed of the
stream. On this platform there is an irregularly oval enclosure (Fig.
171), the outlines of which are formed by the remains of two parallel
earthworks and an outside ditch. The space thus enclosed is occupied by
the remains of various smaller enclosures, some circular and others
irregular in form. They are nearly all so ruined that nothing can be
made of their details. But the principal structure within the enclosure
is still capable of such examination as will suffice to determine its
typical relationship with the Brochs of the extreme north. It is
circular, consisting of a wall 17 feet thick, enclosing an area of 56
feet in diameter. In the thickness of this wall are two elongated
oval-shaped chambers, one of which is 33 feet long and 7 feet wide, the
other 23 feet long and 7 feet wide. In 1793 the roofs were still on
them, and it was then seen that they were covered with a rude vaulting
of overlapping masonry. Both these chambers open to the inner area. The
only access to this area from the outside is the main doorway, which
passes straight through the wall, and is flanked by a guard-chamber
constructed in the thickness of the wall on either side. To the left of
the doorway are the remains of the staircase, with an elongated chamber
opposite the foot of the stair. No remains of galleries exist owing to
the absence of the whole upper part of the structure, but the presence
of the stair implies that they once existed. The masonry is massive in
character (Fig. 172), and the structure is also remarkable for its great
size, being three times the width of Mousa and twice that of the Glenelg
Brochs. But its features of form and character, and all the arrangements
of its details, so far as they now exist, are those of the typical Broch
structure; and, taken together, they form a group of features and
arrangements which do not exist in any other type of structure.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.—Masonry of Broch on Cockburn Law.]
On the highest elevation of the Torwood, in the parish of Dunipace in
Stirlingshire, are the remains of a circular structure, excavated in
1864 by Colonel Joseph Dundas. Its appearance previous to its excavation
was that of a conical hillock situated nearly on the verge of a
precipitous crag, and enclosed on the accessible side by the remains of
a double wall of fortification. After excavation it was found to be the
ruin of a circular tower of uncemented masonry which, by the gradual
dilapidation of its walls, had become a conical hillock of stones
covered with grass and heather, and overgrown by a clump of large
fir-trees. The structure, now cleared from the superincumbent mass of
ruin, is a circular wall 15 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 35
feet in diameter. The entrance doorway has some of the massive lintels
still upon it. It is about 7 feet high and 3 feet wide at the
door-checks, behind which are the usual bar-holes (shown at A A in the
ground plan and section, Figs. 173, 174). To the left of the doorway is
the staircase, as usual in the thickness of the wall. The height of wall
remaining is not sufficient to show any traces of the galleries, but the
presence of the stair implies their former existence. There are no
chambers in the thickness of the wall on the ground floor, but all the
other features of the building are those of the typical Broch structure.
[Illustration: Figs. 173, 174.—Ground plan and section of elevation of
doorway in Broch at Torwood, Stirlingshire. (Drawn by J. Romilly
Allen.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.—Ground plan of the Broch of Coldoch,
Perthshire. (From a Plan by Mr. Ballingall.)]
On the other side of the valley of the Forth, and farther west, at
Coldoch, in Perthshire, a similar mound, covering the ruins of a
circular tower of uncemented masonry, was excavated in 1870. The
structure consists of a circular wall (as shown on the ground plan, Fig.
175) 17 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 30 feet in diameter. The
doorway on the east side passes straight through the wall, and is three
feet wide, with checks for the door about half-way through the thickness
of the wall, and immediately behind them the usual bar-holes. To the
left of the doorway is the staircase. No remains of the upper galleries
exist, but the presence of the stair implies that they did exist.
Opening from the central area are the entrances to three chambers in the
thickness of the wall. They are nearly of a size, 8 feet long, 4 feet
wide, and a little over 6 feet high. One still retains its roof, rudely
vaulted with overlapping masonry. In this case also the group of
features characteristic of the structure and its arrangements is such as
can be found only in the typical structure of the Broch.
These three examples are all that are known on the mainland of Scotland
south of the Caledonian valley. A few years ago they were mere
grass-covered hillocks, indistinguishable from many others that are yet
to be seen in various quarters of the same wide district of country. It
is impossible to say how many of these unexamined mounds, which exist
abundantly in the valleys of the Forth and Teith for instance, may be of
similar character. But it is possible to say that where three have been
found without being specially looked for, the probability is that more
will be found when they are looked for. The present position of our
knowledge is that there are three examples south of the Caledonian
valley, but if I were to conclude that these three are all that exist in
that wide region I should be drawing from my ignorance of the actual
facts a conclusion which could only be drawn from complete knowledge
obtained by exhaustive investigation.
The case is far otherwise with reference to the district of country that
lies to the north of the Caledonian valley and the isles around the
northern and western coasts. In such remote and frequently rugged and
barren localities the remorseless activity of the agricultural improver
has made but little progress in the removal of the ancient landmarks,
and Brochs, and sepulchral cairns, stone circles and standing monoliths
are still comparatively abundant, though every season diminishes their
number. Some years ago I attempted an enumeration of the remains in the
northern counties of Scotland that were either certainly known to be
Brochs or were inferred to possess that character, judging from external
appearances. The list has been published[72] for seven years, and the
corrections made upon it during that time have not appreciably affected
its total results. These are roughly stated as follows:—in Shetland,
there are 75 Brochs; in Orkney, 70; in Caithness, 79; in Sutherland, 60;
in Ross-shire, 38; and in Inverness-shire, 47; giving a gross total for
the five northern counties of Scotland of 370. Admitting that there must
be some instances included in the enumeration which subsequent
examination may prove to be remains of a different character, it is
equally probable that others will be found which have not been included
in the list, and the errors in these opposite directions may be expected
nearly to balance each other. But if we suppose that it will be
necessary to deduct so large a proportion as 20 per cent, we should
still have a gross total of 300 Brochs in the five northern counties.
The full significance of such a result is scarcely realised at once. It
means that we have here the remains of a period of architectural
activity which has no parallel in the early history of our country.
-----
Footnote 72:
_Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v. pp. 178-197.
-----
Whatever may be the effect of future discoveries in increasing the
number of examples in the district south of the Caledonian valley, it is
clear that the principal area of the type lies within the region to the
north of that valley, comprehending the five northern counties of
Scotland, and including the northern and western Isles. Within that area
they are known to exist abundantly, beyond it sparsely. Out of Scotland
the type is totally unknown. It is a type possessing features so
distinct and peculiar, so numerous and well marked, so pronounced in
their absolute individuality, that if it exists anywhere it is capable
of being instantly recognised. But no single instance occurs in Ireland,
or Wales, or Cornwall. No trace of it is found in England, France, or
Scandinavia. It is absolutely confined to Scotland alone.[73] Having
thus established the essential features of the typical form of the Broch
structure and determined the area to which it is exclusively confined, I
now proceed to notice a few other examples possessing features which may
not have been present or prominent in those previously described.
-----
Footnote 73:
The Nuraghi of Sardinia are round towers built of uncemented stones.
They are exceedingly numerous in the island, and it has been
occasionally asserted that they bear a remarkable resemblance to the
Scottish Brochs. It is true that they are like the Brochs externally,
because they are round towers, (see Fig. 176), but they possess none
of the characteristic features of the typical Broch structure. They
contain vaulted and windowless chambers placed vertically above each
other in the centre of the tower. The access to these chambers is by a
winding stair, which traverses the thickness of the wall completely
round the central chambers. Sometimes they have a more complex
structure, consisting of a central tower rising from a square
basement, with chambers also in the basement, as shown in the
accompanying section (Fig. 179). It is thus apparent that the typical
Nuraghe differs completely in idea from the typical Broch. Although
the external form may be in some cases similar, the essential features
of the Broch are not found in any one instance in the Sardinian
Nuraghi. No Broch has vaulted chambers disposed vertically over each
other in the centre of the tower, and no Nuraghe has its centre open,
and its chambers, stairs, and galleries arranged in the ring of
walling surrounding the central court and windows looking into it as
the Brochs have.
[Illustration: Fig. 176.—Nuraghe of Goni, in Sardinia.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 177.—Section of Nuraghe, showing form of chambers and spiral
stair.
(From Tyndale’s _Sardinia_.)
]
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 178.—Broch known as Cole’s Castle, in Sutherlandshire.
(From a sketch by Dr. Arthur Mitchell.)
]
We have already seen that many of these towers were built in positions
that were naturally strong. One of the most remarkable of these is the
Broch of Cole’s Castle in Strathbrora, Sutherlandshire (Fig. 178), which
has been already referred to. It is situated on the top of an isolated
eminence, precipitous on one side, and defended on the side which is
less precipitous by a double fortification of dry-stone walling. Others
whose situations made them capable of being so defended were protected
by ditches and embankments. The Broch of Snaburgh, in the island of
Unst, in Shetland, which stands on a promontory projecting into the
loch, is protected on the land side by a wet ditch and a rampart of
large stones. The Broch of Burraness, in the same island, is
strengthened on the land side by two deep ditches and high embankments.
The Broch of Cullswick was protected by a ditch 13 feet wide, and a
rampart of earth and stones completely encircling the base of the tower.
The Broch of Burraland, which stood on a promontory in the loch, had a
double rampart and a double wet ditch on the land side, both well
defined. The Broch of Yarhouse, in Caithness, stood on a low flat
promontory projecting into the loch, and was cut off from the land by a
deep ditch from 25 to 30 feet wide, and had its doorway further
protected by a long covered way. The Broch of Clickamin, at Lerwick
(Fig. 179), although situated on an island in the loch, was fortified by
a wall completely surrounding the island. Within this outer wall of
defence there is an outwork or guard-house, in form a segment of a
circle, 43 feet on its convex face, connected with the outer wall by a
passage. The outwork is 19 feet wide at the passage through it, slightly
narrower at the ends. The passage is 8 feet high, and about 5 feet in
from the outer face of the work it narrows to 2 feet 11 inches, with
checks for a door. Behind these are holes in the opposite walls for a
bar and a slit in the roof of the passage. Besides these two exterior
defences the doorway of the tower itself had checks and a sill for a
door about 10 feet within the outer opening of the entrance passage
through the wall of the Broch. This passage is 4 feet 10 inches high,
and the opening between the door-checks is 2 feet 11 inches wide at the
bottom and 2 feet 6 inches at the top, with bar-holes on either side.
[Illustration: Fig. 179.—General plan of Broch of Clickamin, near
Lerwick, Shetland, showing the walled island and causeway leading to it.
(From a plan by Sir H. Dryden.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 180.—Diagrammatic Section of East Broch of Burray.
(From _Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v.)]
The East Broch of Burray, in Orkney, explored by Mr. Farrer, presented
the appearance of a green mound 20 feet high, surrounded by an
embankment. The mound when excavated was found to cover the lower
portion of a circular tower of uncemented masonry (Fig. 180). The wall
of the tower was 15 feet thick, enclosing a central area 36 feet in
diameter. The entrance passage as usual went straight through the wall,
and had a guard-chamber opening from it on either side. The entrance to
one of these is shown in the section and the bar-hole behind it. There
were two other chambers constructed in the thickness of the wall opening
from the central area, and the entrance to the stair was placed as usual
to the left of the doorway, but on a higher level. In all its features
it closely resembles all that have been described, but in one feature it
differs from them. Close to the doorway, but outside the wall, there is
a well with a passage and steps leading down into it. There are other
examples which exhibit the same feature.
[Illustration: Fig. 181.—Diagrammatic Section of the Broch of
Borrowston, showing the well in the area. (From _Archæologia Scotica_,
vol. v.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 182.—Broch at Manse of Harray. (From a Plan by Mr.
George Petrie, 11⁄16 inch to 1 foot.)]
The Broch of Borrowston, in Shapinsay (Fig. 181), also in Orkney,
consisted of a wall 13 feet thick, enclosing a central area 33 feet in
diameter. Within the central area of the Broch there was a well 10 feet
deep, the lower part dug out of the solid rock, and the upper part faced
with dry-built masonry. The Broch of Okstrow, at Birsay in Orkney, which
consisted of a wall 12 feet thick, enclosing an area 45 feet in
diameter, had a well within the area and a drain from it leading out to
the outside of the structure. The Broch near the Manse at Harray (Fig.
182), excavated by Rev. Dr Traill, consisted of a wall 12 feet thick,
enclosing an area about 33 feet in diameter. It was surrounded by
outbuildings, which were not properly explored. There were no
guard-chambers on either side of the passage (B), which shows the checks
for the door, at 6 feet within the outer face of the wall. To the left
of the main entrance is the usual chamber (H) at the foot of the stair
(G), of which 19 steps remain; and two other oval chambers (E and F),
placed at nearly equal distances in the circumference of the wall,
complete the resemblance to the general type. Near the middle of the
area a subterranean passage terminating in five steps led to a well (D)
9 feet deep excavated in the rock. The subjoined sectional diagram (Fig.
183) shows the construction of the well, which still retained water when
the excavation of the Broch was made. The Brochs of Skinnet, Harpsdale,
and Kettleburn in Caithness, had each a well within the central area.
The well of the last-mentioned Broch is still utilised as the existing
water supply for the cottars, who live in houses close by constructed of
the stones removed from the site of the ancient structure.
[Illustration:
Fig. 183.—Section of the Well in the Broch at Manse of Harray.
(From a plan by Mr. George Petrie.)
]
The central areas of several Brochs have been provided with drains to
convey the surface water outside the building. This same Broch of
Kettleburn had a drain which passed out under the foundation of the wall
of the tower. It was what is now called a self-cleansing drain, the flat
stones forming the water channel being set together in the form of the
letter V. Sir Henry Dryden remarks the presence of drains in the Broch
of Clickamin. I found a square drain leading from the court of a Broch
which I excavated at Brounaben, in the parish of Wick.
The facts that many of these structures were thus provided with
drainage, and that they had also secured a water-supply within the
enclosed area of the building, are not only significant indications of
intelligence and forethought applied to the arrangement of
constructional details, but when taken in connection with all the other
arrangements of the structure external and internal, they complete a
series of characteristics which point definitely to one object as the
chief intention of the Broch-structure, viz. security obtained by the
simplest of all means—a construction of uncemented stones which could
neither be easily forced nor readily reduced.[74]
-----
Footnote 74:
That this object was practically attained by these simple means we
have evidence in one case from the direct testimony of record. It is
related in the _Orkneyinga Saga_, that Erlend, who (about A.D. 1155)
carried off the widow of Maddad, Earl of Athol, took her north to
Shetland, and took up his residence in Moseyarborg—the Broch of Mousa,
described at the commencement of this Lecture. It is said that her son
Harald, Earl of Orkney, pursued Erlend, and besieged him in the Borg,
“but it was difficult to take it by assault,” and the siege failed
because “Erlend had made great preparations.” This is the only record
of the actual use of a Broch as a place of defence, and it bears out
the inference drawn from an examination of the nature and arrangements
of the structure, that it was difficult to take by assault, and
equally difficult to reduce by siege, if the defenders were provided
with supplies. It is also stated in the Saga of Egil Skalagrimson,
that about two centuries and a half before this time (or somewhere
about A.D. 900), Bjorn Brynjulfson, fleeing from Norway with Thora,
Roald’s daughter, because her father would not consent to their
marriage, was shipwrecked on the island of Mousa, landed his cargo and
lived in the Borg during the winter, celebrating his marriage in it,
and afterwards sailed for Iceland.—_The Orkneyinga Saga_ (Edinburgh,
1873), p. cxi. and chap. 92.
-----
Reviewing the typical characteristics of the special form of structure
which has come to be known in recent years by the local northern name
Broch, we see that it is a hollow circular tower of dry-built masonry,
rarely more than 70 or less than 40 feet in its total diameter, and
occasionally at least 50 feet high. Its circular wall, which may be from
9 to 20 feet thick, is carried up solid for about 10 feet, except where
it is pierced by the entrance, or partially hollowed by the construction
within its thickness of oblong chambers with rudely-vaulted roofs. Above
this height the wall is carried up with a vacancy of about 3 feet wide
between its exterior and interior portions. At every 5 or 6 feet of its
height this vacancy is crossed by horizontal ranges of slabs inserted as
ties between the outer and inner shells of the wall, so that their upper
surfaces form a floor to the space above and their under surfaces become
a roof to the space below. These spaces thus form horizontal galleries
about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide, separated from each other vertically
by the slabs of their floors and roofs. They run completely round the
tower except that they are crossed successively by the stair which gives
access to them. They are lighted by ranges of peculiarly-constructed
windows placed vertically over each other, and all looking into the
central area enclosed by the wall of the tower. This area or court
varies from 20 to 45 feet in diameter. At various points of its interior
circumference are placed the openings which give access to the chambers
on the ground floor within the wall, and to the stair which ascends to
the galleries. The only aperture on the outside of the tower is the
doorway formed by the external opening of the tunnel-like passage
through the wall which gives access to the central court. It is always
on the ground level, square-headed, usually with slightly inclined
sides,[75] 5 to 6 feet high, and rarely more than 3 feet wide, passing
straight through the thickness of the wall, and thus varying from 9 to
18 feet in length. Some 4 feet or thereby within the outer end of the
passage there is a rebate of the masonry faced with strong slabs
inserted edgewise in the wall, and forming checks for a door, behind
which are the bar-holes, and behind them the opening of a guard-chamber
built in the thickness of the wall.
-----
Footnote 75:
Having mislaid my measurements of the doorways of Caithness Brochs, I
am unable to give examples from that county. But I am favoured, by the
Rev. Dr. J. M. Joass of Golspie, with the following measurements of
the doorways of Sutherlandshire Brochs:—
Height of Breadth of
Doorway. Doorway.
Above. Below.
Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft. In.
Broch of Carnliath—
Door in Outworks 5 9 2 10 3 9
Door in Broch Wall—
Outer Opening 6 6 2 5 2 9
In middle of 6 0 2 7 3 0
Passage
Inner Opening 6 6 3 0 3 5
Broch of Kintrolla—
Door in Broch Wall—
Outer Opening 7 0 3 0 3 6
In middle of 5 5 2 3 2 8
Passage
Inner Opening 4 11 1 9 2 9
Broch of Backies—
Door in Broch Wall—
(2 feet of rubbish in passage,
height above that 4 feet.)
Outer Opening 2 11 3 3
In middle of 2 1 2 6
Passage
Inner Opening 2 9 3 8
I learn from Mr. W. G. T. Watt that the doorway of the Broch of
Burwick, near Stromness, in Orkney, which is 5 feet 2 inches in
height, measures 3 feet 1 inch in width at the top, and 3 feet 5
inches at the bottom. From these examples and the measurements of the
doorways of Shetland brochs by Sir Henry Dryden, it may be held as
demonstrated that the characteristic feature of inclined instead of
perpendicular door-jambs, which was constant in the constructions of
the early Christian time, was also characteristic of the Brochs.
-----
On further consideration of this remarkable group of excessively
peculiar features, it becomes evident that they all point more or less
obviously to the presence of a double intention in the minds of the
constructors of the Brochs. The design of the whole structure and the
arrangements of all its separate parts exhibit a careful and laborious
adaptation of means and material to the two main objects of shelter and
defence. The clever constructive idea of turning the house outside in as
it were, placing its rooms within its walls, and turning all their
windows towards the interior of the edifice, implies boldness of
conception and fertility of resource. The height of the wall, which
effectually secured the inmates against projectiles, also removed its
essentially weak upper part beyond reach of assault, while the pressure
of its mass knit the masonry of the lower part firmly together, and its
thickness made it difficult to force an entrance by digging through
it—if such a wall could be approached for this purpose when the whole of
its upper materials were deadly missiles ready to the hands of the
defenders. The door, securely fastened by its great bar, is too strong
to be carried by a rush. Placed four feet or more within the passage, it
can only be reached by one man at a time, and the narrowness of the
passage prevents the use of long levers. In all probability the door
itself is a slab of stone, and impervious to fire. But even if it is
forced, and entrance gained to the interior court, the enemy finds
himself as it were in the bottom of a well 30 to 40 feet in diameter
with walls 50 feet high, pierced on all sides by vertical ranges of
windows, or loopholes, commanding every foot of the space below, and
rising to the number of twenty or more, immediately over the door which
gives access to the galleries. In short, the concentration of effort
towards the two main objects of space for shelter and complete security
was never more strikingly exhibited, and no more admirable adaptation of
materials so simple and common as undressed and uncemented stone for
this double purpose has ever been discovered or suggested. Perhaps there
is no characteristic of the typical structure more remarkable than the
extreme constancy of its essential features. The uniformity of plan and
construction is so unvarying among all the known examples that there
exists no means of tracing the development of the form through a series
of primitive or immature stages. In this respect there is a striking
analogy between the Brochs and the Round Towers of Ireland. The Irish
Towers also appear fully developed, and exhibit a general uniformity of
plan and construction which is quite as remarkable in its manifestations
among them as it is among the Brochs.[76] Their origin is assignable to
peculiar circumstances in the history of the ecclesiastical communities,
and chiefly to their constant liability to sudden danger of plunder and
murder by roving bands of marauding Norsemen. This specialty of purpose
accounts for, and harmonises with, their specialty of form; and their
remarkable uniformity of plan is the natural result of the special
fitness of the typical form for its special intention—the provision of a
secure refuge from dangers which, though of frequent occurrence, were of
transient duration.
-----
Footnote 76:
It is to be observed that the type of Round Tower peculiar to
Scotland, and known by the name Broch, differs totally, and in all its
essential features, from the tall, slender, round Towers of
Ecclesiastical construction in Scotland and Ireland. The Brochs are
dry-built, the Ecclesiastical Round Towers are lime-built. No hewn
stone is used in the construction of a Broch; the doors and windows of
the Ecclesiastical Round Towers are often of hewn stone, and sometimes
ornamented with sculptures. The Brochs have their chambers, stairs,
and galleries in the thickness of the wall enclosing the central area;
the lime-built Round Towers possess none of these features. The Brochs
have their doorways always on the ground and their windows opening to
the interior area; the Ecclesiastical Round Towers have their windows
opening in the exterior wall, and their doors placed at a considerable
height above the ground. There is thus no point of similarity between
the two types of structure except their external roundness.
-----
In Scotland the area which is chiefly occupied by the Brochs was
peculiarly exposed to similar occurrences. Over the whole of the
northern and western districts there ebbed and flowed continuously for
centuries a species of irregular intermittent warfare, consisting
chiefly of plundering forays by bands of foreign marauders. And as the
special association of the Round Towers of Ireland with the
ecclesiastical sites of the country supplies the clue to their special
purpose, the Brochs of Scotland have also their special association from
which their special purpose may also be fairly deduced. Although they
are often placed in situations of natural strength, yet, as a rule, they
mark the area of the best land in the districts in which they are
situated. This is specially true of their local distribution in
Caithness, while in Sutherland we see them thickly planted in the
fertile straths, and following the courses of the rivers to distances of
twenty-five or thirty miles inland. They are therefore the defensive
strongholds of a population located upon the arable lands, and not in
the mountain fastnesses of the country; and their peculiar nature as
exceptionally secure places of refuge for non-combatants and cattle, and
for storage of produce, explains the fitness of their association with
the arable soil of the area in which they are most abundantly present.
Against such oft-recurring but transient dangers to the cultivators and
to the produce of their soil there could be no more effective system of
defence provided than a multitude of _safes_, which should be
burglar-proof, and big enough to contain the families, goods, and cattle
of their proprietors.[77]
-----
Footnote 77:
In some Archæological Notes contributed to the _Academy_ of March 25,
1882, on the Terra d’Otranto in the South of Italy, M. Lenormant
mentions a peculiar usage still kept up by the inhabitants of the
provinces of Bari and Lecce of constructing in their fields structures
of uncemented stones called _truddhu_, which exactly reproduce on a
smaller scale the type, arrangements, and mode of building
characteristic of the Nuraghi of Sardinia, the Sesi of the island of
Pantellaria, and the Talayots of the Balearic Islands. Like the
Nuraghe, the Truddhu is a massive conical tower of uncemented stones
with a central circular chamber rudely vaulted by the overlapping of
the successive courses of its masonry. A low door gives access to the
chamber. Sometimes a second chamber is constructed over the first, and
approached by a narrow flight of steps winding along the side of the
tower. These steps are present even when there is no second chamber,
and forming a spiral round the outside of the tower, they give access
to the paved platform on the top of the structure. The Truddhu serves
as a shelter in bad weather and as a dwelling-place by night in the
agricultural season, as the peasant proprietors often live in the
towns and travel to and fro in bands for fear of brigands. Sometimes
this structure is changed into a permanent home, and the village of
Alberto-Bello consists wholly of houses of this form. Thousands of
these constructions stud the plains. Some are being built, others are
in all stages of dilapidation and decay. Although it is almost
impossible to distinguish those that are ancient from those that were
made but yesterday, M. Lenormant is of opinion that the origin of the
custom must be referred to prehistoric times. A similar custom of
constructing stone-built towers of refuge also prevails in the
Caucasus, and Mr. Freshfield speaks of having as many as sixty of
these structures in view at one time.
-----
If it be thus suggested by the relations of the Brochs to the arable
lands of the districts in which they are situated, that they belonged to
the possessors and cultivators of the soil, the affinities of the
typical structure itself go far to show that in its character and origin
it is distinctively Celtic. None of its essential features have been
observed in any construction outside of the Celtic area. And within that
area no building with a stair and an arrangement of galleries similar to
that of a Broch has been met with out of Scotland. But the circular
wall, with chambers in its thickness, which may be regarded as the germ
from which the Broch structure has grown, is a characteristic feature of
Celtic construction. We have met with it in the walls of the cashels
surrounding the ecclesiastical settlements of Christian times. It is
common in Irish Cloghauns and Scottish beehive houses, and is so
persistently Celtic that it appears also in Wales and Cornwall. The
ground plan of the most perfect of a group of beehive huts at Bodinar,
in Cornwall (Fig. 184), exhibits an arrangement of oval chambers in the
thickness of its wall precisely similar to the arrangement which
prevails in the Brochs. The long narrow gallery (the essential feature
of the earth-houses of Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall) is also a form
of construction which is specially characteristic of the Celtic area.
The typical Broch structure thus presents a combination of features and
forms of construction[78] which are found existing separately in other
constructions of Celtic character and origin, although the typical
combination which distinguishes the Broch structure from all others is
confined to Scotland alone.
-----
Footnote 78:
The ideal Broch is composed of a series of galleries like those of the
earth-houses, superimposed upon a basement with a ground plan like
that of the structure at Bodinar, and connected by a stair. Although
the stone forts of Ireland occasionally exhibit chambers within the
thickness of their walls and have double stairs placed against the
interior face of the wall to give access to the wall-head, they never
have galleries superimposed on each other, and stairs in the thickness
of the wall.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 184.—Ground plan of Structure at Bodinar, Cornwall.]
* * * * *
In the previous course of Lectures it was shown that as a nation we are
the possessors of the remains of a school of art exemplified in a series
of monumental types which are so truly unique that no other nation
possesses a single example. It has now been demonstrated that we are
also the possessors of the remains of a school of architecture which is
as truly unique and even more pronounced in its features of absolute
individuality. I do not claim for it any higher merit than that it has
designed a typical form of structure possessed of almost perfect fitness
for the purposes for which it was intended. It has no special beauty of
form, nor is there evident in any of its parts the least attempt at
ornamentation or decorative construction. But, judged by its proper
standard—the measure of its fitness for its special purpose—its peculiar
characteristics fulfil the most exacting requirements of architectural
criticism. The fact that this peculiar type of structure exists only in
one area must necessarily have some significance in relation to the
history of architecture; but the fact that their remains may still be
counted by hundreds must also have great significance in relation to the
unwritten history of Scotland, for it is obvious that the presence
within its area of this vast series of massive structures, so closely
alike in their general features, and so admirably contrived in their
special arrangements, implies a wide-spread concentration of thought and
energy towards a common object which is found only in communities that
have attained to a comparatively high condition of general culture and
social organisation.
LECTURE V.
(31ST OCTOBER 1881.)
THE BROCHS AND THEIR CONTENTS.
In 1852 the late Mr. A. H. Rhind of Sibster, the founder of the Rhind
Lectureship, made a systematic investigation of an ancient structure at
Kettleburn, near Wick, in Caithness. It was a work of great magnitude,
employing a number of men for upwards of three months.[79] It is easy
for us, with more extended knowledge of this class of buildings, to
recognise the features of the structure as those of a Broch, although it
was not so considered by Mr. Rhind.
-----
Footnote 79:
An account of the excavation, with plans and drawings, was given by
Mr. Rhind in the _Archæological Journal_, vol. x. p. 212; and also in
the first volume of the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland_, vol. i. p. 265.
-----
The external appearance of the ruin was that of a mound somewhat more
than 120 feet in diameter, and 10 feet high. It stood in a cultivated
field; the plough had regularly passed over it for a quarter of a
century, and a cottage had been built out of one of its sides. Though
thus diminished and dilapidated, there remained enough of its structure
underneath the surface to show clearly what were its general features.
[Illustration:
Fig. 185.—Ground plan of Broch of Kettleburn, near Wick, Caithness.
(From a Plan by Mr. A. H. Rhind.)
]
When fully cleared from the ruin of its upper portion, the lower part of
the building showed a circular construction (_b b_ in the accompanying
plan, Fig. 185), consisting of a wall 15 feet thick, surrounding a
central area of 30 feet diameter. The doorway (_e_) passing straight
through the wall, was flanked by a guard-chamber (_t_) on either side.
Remains of two oblong chambers (_r_, _i_) constructed in the thickness
of the wall were also found some distance apart. The roofs of all the
chambers were gone, but the lintels remained on the passages leading
into them. There was a well with steps leading down to it in the central
area. It was 9 feet deep, and being covered for the support of a
partition wall (_p p_) which passed over it, was full of good spring
water when discovered. The area enclosed within the circular wall of the
Broch was subdivided into irregularly-shaped spaces (_m_, _s_, _o_) by
walls built across it in various directions, and abutting on the main
wall. I shall have more to say of such irregular constructions within
and around these towers when we come to deal with them in other cases,
which show that they are secondary constructions, built out of and upon
the fallen materials of the primary edifice. The area outside the tower
for a distance of 25 feet from its external wall was covered by the
ruins of similar irregular constructions (_c d_), and the whole was
surrounded at that distance from the central tower by a wall (_a_) 3
feet thick, of whose height little more than the foundations remained.
The objects found during the excavation of the buildings are preserved
in the Museum. They were not very numerous, but they formed the first
collection made by the systematic excavation of a Broch, and thus were
possessed of inestimable value and interest. In point of fact, the gift
of this collection to the National Museum gave a new character to the
collection of Scottish antiquities, and a new direction to the science
of Scottish Archæology. The Museum had previously been enriched by
multitudes of donations of objects illustrating the unwritten history of
the country, but they were mostly objects whose associations and
relations were matters of inference and speculation. This group of
objects, on the other hand, was one of which it could be said—(1) that
they were related to each other by their common association with a
single inhabited site; (2) that they all had relations with a certain
typical form of structure; (3) that very various characteristics of
form, material, art, and industry were shown to be thus
inter-associated; (4) that the condition and culture of the occupants of
the structure are truly disclosed by the study of this group of relics,
in so far as the objects of which it is composed are capable of
affording such indications; and (5) that the special knowledge thus
acquired from the study of a group of relics derived from one structure
is also an important contribution to our general knowledge of the class
to which it belongs.
The group of objects recovered from the ruins of the Broch consisted—(1)
of manufactured articles used in connection with the daily life of the
inmates; and (2) of objects not manufactured, which were plainly the
refuse of their food.
The manufactured articles included objects fabricated in stone and bone,
bronze and iron. The stone objects were principally querns or stones of
the old small hand-mills for grinding grain; stone pounders or oblong
naturally rounded pebbles of various sizes, having their ends worn down
by use; flat circular discs of thin slaty stone, varying from 3 or 4 to
10 or 12 inches diameter, which might have served such purposes as are
still occasionally served by similar articles in country dairies and
kitchens; oval-shaped boulders of sandstone, [Illustration: Fig.
186.—Lamp of Sandstone from Broch of Kettleburn.] having roughly-formed
oval or cup-shaped cavities in their upper surfaces, which may have held
a dab of tallow, with a wick of tow or moss, and thus served as lamps
(Fig. 186); other hollowed cup-shaped or bowl-shaped stones, more
regularly formed externally and internally, some of which were furnished
with handles, and were therefore obviously domestic dishes; seven stone
whorls for the spindle; several whetstones and various other articles of
indeterminate purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 187.—Long-handled Comb of Bone, from Broch of
Kettleburn.]
Among the articles fashioned in bone were pins and bodkins, made out of
the long bones of various animals; rounded knobs like buttons, cut out
of the outer table of the jaw-bone of the whale, and retaining part of
the loop of iron inserted into them; and two long-handled combs (Fig.
187) of the same material, furnished with stout teeth, about an inch in
length, at the end of the handle. These peculiar implements are so
frequently found in Brochs that no considerable group of Broch relics is
without them. They are of great interest; but their purpose has to be
inferred from considerations of their form, associations, and marks of
use. It is sufficiently obvious from their form, that as _long-handled_
combs they are quite distinct in character from the ordinary
double-edged combs for the hair, which are also common in Brochs.
The objects in bronze found in the Broch of Kettleburn were a small
bronze pin and a pair of bronze tweezers of large size (Figs. 188, 189),
4½ inches in length by 1¾ inch in breadth, elegantly formed and
ornamented in a style that is suggestive of the peculiarly bold and
effective ornamentation of the metal-work of the early Celtic period,
described in a former Lecture. They are 4¾ inches in length and 1¾
inches in width. Their special purpose is unknown;[80] but they are
still strong and serviceable for any purpose for which such implements
may have been employed. They possess a peculiar interest as being the
only pair of tweezers known to have been found in Scotland.
-----
Footnote 80:
Bronze tweezers are not uncommon accompaniments of female interments
of the Bronze Age in Denmark, and it has been suggested that they were
used as sewing implements when the material to be sewed was skin and
the thread a thong. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that
small awls of bronze are occasionally found with them, and it is
obvious that the end of a thong hardened in the fire, and pushed
partially through the holes bored by an awl, could be readily seized
by such a pair of tweezers and so dragged tight. But the tweezers
found in the Kettleburn Broch do not belong to the Bronze Age. Their
ornamentation is that of the Iron Age, and they were found in
association with objects of iron.
-----
[Illustration: Figs. 188, 189.—Front and side views of Bronze Tweezers
from Broch of Kettleburn (4½ inches in length).]
The objects of iron were mostly in such a fragmentary condition and so
greatly oxidised that little more could be said of them than that they
were portions of implements of iron.
The fragments of pottery were abundant. They were coarse in texture and
unglazed. They mostly represented globular vessels with everted rims and
bulging sides.
The unmanufactured objects consisted chiefly of bones and shells, which
were so abundant that they were evidently the remains of a long
accumulation of the refuse of the food of a considerable number of
individuals who had neither fared scantily nor without variety. Their
diet had included beef and venison, pork and veal, mutton and lamb, fish
and shell-fish, with an occasional fowl. The animal remains were
determined by Mr. Quekett, who notes that the bones and teeth of a small
horse, larger, however, than the Shetland pony, occurred in great
numbers; there were also remains of a horse of much greater size. The
other animals were red-deer and roe-buck, the ox, sheep of small size,
goats, and swine. Many remains of dogs were found, some indicating a
variety larger than a pointer, others being smaller. There were also
bones of the whale and seal, and some remains of a bird of the size of
the heron or swan. The fish-bones were not determined. The shell-fish
were principally the periwinkle, the whelk, and the limpet. A few human
bones were found intermixed with the relics, but there is no record of
their precise associations, and other examples will show that the mounds
covering these ruined Brochs were frequently selected as burying-places
in subsequent ages. The occurrence of the bones of the dog and the
horse, the seal and the whale among the food refuse of a community, does
not necessarily imply that the animals were eaten. But there is reason
to believe that tastes differed in this respect at different times. The
horse was eaten among the northern nations of Europe till within the
historic period. The whale appears down to the sixteenth century among
the provision made for rich and royal tables in Scottish and English
records. The seal was salted with the ashes of burnt seaware, and eaten
in the Hebrides in the beginning of the last century. While, therefore,
it may be a fair inference from the occurrence of many bones of these
animals in the food refuse of this Broch that its occupants used the
flesh of such beasts as a common article of diet, it is obviously an
equally fair admission that they are no more to be regarded as savages
on that account than the people of historic times who were partial to
the same kind of food. In point of fact, so far as the evidence goes,
there is no reason for attributing to them an exceptionally low
condition of culture or civilisation. We have seen that the type of
defensive dwelling with which we find them associated is one which
possesses remarkable features of constructive merit and originality of
design. Their diet was not less varied in kind and quality of nutriment
than that of modern times. They possessed iron and bronze, and their
manufactured implements show that they were neither destitute of
technical skill nor deficient in artistic taste.
[Illustration: Fig. 190.—Section of Chamber in Broch of Kintradwell,
showing rude vaulting of roof. (From a Drawing by Rev. Dr. Joass.)]
The Broch of Kintradwell, three miles north of Brora, excavated by Rev.
Dr. J. M. Joass,[81] was situated on a natural terrace close to the edge
of the declivity which marks the old sea-margin of the east coast of
Sutherlandshire. Previous to its excavation it was a rounded
grass-covered knoll. Within this mound, formed of the debris of the
structure, the basement of the broch was found entire to the height of
about 14 feet. The circular wall, 18 feet in thickness, enclosed a
central space 31 feet in diameter. The doorway was 7 feet high, with
inclined instead of perpendicular sides, so that the width was 3½ feet
at the bottom and 3 feet at the top. The entrance passage went straight
through the wall, and was provided with checks for two doors, the first
at 6 feet within the outer face of the wall, and the second 8 feet
farther in. These checks were formed by wall-fast slabs whose edges
projected, the wall being also slightly set back at their inner faces,
and a corresponding slab on edge projected a few inches above the floor
across the passage-way to check the bottom of the door. Between the two
doors a guard-chamber opens on the right of the passage. The sill of its
doorway is 2 feet above the floor, the opening 4 feet high by 2 feet
wide, and the passage into the chamber 4½ feet in length. The guard-room
itself is circular in form on the ground-plan, 7 feet in diameter, and
11 feet high, and roofed in the usual way by overlapping stones (Fig.
190). The whole length of the passage leading through the wall into the
central area is 18 feet, and the lintels covering it are 8 inches apart.
This feature is frequently seen, and as there is often a vacant space
which may have formed an apartment over the lintels of the passage, the
openings left between them may have had a special purpose in connection
with the defence of the doorway. To the left of the main entrance was an
oval-shaped chamber 11 feet long and 10 feet high, constructed in the
thickness of the wall; and, still farther to the left, were the remains
of the staircase, also constructed in the interior of the wall, with an
oblong chamber at the stair-foot. Thirteen steps of the stair remained,
but the galleries above were gone. In one side of the area was a well 7
feet deep, with steps leading down to a point 3 feet from the bottom. A
stone cup (Fig. 191), presumably the common drinking-cup of the
establishment, lay near the steps of the well. In its constructive
features and arrangements this Broch is similar to all the others that
have been described. But it also presents some features which have not
hitherto been noticed, because they have either been wanting or only
obscurely presented in previous examples. The inner wall of the court or
central area was faced by a roughly-built wall about a foot in
thickness, rising to a height of about 8 feet, and there terminating and
forming a scarcement projecting from the main wall. This inner shell or
scarcement, although bonded with the main wall at the door-corners, was
not so throughout. It was evidently an addition to the original wall
built against its inner face all round, at some time subsequent to the
construction of the main wall.[82] We shall meet with this feature in
other examples, and in circumstances which will clearly demonstrate its
secondary character.
-----
Footnote 81:
See a paper by Rev. Dr. J. M. Joass, in _Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v.
p. 95, entitled “The Brochs of Cinn Trolla, Cairn Liath, and Craig
Carril, in Sutherland,” etc., with plans and drawings.
Footnote 82:
"As to the scarcement or facing wall, about 1 foot thick and 8 feet
high, of such frequent occurrence in the Brochs, it has been suggested
that it may have formed the resting-ledge for a conical wooden roof
covering the (lower part of the) central area. Others have supposed
that it formed the support of a narrow roof, sloping downwards like
that of a shed or series of lean-to booths surrounding the wall. It
may be noted that it seems rarely of such massive structure as the
wall proper with which it appears to be bonded only at the
door-corners. This, with the fact that it was found covering what was
almost certainly an original doorway to a wall-chamber at Clickamin,
suggests the possibility of the scarcement being sometimes, if not
generally, a secondary structure."—Rev. J. M. Joass, LL.D., in
_Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v. p. 112.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 191.—Stone cup from the Broch of Kintradwell (5
inches diameter).]
Again, on the outside of the tower, to a distance of 60 feet from its
base, the ground was covered with the foundations of irregularly-built
constructions, with passages and doorways communicating with an access
leading up to the main entrance to the tower. These outbuildings were
much less massive, much more irregular, and much less carefully
constructed than the main building. They were chiefly clustered about
the entrance to the tower, and a little to the north-west of the
principal group of them was a shallow open cavity lined with flat stones
set on edge, and containing the fragments of a human skeleton and an
iron dagger-blade. In one of the outbuildings also there were found a
human skeleton and an iron spear-head. Portions of eight other human
skeletons were found in and about the ruins, mostly at a depth of from 2
to 2½ feet under the turf which covered the mound, but not in such
circumstances as would necessarily imply that they belonged to the
period of the occupation of the Broch.[83]
-----
Footnote 83:
It is rather suggested by the frequency with which such remains have
been met with in other cases, that burials were occasionally made in
these mounds long after they had become grass-grown hillocks.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 192.—Oval pebble of quartzite marked by use as a
point-sharpener, from the Broch of Kintradwell (3¼ inches in length).]
The relics found in this Broch included a variety of manufactured
objects in stone and bone, bronze and iron. The stone objects formed a
very considerable and striking group. Among them there were upwards of
fifty querns or hand-mill stones, and an immense quantity of oblong
naturally-shaped stones from 3 or 4 to 15 or 18 inches in length,
water-worn originally, but also wasted at the ends by use as
hammer-stones or pounders. A number of the largest of these were found
set in the ground in rows both inside and outside of the tower. There
were also a large number of stone mortars, irregularly-rounded blocks,
with wide-mouthed rounded cavities, worn smooth by use. Most of the
other stone articles were small. They consisted of the drinking-cup
already mentioned (Fig. 121) as a bowl-shaped vessel, neatly made, with
a handle at one side; a thin smoothly-polished disc of quartzose
sandstone, about 2½ inches diameter, similar to others of mica schist,
and other materials that have been found in Brochs and Crannogs, but of
undetermined use; a small black whetstone or burnisher, smoothed and
polished by use; a small flattish ovoid pebble of quartzite (Fig. 192),
having indentations produced apparently by point-sharpening on its
opposite sides; a quantity of fragments of rings or bracelets of lignite
probably obtained from the Brora beds, and a considerable number of
spindle-whorls of various forms and sizes. The bone implements were
mostly of the nature of handles made of deer-horn, and spatulæ, which
Dr. Joass has suggested may probably have been potter’s tools. No
implements or ornaments of bronze were found, but the presence of the
metal was determined by the finding of three fragments of well-made
crucibles with adhering portions of the melted metal. The iron objects
were a spear-head, a dagger-blade, a knife-blade, a socketed chisel, and
several fragments of implements of indeterminate character. The only
other object of metal discovered was a small and thick ring of lead a
little more than an inch in diameter. The fragments of pottery found
were for the most part portions of coarsely-made vessels, all unglazed
and unornamented. The refuse of the food of the inmates was present in
considerable quantity. The land animals represented among these remains
were the reindeer, the red-deer, the roe, the ox, the sheep, the goat,
the pig, the fox, the wild-cat, and either the wolf or a very large dog.
The marine animals were the whale, the grampus, the porpoise, the
dog-fish, and the cod and haddock, while the remains of such edible
shell-fish as the oyster, the mussel, the cockle, the periwinkle, and
the limpet were very abundant.
[Illustration: Fig. 193.—Hammer-marked Plate of Brass found in the Broch
of Carn-liath (11½ by 7½ inches).]
The Broch of Carn-liath, in Dunrobin Park, also excavated by Rev. Dr.
Joass, consisted of a wall 18 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 30
feet in diameter. The doorway was 7 feet high and 3 feet wide. As usual,
it goes straight through the wall; and at a distance of 8 feet within
the outer face of the wall there are checks for a door, and a
guard-chamber opens on the right side of the passage immediately within
them. This Broch differs from that last described in having no chambers
in the thickness of the wall, and it also presents the unusual feature
of having two underground chambers faced with slabs, underneath the
level of the central area. The only opening from the court into the
thickness of the wall is the entrance to the stair, of which 25 steps
remain, but the galleries are gone. Around the outside of the tower are
the foundations of irregularly-formed constructions, of which it is now
difficult to determine the character with certainty. The objects found
in the excavation of this Broch consisted of about a dozen querns, three
large stone mortars, a considerable quantity of hammer-stones or
pestles, a large number of rings of shale or lignite—many in process of
manufacture, two stone cups, scooped out of steatite, and a large
ladle-like dish of the same material, a stone sinker rounded, oblong,
conical at top and flat at bottom, and the top perforated by a hole for
a cord, and another sinker with a longitudinal groove and circular
depressions on either side. Of bone objects, there were two long-handled
combs, and a piece of whalebone like a club, 14 inches long. Among the
objects in metal, the most interesting were two plates of brass, each a
little more than ⅙ inch in thickness, the one (Fig. 193) oblong,
rectangular, 11 inches in length, and 7½ inches in breadth; the other
nearly semicircular, and about 7½ inches in radius. Both were found near
the floor of the interior area of the Broch. They are hammer-marked with
blows of the pin end of the hammer in lines across the surface. Dr.
Joass remarks of them that this perhaps was one of the forms in which
the metal was imported into the northern districts of Scotland for home
manufacture. That they are brass and not bronze is certified by the
analysis made of the one now in the Museum by Dr. Stevenson Macadam. The
composition was found to be 82 parts of copper to 16 of zinc, with one
part of tin, and a trace of lead. This fact is important, because while
the alloy of copper and tin, which constitutes bronze, has been in use
from an indefinitely remote prehistoric period, the alloy of copper and
zinc, which constitutes brass, is not found earlier than the period of
the Roman Empire. A silver fibula of peculiar form was also found in
this Broch.[84] The form is not Celtic, but belongs to a type which is
widely distributed over Central and Southern Europe, and is commonly
associated with objects of a late Roman character. The only article in
iron found in this Broch was a dirk-like blade greatly corroded. The
pottery was abundant, but coarse and fragmentary, and destitute of
ornamentation.
-----
Footnote 84:
It belongs to the class of fibulæ which are often described as bow
shaped and cruciform, and is represented in _Archæologia Scotica_,
vol. v. plate 16.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 194.—Ground plan of the Broch of Yarhouse,
Caithness, with its Secondary Constructions, on a peninsula in the Loch
of Yarhouse, cut off from the land by a ditch.]
[Illustration: Fig. 195.—Circular Brooch of Brass, found with a burial
in the mound covering the ruins of the Broch (2½ inches diameter).]
In 1866 and 1867 I excavated the Broch of Yarhouse, situated in the
south end of the loch of the same name, about six miles south of Wick,
in Caithness. The ground plan of the structure is shown in Fig. 194. Its
appearance before excavation was that of a conical grass-covered mound,
200 paces in circumference, and 18 to 20 feet high. It stood on a low
flat triangular projection of the shore of the loch, and was cut off
from the land by a ditch now silted up, and varying from 25 to 30 feet
wide. In the upper part of the mound we found portions of two human
skeletons, at a depth of from 2½ to 3 feet under the turf; and at
different places on the sides of the mound, lower down, the remains of
three other skeletons were met with. Near one of those first found was a
flat circular brooch of brass (Fig. 195), of about 2½ inches diameter.
It was rudely inscribed with letters which appear to be a blundering
attempt at the formula ISVS NAZAR [ENVS], a common and popular
talismanic inscription on the brooches of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. These skeletons were not enclosed in cists, but simply
embedded in the earth and stones of the mound. They were not deep enough
to have any determinable relation with the structure of the Broch below.
They were all incomplete and the bones in disorder, though this might
perhaps be accounted for by the movement of the loose material of the
slope of the mound in the course of ages. The inference appeared to be
that they were casual interments made in the mound long after it had
become a grassy knoll. This was also the conclusion to which Dr. Joass
came with respect to the burials in the mound at Kintradwell. It is easy
to see how such a practice might have arisen in remoter districts, where
burial-grounds connected with ecclesiastical sites were distant and
roads were few. In point of fact, there is evidence which seems to
connect the custom with the later Paganism of these northern parts. Mr.
Petrie found a small cemetery of stone cists, containing interments
after cremation, overlying the ruined Broch of Okstrow, in Orkney. In
this case, the mound which covered the ruins must have been chosen as a
place of heathen sepulture because it was a mound. A grave containing
two oval bowl-shaped brooches, and therefore belonging to the heathen
Viking time, was found in the upper part of a mound covering the ruins
of a Broch at Castletown, in Caithness. I found a single burial in a
stone-lined grave laid close to the doorway of the Broch of Brounaben,
not far from Yarhouse; and burials were found in the mounds covering the
ruins of the Brochs of Thrumster and Dunbeath, in Caithness. It is
therefore probable that in all such cases the interments that are found
immediately below the surface of these mounds belong to a time when the
Broch had been so long in ruins that it appeared to those so using it as
a natural grassy knoll.
[Illustration: Fig. 196.—Interior aperture of Doorway in Broch of
Yarhouse. (From a Photograph.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 197.—Entrance to the stair and window-like openings
over it, in the Broch of Yarhouse. (From a Photograph.)]
When excavated, the Broch of Yarhouse consisted of a circular wall, 12
to 13 feet thick, enclosing a central area, 30 feet in diameter. The
height of the wall remaining was about 15 feet. The doorway which passes
straight through the wall is about 6 feet high and 2½ wide, slightly
narrower at top than at bottom, and well built with long flat slabs,
some of which were 8 feet in length. The opening of the doorway into the
interior area and recess above it are shown in Fig. 196. There were no
guard-chambers or bar-holes, and the checks for the door were quite on
the inner side of the wall. But this Broch stood on what was practically
an island, cut off from the land by a ditch 25 to 30 feet wide, and the
access to the doorway was carefully protected by the outworks to be
subsequently described. Opening from the interior area to the left of
the doorway was the entrance to the stair (Fig. 197), which also gave
access to an oblong chamber at the stairfoot. The stair itself was 3
feet wide, and 16 steps up there was a landing, with a light hole or
window looking into the interior of the Broch. Above the entrance to the
stair there were also three windows, placed vertically over each
other—all that remained of a vertical range of windows, such as we have
seen in the case of Mousa, Dun Carloway, and the Glenelg Brochs. On the
side of the area opposite to the doorway was an oblong chamber in the
thickness of the wall, roofed in the usual manner by overlapping stones.
In this Broch, as at Kintradwell, there was an interior wall, of
inferior masonry, built against the main wall, and partially bonded into
it at the door openings. This inner wall was 2½ feet thick, and rose to
a height of 8 feet, where the wall-head formed a level scarcement all
round the interior. Partition walls (shown at B in ground plan, Fig.
194) ran half way across the area from both sides of the doorway, and
that on the right of the entrance bent at a right angle towards the
Broch wall. These partitions were partly built, and partly formed of
long slabs set on end. They rose to about 8 feet—the same height as the
scarcement. The partitions and the inner wall forming the scarcement
were founded on an accumulation of rubbish largely mixed with ashes and
food refuse, which covered the original floor of the Broch to the depth
of 12 to 14 inches. They were therefore clearly secondary constructions,
made to adapt the Broch to the purposes of a secondary occupation.
Outside the Broch wall are two long irregularly-shaped enclosures, and
several smaller cells. The outer enclosure (D in plan, Fig. 194) is 100
feet in length, and varies in width from 6 to 20 feet. The length of the
inner enclosure (C) is 70 feet, and its width about 12 feet. They have
each a little cell, provided with door checks opening off them. In some
places their walls remained entire to the height of 10 feet, without
showing any sign of overlapping for a roof. Both these large oblong
enclosures had irregular rows of long slabs set on end in their floors,
as if to divide them into cattle stalls. A long covered way (A) leading
to the entrance of the Broch traversed the N.E. end of these enclosures.
It varied from about 3 feet wide at the door of the Broch to about 5
feet wide at the outer end, and had checks for doors at four different
places in its length. The secondary character of all these exterior
constructions was obvious from the fact that underneath their
foundations there was a considerable depth of stones overlying the
original soil, and mingled with ashes and food refuse. It was also
evident that various occupations of the interior of the Broch had taken
place from time to time, when the original floor had become covered with
rubbish to a considerable depth. Partition walls were met with at three
different levels, dividing the internal area on three different plans;
the last being a partial partition, utilising only one side of the area,
at a time when the original floor had become covered with 8 feet of
stones and rubbish. The relics obtained in the course of the excavation
were few in number compared with the size and apparent importance of the
structure. No querns were found, but about a dozen grain rubbers and
stones hollowed like mortars, large numbers of stone pestles, pounders,
or hammer-stones, abraded at the ends by use; several whetstones (Figs.
198, 199), a large number of thin circular discs of slaty sandstone,
from 2½ inches up to 14 or 15 inches in diameter, many stone balls 2½ to
3 inches diameter, a small rounded pebble of quartz, with a hole through
it, a number of spindle-whorls of stone, and one of burnt clay. The
objects in metal were a ring of bronze, half an inch in diameter, an
armlet of bronze (Fig. 200), made of a wire 1⁄16-inch in diameter,
square for half its length, and twisted so that the corners form a
spiral pattern, the other half being the plain round wire. A few
fragments of iron knives, and some indeterminate objects of small size,
greatly corroded, were all the remains of iron implements that were
found. The pottery was very abundant, but the fragments were in general
small. Some were coarse and thick, others thin and fine; all unglazed,
and entirely without ornament, except that some pieces showed a slightly
everted lip. The animal remains included those of the reindeer (Figs.
201, 202) and red-deer, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the pig, the dog,
and some undetermined birds and fish. Although the site is a long way
from the sea, there was a considerable accumulation of the common shore
shells, chiefly periwinkles and limpets. The occurrence of the remains
of the reindeer among the refuse of the food of the occupants of the
Brochs of the North of Scotland is a fact of much interest in various
ways. It establishes the correctness of the statement made incidentally
in the _Orkneyinga Saga_,[85] when, in recording the movements of Harald
and Rognvald, Earls of Orkney, in the year 1158, the writer says that
“every summer the Earls were wont to go over to Caithness, and up into
the forests to hunt the red deer or the reindeer.” It also shows that in
Scotland at least the association of reindeer remains with those of
prehistoric man does not of itself or necessarily indicate extreme
antiquity.
-----
Footnote 85:
The _Orkneyinga Saga_ (Edinburgh, 1873), p. 182. See also Dr. J. A.
Smith’s Notice of “Remains of the Reindeer in Scotland,” in the
_Proceedings of the Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p. 186.
-----
[Illustration: Figs. 198, 199.—Whetstones from Broch of Yarhouse (3
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 200.—Bronze Armlet from the Broch of Yarhouse (2½
inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Figs. 201,202.—Portions of Horns of Reindeer found in the
Broch of Yarhouse, Caithness.]
The Broch of Old Stirkoke, which I watched during its removal by the
farmer for drains and top-dressing, was a grass-covered mound 120 paces
in circumference, 12 feet high, and nearly 40 feet diameter across its
level summit. The wall of the Broch was 13 feet thick and the enclosed
area 30 feet diameter. A square drain ran under the floor. The objects
casually recovered from the rubbish were a bone bodkin 8 inches long, a
polished bone needle 3 inches in length, a thin polished disc of mica
schist 2½ inches diameter similar to other objects of the same character
(of which the intention is not obvious) found in Brochs and Crannogs, a
stone lamp, a few spindle-whorls, two whetstones, hammer-stones, thin
circular discs of slaty stone, a fragment of bronze and a portion of the
hilt end of an iron sword with a very broad double-edged blade.
The Broch of Bowermadden, also removed by the farmer, had a well in the
area with steps leading down to it. It was impossible to obtain with any
degree of precision the general dimensions of the structure, but so far
as I could ascertain it differed in no feature of importance from the
others which have been described. The objects found in it were a number
of stone balls similar to those found in the Broch of Yarhouse, a stone
mortar, a small oval vessel of red sandstone (Fig. 203), a number of
spindle-whorls, and several stone vessels of large size which I did not
see. The farmer said that the largest one was 3 feet deep, and that as
they were always in his way he smashed them up and saved only
[Illustration: Fig. 203.—Vessel of Red Sandstone (6 inches in length).]
a few of the smaller ones to be utilised as hen troughs, etc. A bead of
vitreous paste enamelled with a yellow spiral ornament (Fig. 204), a
very pretty small comb of bone (Fig. 205), with an open semi-circular
handle, and a bronze pin having an open circular head with ribbed
ornamentation on the upper part of the circle (Fig. 206), were also
found. A few fragments of iron implements occurred, but they were
greatly corroded and indeterminable.
[Illustration: Fig. 204.—Bead of Vitreous Paste (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 205.—Small Comb of Bone (actual size).]]
[Illustration: Fig. 206.—Bronze Pin. Front and side views (actual
size).]
The Broch of Dunbeath, situated in the angle formed by the confluence of
the Burn of Houstry with the Water of Dunbeath, which was excavated by
Mr. Thomson Sinclair, jun., of Dunbeath, had larger and loftier chambers
in the thickness of its wall than any of the others. One of these
measured 12 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches, and 13 feet high. Among
the relics found in this Broch were an iron spear-head 5 inches in
length, a whetstone, and some bone implements. A quantity of charred
grain, bere, and oats was found on the floor.
These examples will suffice to convey a general idea of the nature and
contents of the Brochs of Sutherland and Caithness, and to show how
closely they resemble one another alike in the style of their
construction, the nature of their arrangements, and the general
character of their contained relics. I now proceed to notice briefly a
few of those which have been excavated in Shetland and Orkney. They all
exhibit the same typical structure, with variations in their details
which need not be minutely specified. It is necessary, however, to
examine the groups of relics which have been obtained from them in order
to complete the general view of the evidence from which we arrive at
conclusions as to the nature and quality of the culture and civilisation
of their occupants.
[Illustration: Fig. 207.—Ground plan of the Broch of Levenwick,
Shetland. (From a plan by Mr. Gilbert Goudie.)]
The Broch of Levenwick in the parish of Dunrossness, Shetland, excavated
by Mr. Gilbert Goudie in 1869 and 1871 (Fig. 207), had an internal
diameter of 29½ to 30 feet, the wall varying in thickness from 12 to 16
feet, while the greatest height of wall remaining was 15 feet. It
presented the unusual feature of a “scarcement” or secondary wall, about
6 feet high and 6 feet wide, built against the face of the interior
wall. From this secondary construction there were five buttress-like
projections from 2½ to 4½ feet in length, placed at regular distances
from each other, and extending into the enclosed area. At one side of
the area opposite the shortest of the projecting walls was a fireplace
(_d_), consisting of three flags placed on edge. The entrance passage
(_b e f_) led straight through the wall of the Broch and through the
secondary wall in its interior, widening to the outer part of the
secondary wall. There were two of the lintels of the passage remaining,
but the outer part of the original entrance way was much dilapidated. On
this account perhaps the checks for the door were not visible and there
is no appearance of guard-chambers. Contrary to the usual experience
also, the stair ascends from an opening to the right of the main
entrance in the middle of the east side of the building (at _h_ on the
plan), and ascending to a height of 8 or 10 feet, enters a level gallery
which apparently went half way round the building to the west side (at
_m_ on the plan), where there is another flight of 15 steps remaining.
At the point where this second flight of steps starts from the gallery,
there is a window opening to the interior area. This arrangement of the
stair differs from that of Mousa. At the Broch of Yarhouse
[Illustration: Fig. 208.—Bronze Knob found in Broch of Harray (3½ inches
in length).] in Caithness what remained of the stair was similarly
divided into two flights, though the distance between them was less than
at Levenwick. The objects found in this Broch were few, consisting of
quern-stones, pounders, and roughly-hollowed stones. It is chiefly
interesting on account of the variation exhibited in its structural
details.
In one of the Brochs in the parish of Harray, in Orkney, excavated by
Mr. Farrer, a number of stone lamps, circular discs, and perforated
stones were found, and along with them the bronze object here figured
(Fig. 208).[86]
-----
Footnote 86:
Six of these bronze objects were found at Lisnacragher Bay, Parish of
Braid, County Antrim, in 1868, along with a sword-sheath of bronze
decorated in that peculiar style of Celtic Art of which examples have
been given in Lecture III. They seem to have been mountings of the
ends of spear-shafts, and two of them still retained part of the wood
of the shaft.—_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond._, 1868, Second Series, vol. iv.
p. 256.
-----
The East Broch of Burray, also explored by Mr. Farrer, yielded a number
of stone vessels of various sizes, a lamp of stone, a thin circular disc
of mica schist, polished, like those found in the Brochs of Old Stirkoke
and Kintradwell, small bead-like objects made of bone, a bone cup made
of one of the vertebral joints of a small whale (Fig. 209), a number of
bone pins from 1½ to 3½ inches long, four long-handled combs of bone,
two broken portions of double-edged combs of the same [Illustration:
Fig. 209.—Cup made from Vertebra of Whale from Broch of Burray (4½
inches high).] material, a bronze pin with a flat circular head (Fig.
210), and an iron chisel and knife-blade. [Illustration: Fig. 210.—Bone
Button with iron shank, Fragment of Comb and Pins of Bone and Bronze
from Broch of Burray (actual size).] Besides the ordinary unglazed
pottery of native manufacture there was found in this Broch a fragment
of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian. This ware, which is
found abundantly on the sites of Roman settlements, as at Inveresk for
instance, is always one of the most characteristic indications of Roman
influence, and its presence necessarily betokens some degree of contact
with the effects of Roman civilisation. In this Broch also a quantity of
charred bere or barley lay on the floor, and the most remarkable feature
of the collection of food refuse from its rubbish was the presence among
the bones of the ordinary domestic animals, of great numbers of the
horns of the red-deer, many of which belonged to animals of considerable
size. There are now no red-deer in Orkney, but there is no Broch which
does not contain their remains abundantly.
[Illustration: Fig. 210.—Bone Button with iron shank, Fragment of Comb
and Pins of Bone and Bronze from Broch of Burray (actual size).]
At Burwick, near Stromness, in Orkney, a Broch situated on a rugged
promontory rising to a considerable height above the sea has been
recently explored by Mr. W. G. T. Watt. The external appearance of the
ruin previous to its excavation was that of a circular mound about 15 to
20 feet in height occupying the whole width of the promontory and
sloping to the crag on both sides. On the landward side, about 50 feet
from the exterior margin of the base of the mound, there is a deep and
wide ditch across the neck of the promontory isolating the part on which
the tower stands from the mainland. The ditch is 160 feet long and about
40 feet wide, and is faced on the inner side by a well-built wall 9 feet
high, 6 feet thick at the bottom, and sloping to from 3 to 4 feet at the
top. The Broch itself consists of the usual circular wall, averaging
from 12 to 13 feet in thickness. No part of the wall now exceeds 16 feet
in height. The entrance to the interior area of the Broch is 5 feet 2
inches high, 3 feet 5 inches wide at the bottom and 3 feet 1 inch at the
top. The passage through the wall is paved in the bottom and
[Illustration: Fig. 211.—Polished Bone Pin from Broch of Burwick.
(Actual size.)] diminishes slightly in width and height until at the
distance of 9 feet 9 inches inwards, where there are checks for a door,
the opening of the doorway is only 4 feet 6 inches high and 2 feet 11
inches wide. Inside this doorway the passage widens by 12 inches on
either side, and on the right side there is a guard-chamber entering by
a doorway 3 feet 5 inches high and 2 feet wide, lighted by an opening
above the lintel of about 1 foot square. The chamber seems to have been
about 12 feet long and has been roofed in the usual manner by
overlapping stones. The interior area was occupied by secondary
constructions founded at a height of 3 feet above the original
floor-level upon a bed of stones and rubbish which had accumulated to
that depth upon the original floor previous to the time of this
secondary occupation. The area within the Broch wall, which had been
originally 24 feet in diameter, was diminished to 16 feet in diameter by
a roughly-constructed circular wall or “scarcement” built against the
inner wall of the Broch, rising to the height of about 6 feet. Unlike
many of these “scarcements,” it presents great inequality in thickness,
varying from about 7 feet on one side of the area to about 2½ on the
other. The area is further intersected in various directions by several
partition walls of the same inferior character of masonry. The space
outside the Broch wall, intervening between it and the ditch, is also
occupied by secondary constructions, and an underground passage has been
traced for about 50 feet towards the ditch.
[Illustration: Fig. 212.—Long-Handled Bone Comb from the Broch of
Burwick (4½ inches in length).]
The articles found during the excavation consisted of a number of stone
pounders or hammer-stones, wasted at the ends by use, round flat stone
discs of various sizes roughly chipped to shape, broken mortars or
vessels of various sizes roughly hollowed in naturally-shaped boulders
of sandstone (one being apparently a stone mould for an iron _crusie_),
a considerable number of bone implements of various kinds, among which
are several bone pins, one of which (Fig. 211) is flat at the point, has
an ornamented head, and has been furnished with a loop for suspension at
the side; a polished bone handle in which an instrument, apparently of
iron, has been inserted; two spindle-whorls, one of bone and the other
of stone; portions of deer-horns cut into slips and pierced by
peg-holes; two long-handled combs made of deer-horn, one of which is
here figured (Fig. 212); one double-edged comb of bone, and one
single-edged comb with round back (Fig. 213), both formed in several
pieces, [Illustration: Fig. 213.—Round-backed, single-edged Comb from
Broch of Burwick.] neatly joined and held together by transverse slips
of bone fastened with rivets. The only iron object found was a portion
of a cylindrical rod. The pottery was coarse, thick, unglazed, and
unornamented, except one piece of dark-coloured ware resembling the
black ware made in Roman kilns in several parts of England. The animal
remains were chiefly those of the ox, the sheep or goat, the horse, the
swine, and the red-deer.
The Broch of Okstrow, in Birsay, excavated by Mr. Leask of Boardhouse,
yielded a number of the commoner implements of stone, such as
hammer-stones and rough circular discs, a well-made cup of sandstone, 3½
inches in diameter [Illustration: Fig. 214.—Cap of Sandstone from Broch
of Okstrow (3½ inches in diameter).] (Fig. 214), its cavity still
bearing the marks of the pointed tool by which it was fashioned; a thin
flat disc of compact slaty stone, 3¼ inches diameter, smoothly polished
on both sides, and ground flat on the edges like those from the Brochs
of Burray, Old Stirkoke, and Kintradwell; three lamps of sandstone, one
of which seems an unskilful imitation of the form of a Roman lamp (Fig.
215); while the others (Fig. 216216) are similar to the lamp from Kettleburn.
[Illustration: Figs. 215, 216.—Lamps from the Broch of Okstrow.] Among
the other objects found were two of the long-handled combs of bone, a
flat piece of bone resembling a weaver’s rubbing implement for smoothing
or calendering the web after it is woven, and several spindle-whorls of
stone and bone; a bone ring, 2 inches diameter, perforated with small
holes, and a tableman made of an ox tooth. [Illustration: Fig.
217.—Bronze Pin from Broch of Okstrow (4¾ inches in length).] The
objects in metal were a bronze pin, 4¾ inches in length (Fig. 217),
ornamented with [Illustration: Fig. 218.—Penannular Brooch of Bronze
from Broch of Okstrow (1½ inch in diameter).] engraved lines, and having
a small ring, ¾ inch in diameter, inserted in a loop at the head of the
pin; a small penannular brooch of bronze of Celtic form (Fig. 218), with
flattened and slightly expanded ends terminating in the semblance of
animals’ heads; and a mounting of bronze, 3 inches in length (Fig. 219),
chased on the upper surface, and having perforated prolongations, as if
for fastening it to some other object. Besides the usual fragments of
plain unglazed pottery of native manufacture, there were in this Broch
again several pieces of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian.
These pieces indicate two vessels—one a bowl of about 6 inches diameter;
the other a shallow straight-sided vessel of considerable size. Both had
been broken and mended by the insertion of soft metal clamps in holes
drilled close to the sides of the fracture.
[Illustration: Fig. 219.—Mounting of Bronze from Broch of Okstrow (3
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Figs. 215, 216.—Lamps from the Broch of Okstrow.]
[Illustration: Fig. 217.—Bronze Pin from Broch of Okstrow (4¾ inches in
length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 218.—Penannular Brooch of Bronze from Broch of
Okstrow (1½ inch in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.—Mounting of Bronze from Broch of Okstrow (3
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 220.—Ground Plan of the Broch of Lingrow, Orkney,
with its Secondary Constructions. (From a Plan by Mr. George Petrie and
Sir H. Dryden.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 221.—Pebble of Quartzite marked by use as a
point-sharpener, from Broch of Lingrow (2½ inches in length).]
The Broch of Lingrow at the head of the Bay of Scapa, near Kirkwall,
explored by the late Mr. George Petrie, had little of its height
remaining, but was specially remarkable for the number and extent of the
outbuildings clustered round its base. These were not all explored, but
so far as they were laid bare they are shown on the plan (Fig. 220). The
articles found were—a large number of querns, a stone lamp, a number of
quartz pebbles indented on their flat sides by use as [Illustration:
Fig. 221.—Pebble of Quartzite marked by use as a point-sharpener, from
Broch of Lingrow (2½ inches in length).] point-sharpeners (Fig. 221),
like those from the Broch of Kintradwell, a large number of implements
in red-deer horn, one of which is shown (Fig. 222), bone pins and
needles, and long-handled combs, spindle-whorls of stone, some fragments
of bronze, a clay mould (Fig. 223) for casting bronze pins with open
circular heads bearing the same ornamentation, and precisely of the same
form as the pin from Bowermadden (Fig. 203), in Caithness; playing dice
of bone, and a very large quantity of pottery ornamented in various
patterns, but all unglazed, and of the coarse black paste characteristic
of native manufacture. [Illustration: Fig. 222.—Implement of Deer-horn
from Broch of Lingrow (4¼ inches in length).] In different parts of the
outbuildings there were found four silver Roman coins—denarii of the
Empire. Mr. Petrie did not live to draw up a detailed account of the
excavation, and his notes do not indicate the reigns to which the coins
severally belonged.[87] But the occurrence in this Broch of imperial
coins, and in others of the red lustrous ware of late Roman or
Gallo-Roman origin are indications of the occupation of the Brochs
subsequently to the Roman conquest of the southern part of Britain.
[Illustration: Fig. 222.—Implement of Deer-horn from Broch of Lingrow
(4¼ inches in length).]
-----
Footnote 87:
I am indebted to Mr. James W. Cursiter, Kirkwall, for the extracts
from the _Orcadian_ newspaper in which the finding of these coins was
recorded. A denarius of the reign of Antoninus (Pius ?), is noted in
the issue of Nov. 26, 1870. On Dec. 10, one of Antoninus, and one of
Vespasian, having a sow on the reverse. On Jan. 21, 1871, one of
Hadrian, with Clementina on the reverse, and a female figure holding a
paterá in the extended right hand, and a spear in the left. A jotting
by Mr. Petrie on the rough plan of the Broch also mentions “two coins
of Crispina and bone dice found here.”
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 223.—Clay Mould for casting Bronze Pins, from Broch
of Lingrow (actual size).]
The Broch that has yielded the largest and most interesting collection
of objects is that of Burrian in the island of North Ronaldsay,
excavated by Dr. William Traill of Woodwick, the proprietor of the
island. The structure was essentially similar to those that have been
previously described. The wall of the tower was 15 feet thick at the
base, enclosing an area of 30 feet in diameter. The greatest height of
the wall remaining was 10 feet. The doorway was on the south-east side
facing the sea. It was 3 feet 3 inches wide at the outer face of the
wall, and had checks for a door consisting of two slabs projecting on
either side of the passage so as to narrow the aperture to 2 feet 10
inches. Within the door-checks the passage widened to 4 feet 3 inches.
There was but one chamber in the thickness of the wall on the north-east
side of the tower. It measured 9 feet 9 inches by 5 feet 9 inches on the
floor, and was about 5 feet high, the roof having fallen in. The
entrance from the interior court to the chamber was 3 feet 3 inches
high, and 2 feet 2 inches wide. [Illustration: Fig. 224.—Bone Implement
from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] The objects found in the
course of the excavations consisted of a large number of hammer-stones
or oblong water-worn pebbles wasted at the ends by use, a number of
querns and grain-rubbers, sinkstones, pieces of black vesicular lava,
roughly pear-shaped, with holes bored through their smaller ends, and
circular discs of thin slaty stone of various sizes. [Illustration: Fig.
225.—Bone Pins, with ornamental heads, from Broch of Burrian (actual
size).] Among the objects made of bone, which were exceptionally
numerous, were an implement of bone 5½ inches in length (Fig. 224), made
from the radius or wing-bone of a bird by cutting it obliquely across at
one end, and grinding the section smooth; ninety pins of bone varying in
size from 4¾ inches to somewhat less than 1¼ inch in length, many of
which have ornamental heads of the character shown in Fig. 225, while
others of larger size are of the forms shown in Fig. 226, a large number
are crutch-headed like Fig. 227, while one neatly-made pin with a
rounded body (Fig. 228) is [Illustration: Fig. 226.—Bone Pins from Broch
of Burrian (actual size).] cleverly ornamented by its head being carved
in the similitude of two horses’ heads looking opposite ways,
and another coarsely-made pin without a head (Fig. 229229) is marked
with transverse scorings. [Illustration: Fig. 227.—Crutch-headed Bone
Pin from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] Besides the pins there are
three needles of bone with elongated eyes, one broken, the others (Figs.
230, 231) 2¼ and 1¾ inches in length respectively. [Illustration: Figs.
228, 229.—Bone Pin with ornamental head, and pin with transverse
markings, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] There are also a number
of pegs of bone, roughly finished, varying in length from 3 inches to 1½
inch, and from nearly ¼ inch to about ⅛ inch diameter. [Illustration:
Figs. 230, 231.—Bone Needles from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] These
have evidently been used in pegging slips of bone or wood, and several
slips of bone, about 3½ inches in length, convex on one side and flat on
the other, occur among the relics, two of them having the pegs still in
the holes. There are also a large number of shaped pieces of bone and
deer-horn which might have served as the handles of small
implements—hafts of knives, and suchlike. Among the smaller objects of
bone there are several button-like articles, one apparently the half of
a square-shaped stud or button of ivory with a small hole for the shank
discoloured by oxide of iron, and two others made from short sections of
the shank-bone of a sheep. One of these has the iron shank still in the
hole. Akin to these in the manner of their formation are several playing
dice, manufactured from sheep [Illustration: Fig. 232.—One of a set of
Dice made from a sheep shank-bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual
size).] shank-bones. They are simple sections of the shank-bone 1⅝ inch
in length, with one or more of the sides rubbed smooth and marked with
the customary numbers in the shape of dots and circles. The one here
figured (Fig. 232) is ground smooth on one side, on which there are six
points; on the convexity of the bone there are five points; on the
naturally flattened side of the bone (which is broken) there are no
markings to be seen at the ends, but the centre portion shows one
marking. The second example has only one side of the bone remaining,
which shows four points. The surface of the bone has scaled off the
third example, and obliterated the numbers.[88] Among the miscellaneous
articles of bone to which no definite use can be assigned, although they
are obviously tools or implements intended for special purposes, there
is one (Fig. 233), strongly made of a roughly cut bone, having a rounded
point with two grooves cut in it so as to have prominent parallel ridges
between and on either side of them. [Illustration: Fig. 233.—Tool of
Bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).] Among the objects of
personal use are sixteen combs, most of them more or less broken, but
several still in a fair state of preservation. [Illustration: Fig.
234.—Round-backed Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian (half actual
size).] [Illustration: Fig. 235.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of
Burrian (half actual size).] One is round-backed and single-edged (Fig.
234), measuring 3 inches by 2 inches, the back pierced with three
triplets of small holes, and ornamented with a profusion of dots and
circle markings. It is formed of five thin slips of bone laid together
lengthwise, and held in their places by two slips laid transversely
across them on opposite sides, and fastened by four iron rivets. The
teeth of the comb have been very regularly cut by a fine saw, and the
saw-marks on the under edges of the transverse slips show that the
cutting of the teeth was performed after the pieces of the comb were
fastened together. The rest of the combs are all double-edged. One
measuring 2¾ inches by 2 inches (Fig. 235), is formed of four slips of
bone inserted between two transverse slips, and held together by three
rivets of iron. [Illustration: Fig. 236.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from
Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] The transverse slips are
ornamented by a single line incised along each border, and by four sets
of two concentric circles with central dots ranged at equal distances
along the centre of the slips. The teeth are widely but regularly cut,
narrowing towards the points, and those towards the sides of the comb
shorter than those in the middle. Another comb of the same character
(Fig. 236) measures 5½ inches in length, by 2 inches in breadth. This is
the largest comb obtained from a Broch. It is formed of six slips of
bone enclosed between two transverse slips fastened by five rivets of
iron. Above and below each rivet is an ornamented dot and circle
marking. A similar marking is placed in the centre of each of the broad
terminal teeth at either end of the comb. The transverse slips are much
marked by the saw. The teeth are well cut and regular in length and
thickness; they show strongly the marks of wear by use, chiefly towards
their bases, where minute transverse lines are worn deeply into the
corners of the teeth, almost completely encircling them. Besides these
combs for the hair, there were found no fewer than eighteen of the
long-handled combs, which are of such frequent occurrence among the
relics recovered from Brochs. That shown in Fig. 233 appears to be of
deerhorn, but they are mostly made from portions of the outer table of
the jaw-bone of the whale. They vary in length from 3 inches to 5½
inches. [Illustration: Fig. 237.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of
Burrian, Orkney (4¾ inches in length).] They also vary considerably in
the size and form of the teeth, some, like Fig. 238, having teeth that
are short and pointed, and rounded in section, while the teeth of
others, like those in Fig. 239, are longer, less pointed, and more
rectangular in section. [Illustration: Fig. 238.—Long-handled Comb from
the Broch of Burrian (4¼ inches in length).] It has been already stated
that sixteen combs of the ordinary single and double-edged forms which
are characteristic of the comb used for the hair were found in this
Broch. [Illustration: Fig. 239.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of
Burrian (4 inches in length).] It is therefore probable that these
eighteen long-handled combs were intended for some other purpose. They
are not only unfitted by their clumsiness for this special and personal
use, but the strength of the teeth, their coarseness, and the manner in
which they are marked by the use to which they have been put are
suggestive of implements for some manufacturing process rather than
objects of the toilet. Another circumstance of their association is of
some importance in the inquiry as to the nature of their special
purpose. There is only one other implement which occurs with equal
frequency in collections made from Brochs. In this same Broch, which
yielded sixteen combs for the hair and eighteen of the long-handled
implements, there were upwards of thirty spindle-whorls for spinning
with the distaff and spindle. [Illustration: Fig. 240.—One of a number
of Smoothing Implements of Bone from the Broch of Burrian (6½ inches in
length).] As this implies the existence of a very considerable
manufacture of thread, and as the presence of the industry of weaving is
also suggested by the occurrence of a number of smoothing or calendering
implements of bone (Fig. 240), which had seen much service, it is
probable that these eighteen long-handled implements may have had some
connection with the process of making cloth from the thread spun by the
spindle-whorls. The evidence as to the special use of the implement is
derived (1) from the specialty of its form—it is long-handled; and (2)
from the marks of wear upon its teeth, which are more distinct towards
the apices of the teeth than towards their bases. These marks are such
as would result from combing fibres in the preparation of lint or even
of wool for spinning; but for this use the implement is not well suited
by its form, and the marks on the teeth are often such deeply-cut
transverse lines, as would rather imply the contact and friction of
threads. And it is the fact that a comb of this special form,
long-handled, and having a few stout teeth on the end of the handle, was
used in the operation of weaving when the warp was fixed upright, as it
always was in the older form of loom. The purpose for which the comb was
used was the driving of the weft home as each successive thread was
passed through the upright sheds of the warp by the shuttle. Such
weaving-combs were used by the Egyptians,[89] the Greeks, and the
Romans,[90] and they continued in use throughout Europe even in late
mediæval times. In some varieties of carpet-weaving, in which alone the
upright mode of working is now retained, the weft is driven home by a
similar instrument made of iron. The Hindoo weaver of the present day
retains the form of the implement used by his remote ancestors, although
the materials of which it is made are now wood and iron.
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—Weaving-comb of Wood and Iron used in
India (13 inches in length).] One such implement (Fig. 241241) is in the
National Museum. Although its teeth are of iron, a close examination
suffices to show the marks of use, and in the iron comb as well as in
those of bone, it is towards the apices and not towards the bases of the
teeth that the transverse striations appear.[91]
[Illustration: Fig. 224.—Bone Implement from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches
in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 225.—Bone Pins, with ornamental heads, from Broch of
Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 226.—Bone Pins from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.—Crutch-headed Bone Pin from Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Figs. 228, 229.—Bone Pin with ornamental head, and pin
with transverse markings, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Figs. 230, 231.—Bone Needles from Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 232.—One of a set of Dice made from a sheep
shank-bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: .ca Fig. 233.—Tool of Bone found in the Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 234.—Round-backed Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(half actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 235.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(half actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 236.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(5½ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 237.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian,
Orkney (4¾ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 238.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4¼
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 239.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 240.—One of a number of Smoothing Implements of Bone
from the Broch of Burrian (6½ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—Weaving-comb of Wood and Iron used in India (13
inches in length).]
-----
Footnote 88:
Dice of this form have not been otherwise found in Scotland. They are
occasionally found in Viking graves in Norway.
Footnote 89:
An Egyptian weaving-comb of wood from the tombs at Thebes is in the
Museum. Its teeth are differently formed, but the principle of its use
is evidently the same. Rich figures a long-handled weaving-comb from a
tomb in Thebes, which is now in the British Museum.
Footnote 90:
Ovid (_Met._ vi. 55) gives a minute description of the process of
weaving as follows—
“Tela jugo vincta est; stamen secernit arundo
Inseritur medium radiis subtemen acutis
Quod digiti expediunt, atque inter stamina ductum
Percusso feriunt insecti pectine dentes.”
Also (_Fasti_, iii. 820) he says that Pallas was the inventress of
weaving, and adds—
“Illa etiam stantes radio percurrere telas
Erudit; et rarum pectine denset opus.”
Juvenal (_Sat._ ix. 30) makes Nævolus complain that he gets cloth from
a Gaulish weaver greasy and badly woven—“Et male percussas textoris
pectine Galli;” while Virgil (_Æn._ vii. 14) represents Circe as—
“Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas;”
and again in the _Georgicon_ says—
“Interea longum cantu solata laborem
Arguto conjunx percurrit pectine telas.”
These descriptions specify the precise operations necessary for
closing or driving home the weft, if the instrument employed were a
comb held in the weaver’s hand. Alexander Neckham, in his work _De
Naturis Rerum_ (written in the twelfth century, and recently printed
in the series of Chronicles by the Master of the Rolls), has a chapter
(cap. clxxi., De Textore) on weaving, in which, after describing the
insertion of the weft by means of the shuttle, he says—
“Inde textrix telam stantem percurret pectine,”
thus using the same words to describe the same operation.
Footnote 91:
Dr. Malcolm Monro Mackenzie, Civil Surgeon, Dharwar, Bombay, states
that in the jails in Bombay, where the work of the convicts is chiefly
weaving, the implement used for beating in the weft is a hand-comb
generally of wood, with iron teeth like that represented above in Fig.
241241.
The late Mr. Whytock, carpet manufacturer, when applied to for
information as to the nature of the implement used in carpet-weaving,
stated that “In the manufacture of the Persian or Axminster carpet,
made in one piece and worked in an upright loom, the instrument used
for beating down the weft or pile was about 4 inches broad, with iron
teeth resembling those of a horse-comb, fastened into a short handle.”
He was kind enough to supply a sketch from memory of the instrument as
formerly used in the factory at Lasswade. The sketch showed an
implement in shape somewhat like the short flat hand-brush used by
painters in whitewashing, or a good deal like the Indian loom comb
(figured above), only a little broader in proportion to its length.
The nature and use of these long-handled combs formed the subject of
two papers in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland_, vol. ix. pp. 118, 548.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 242.—Stone with Incised Figures of Crossed
Triangles, from Broch of Burrian (6 inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Metatarsal Bone of Ox (front and back views),
with incised symbols, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
The collection of relics from this Broch contains a greater number of
objects than has been found in any other, and it is also remarkable as
presenting some varieties of objects which have not been found in any
other. These are—(1) an oblong pebble of sandstone (Fig. 242), with an
incised figure on each of its flatter sides resembling the talismanic
device of the Middle Ages known as Solomon’s seal; (2) the metatarsal
bone of a small ox, bearing on one side the peculiar symbol of the
sculptured monuments resembling a crescent, crossed by a V-shaped rod or
sceptre (as shown in Fig. 243); (3) a small iron bell; and (4) a slab of
sandstone with a cross of Celtic form, a fish, and an Ogham inscription.
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Metatarsal Bone of Ox (front and back views),
with incised symbols, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] The bell and
the monumental slab have been already described, and need not be further
alluded to.[92] The stone with the geometric figure of Solomon’s seal
lay within a cist-like construction half filled with red ashes, which
was in a paved floor that overlay the original floor, and was separated
from it by a layer of from 1 to 2 feet of ashes and rubbish. The
cross-bearing slab was found at a point near the side of the Broch,
where the wall was so low that though the slab lay not much above the
floor of the tower it was also not far below the surface of the mound.
It cannot therefore be said of any of these objects that they were
certainly associated with the earlier occupation of the Broch, and as
they differ in character from all the objects usually found in such
structures, their exceptional occurrence here can have no bearing on the
discussion of the general questions of the character and relations of
the group of relics usually found in Brochs.
-----
Footnote 92:
_Scotland in Early Christian Times; The Rhind Lectures_ for 1879, p.
175; and Second Series for 1880, p. 211.
-----
That character and these relations are now distinctly established. The
general character of the relics obtained by the systematic excavation of
these northern Brochs is not that of a primitive group, but of a group
which is the product of an advanced stage of culture, civilisation, and
social organisation. The inference deducible from the character of the
relics is the same as that which has been deduced from the type of the
structure, and when the whole of the facts are thus marshalled and their
significance is calmly considered, it becomes plain that there is even
less ground for ascribing a low condition of culture, of civilisation,
or of social organisation to the people who constructed and occupied
these massive towers, than there is for ascribing such a condition to
the builders of the beehive huts and dry-built churches of Christian
times. Reviewing the various aspects of the life of the occupants of
Brochs, as these have been successively disclosed, we see them planting
their defensive habitations thickly over the area of the best arable
land, fringing the coasts, and studding the straths with a form of
structure perfectly unique in character and conception, and for purposes
of defence and passive resistance as admirably devised as anything yet
invented. We see that this system of gigantic and laboriously
constructed strongholds has been devised and universally adopted with
the plain intention of providing for the security of the tillers and the
produce of the soil. We find their occupants cultivating grain, keeping
flocks and herds, and hunting the forests and fishing the sea for their
sustenance. We find them practising arts and industries implying
intelligence and technical skill, and apparently also involving
commercial relations with distant sources of the raw materials. The
probability is that they manufactured all the weapons and implements
they used, and we find them using swords, spears, knives, axes, and
chisels of iron, and pincers, rings, bracelets, pins, and other articles
of bronze or brass. We know that they made their own ornaments in these
metals, because the clay moulds, the crucibles, and the cakes of rough
metal have been found in different Brochs. Gold has not been found in
any well-authenticated instance, but silver and lead are not wanting.
They utilised the bones and horns of animals in the fabrication of such
things as pins, needles, and bodkins, buttons, combs, spindle-whorls,
and various other implements, ornaments, and furnishings of everyday
life and industry. They also used stone when it suited their purpose.
They made beads and bracelets of jet or lignite, and they had other
beads of variously-coloured vitreous pastes, enamelled on the surface
with spiral lines and other devices. They also made beads and discs of
highly-polished stone, such as serpentine, marble, and mica schist, with
imbedded garnets. From the commoner varieties of stone they made
millstones or querns, mortars, pestles, pounders and hammer-stones,
whetstones and point-sharpeners, bowls, cups with and without handles,
lamps, and culinary vessels of various kinds, net-weights, sinkers, and
spindle-whorls. They made pottery, plain and ornamented of various,
kinds, chiefly round-bottomed globular vessels with bulging sides and
everted rims. The women practised the arts of spinning and weaving, and
probably also made the pottery and ground the grain, while the men made
the weapons and tools of metal, and the ornaments and implements of bone
and stone, did the hunting and fishing, and the warfare when needful,
and erected the great structures which made the industrious quietude of
domestic life possible to them.
That the people thus occupying these peculiar strongholds were the
people of the soil, and not strangers effecting a lodgement in a hostile
territory, is obviously suggested both by the character and relations of
the typical structure, and by the character and relations of the relics
of their domestic life. It has been demonstrated in the previous Lecture
that while the typical structure, taken in the totality of its
characteristics, stands absolutely alone and quite apart from all other
types of construction, ancient or modern, its essential features are
those which are characteristic of early Celtic constructions. It is
circular, it is dry-built, its doorways have inclined instead of
perpendicular sides, the roofs of its chambers are formed of beehive
vaulting of overlapping stones, and its galleries are comparable to a
series of earth-houses placed one over the other. It has now been shown
that the relics of the life of the occupants of the Brochs constitute a
group of objects differing widely from those which characterise the
Scandinavian occupancy of the north and west of Scotland. No group of
objects in its general _facies_, entirely comparable to the group which
is characteristic of the Brochs, exists on the continent of Europe or
anywhere out of Scotland. But when the typical forms of the Broch group
of relics are compared with those of other groups existing in Scotland,
it becomes at once apparent that they are forms which are characteristic
of the Celtic area and of post-Roman times. This unique series of
objects from a unique type of structure illustrates a peculiar phase of
the early Celtic or Iron Age culture and civilisation of our country
which until recently was absolutely unknown. And as we find the
investigation on which we have embarked continuously disclosing series
after series of similarly unique types, it becomes increasingly apparent
that its final result can be nothing less than the establishment of the
fact that Scotland has an archæology—in other words, that the unwritten
story of her early systems of culture and civilisation is dispersed
among the _disjecta membra_ of her scattered remains, and is only to be
disclosed by the systematic collection and study of all existing
materials illustrative of her native industry and native art, with their
associated indications of social organisation and potential culture.
LECTURE VI.
(NOVEMBER 2, 1881.)
LAKE-DWELLINGS, HILL-FORTS, AND EARTH-HOUSES.
A Broch like that of Clickamin (see the Frontispiece), situated upon an
island in a loch, accessible by a causeway from the island to the shore
is practically a lake-dwelling. But there are many defensive structures
occupying similar positions which are not Brochs, although they are
often constructed of stone. Most of them are now in such a ruinous
condition that it is impossible to say what may have been the precise
nature of their form and architectural construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.—Defensive structure on an island in the Loch of
Hogsetter, Whalsay, Shetland. (From a Sketch Plan by Dr. Arthur
Mitchell.)]
In the Loch of Hogsetter, in the island of Whalsay, in Shetland, there
is a small island containing a defensive structure of dry-built masonry
(Fig. 244) which is plainly not a Broch.[93] The structure occupies the
greater part of the available surface of the island, and its form has
evidently been determined by the form of the island. It consists of a
dry-built wall of stones with a minimum thickness of 3 to 4 feet,
enclosing an oblong oval of about 70 feet by 75 feet. A causeway, 33
yards in length, has been constructed to give access to the island from
the shore, and on the side next the causeway the enclosing wall is
amplified so as to admit of the construction of a doorway, flanked on
each side by a chamber, as seen in the detached work protecting the
entrance to the island of Clickamin. This part of the construction is
solidly built, and the chambers, which are placed to right and left of
the entrance passage, occupy the interior of a somewhat rectangular
expansion of the wall, measuring about 20 feet by 12 feet, and now only
about 8 feet high. When Low visited Whalsay in 1774, this part of the
construction was 15 feet high, and the chambers and their entrances were
quite entire. They were beehive roofed, the entrances going straight
through the back wall from the enclosed area. The main entrance, which
was 2½ feet wide and 4½ feet high, was covered by the masonry which
joined the two sides of the construction over its lintels, and at about
two-thirds of its length inwards there were checks for a door and the
usual bar-holes on either side. Dr. Mitchell states that above the two
lower chambers there appear to have been other two forming a second
tier, but as Low did not observe them, and no trace of a stair or other
access to the upper level now remains, it seems possible that they may
have been chambers of construction, or merely vacancies left to lighten
the weight on the roofs of the chambers below. Apart from the
peculiarity of its chambers, which are unlike the guard-chambers of the
Brochs in having their entrances opening to the enclosed space and not
directly opening into the passage, this structure has more affinities
with the stone cashels than with the Brochs. Like them it adapts its
form to the space in which it is situated, and like them it consists of
a simple rampart with cells in the thickness of the wall. The wall is
low, and of no great strength, and like the wall of a cashel is merely
meant to add to the defensibility of a naturally defensive position. The
special peculiarities of this defensive construction are, that it is a
dry-built structure which is not a Broch but a cashel, and that it is
situated on an island in a loch and rendered accessible by a causeway.
The island is of natural formation, and has been thus utilised, because
of its suitability for defensive purposes.
-----
Footnote 93:
Described in Low’s _Tour in Orkney and Shetland_, 1774 (Kirkwall,
1879), p. 177; and by Dr. Arthur Mitchell in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. xv. p. 304.
-----
Such instances of the adaptation of natural islands in lochs as places
of strength by constructing defensive buildings of stone upon them are
not uncommon, although it rarely happens that the form and
characteristics of the buildings themselves are so clearly traceable.
But there is another variety of defensive construction which is more
frequently found in similar positions. It possesses the additional
peculiarity of being either wholly or partially constructed of wood.
The Lake-Dwellings in Scotland, which are either wholly or partially
constructed of wood, and which on that account are known as Crannogs,
are very numerous, but so few of them have yet been systematically
explored that it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty
the special characteristics of their typical form and structural
arrangements. Indeed, it is questionable whether this knowledge may be
in any measure attainable by investigation of their existing remains.
Constructed of perishable material, which, as long as it survived the
ravages of time, was capable of being adapted to many and various
purposes of general utility, the parts of the Crannogs that stood above
the water were almost certain to be gradually destroyed. But whatever
may have been the special form of the superstructure of the
Lake-Dwelling when it was built of timber instead of stone, the typical
Crannog, taken as a whole, differs from the stone-built strengths that
are placed in lakes not only in the substitution of timber in place of
stone as the material of its construction, but also in being constructed
usually on an island that is itself an artificial construction. The
Crannog is therefore a Lake-Dwelling, actually built up from the
lake-bottom. Of the structure which stood above the water, and gave
shelter and habitable houseroom to the inmates, there is usually no
trace whatever. Occasionally the remains of a pavement of timber or of
flagstones, or the site of a hearth with its accumulations of ashes and
food refuse marks the level of the floor, and sometimes a succession of
such indications at different levels may betoken successive occupations.
But the story of the Crannog as told by the casual relics imbedded in
and around its submerged foundations is clearly intelligible, although
it reveals nothing of the precise form and arrangements of the habitable
part of the structure.
In the Loch of Dowalton, situated in the centre of the peninsula,
bounded on the west by the Bay of Luce, and on the east by the Bay of
Wigton, in Wigtonshire, a group of Crannogs was investigated by Earl
Percy (then Lord Lovaine) in 1863, and subsequently examined by Sir
William Maxwell of Monreith, and the late Dr. John Stuart, then
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. One of these,
situated on the south side of the loch and near the west end, presented
the appearance of a mass of stones and soil surrounded by numerous rows
of piles formed of young oak-trees. On the north-east side of the island
a number of beams of oak mortised together like hurdles were visible,
and below them layers of round logs laid horizontally. A few vertical
piles were observed, which, in some cases, had cross-beams mortised into
them. Below the layers of logs were masses of brushwood and fern. The
only sign of occupation noticed was the site of a hearth, with an
accumulation of ashes, burnt wood, and bones of animals. In the adjacent
refuse-heap a small fragment of bronze was discovered, and close by the
island a bronze basin was found. Near the eastern margin of the loch was
a group of three Crannogs. The largest of these was about 23 yards in
diameter. It was surrounded by many rows of piles, some of which had
their ends cut square across with a hatchet. The surface of the Crannog
was covered with stones resting on a mass of brushwood, fern, and
heather, intermingled with stones and earth. The whole mass was
penetrated and kept together by piles driven through it into the bottom
of the loch. On the south side were the remains of a massive
construction of planks of roughly-squared oak, 5 feet long, 2 feet wide,
and 2 inches thick, laid side by side in layers crossing each other
transversely, and pinned together. The general framework of this
platform-like structure was of massive beams mortised together, the
mortises measuring about 10 inches by 8 inches. On the north-east side,
and underneath part of the timber construction, a canoe was found, 21
feet in length and 3 feet 10 inches wide at the stern. The canoe was of
oak, hollowed out of a single tree, and the stern was closed by a board
sliding in a groove cut in both sides, and secured by a thicker piece 3
inches in height pegged down over it. A washboard projecting slightly
over the edge and pegged into the upper margin of the canoe, ran all
round the sides. [Illustration: Fig. 245.—Portion of a Shoe of stamped
leather (length, 7 inches).] There were two thole-pins inserted in
square holes on each side, and one of the thwarts remained in position.
A portion of a shoe formed of stamped leather (Fig. 245) was discovered
among the mass of material thrown out in excavating the canoe. One
hearth was discovered. It was simply a paved space, showing marks of
fire and an accumulation of ashes and food refuse. The bones were those
of the common domestic animals, the ox, the pig, and sheep. Among the
relies found on the Crannog were a bronze penannular brooch with knobbed
ends, the knobs somewhat quadrangular in form, two iron hammers, and
four whetstones.
[Illustration: Fig. 245.—Portion of a Shoe of stamped leather (length, 7
inches).]
[Illustration: Fig. 246. Saucepan of Roman form found in Dowalton Loch
(height, 5½ inches).]
Another Crannog, nearly circular, and 13 yards in diameter, lay a little
to the southward. Its construction was in every respect similar to that
last described, and it was surrounded by an immense number of piles,
extending in rows for 20 yards outside the circumference of a solid
construction of brushwood and logs, covered by earth and stones. One
canoe was found on its margin, 24 feet long and 4 feet 2 inches wide in
the middle; and another was found between it and the shore of the loch,
18½ feet long and 2 feet 7 inches wide. Among the refuse of the
occupancy of the Crannog, consisting chiefly of bones of domestic
animals, were found a broken bead of glass, and portions of two armlets
of glass, one ornamented with a yellow streak and the other with streaks
of blue and white.
Between this Crannog and the shore a bronze saucepan (Fig. 246), of the
form usually associated with remains of the Roman period,[94] was found
in the mud of the loch. It is an elegant and well-finished vessel of
bronze, tinned inside, and measuring 8 inches in diameter across the
mouth and 5½ inches deep. The flattened handle springing from the upper
edge is 7 inches in length. The bottom of the vessel is furnished
exteriorly with five projecting concentric rings. In front, opposite to
the handle, is an ornamental ring, swung by a loop projecting from
beneath the upper margin of the rim, and encircling a well-modelled
figure of a human face in relief. On the handle is the stamp of the
maker, CIPI POLIBI F.[95]
-----
Footnote 94:
This special form of saucepan with curved sides and flat bottom,
concentrically moulded on the outside, is found in most collections of
antiquities obtained from sites of Roman occupation. In the Museo
Borbonico, at Naples, there are about 200 examples, mostly of this
type.
Footnote 95:
His full designation apparently was Publius Cipius Polibus. His
saucepans are widely distributed. Two found in a nest of five dug up
at Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, bore his stamp, the one having
P·CIPI·POLIB, and the other P·CIPI·POLVIBI. In the Museum at Zurich
there is a handle of a saucepan with the stamp CIPI·POLIBI, and one
found in Lower Saxony has P·CIPI·POLIBI.
-----
About 60 yards from this last Crannog was a smaller one, presenting no
essential points of difference, and nearer the south-east shore of the
loch was a group of six, still smaller and less distinct in outline, but
all apparently similar in construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 247.—Bead of glass with lining of bronze (length, 1
inch).]
The other objects found in association with these Crannogs or in the
loch-bottom in their immediate neighbourhood, were a number of beads of
variegated glass or vitreous paste, one of which (Fig. 247) has a lining
of bronze in the perforation; one amber bead; a small bronze ring; a
clay crucible; several whetstones; five querns; a bronze dish (Fig.
248), about 12 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, hammered out of the
solid, and having a flat rim 1 inch in breadth, turned over, and
slightly bent downwards; another dish similarly made, but without the
flattened rim, 12 inches diameter and 4 inches deep; and a third (Fig.
249) of thinner metal, flat-bottomed with sloping sides, 10 inches
diameter and 4 inches deep, the bottom and sides patched in several
places by pieces fastened on with flat-headed double-toed rivets exactly
like the modern paper-fasteners; a large bronze ring attached to the
upper part of a caldron of thin bronze; a portion of a tube of cast
bronze of unknown use; a wooden paddle; and a number of fragments of
articles of iron complete the list.
[Illustration: Fig. 248.—Bronze Basin found in the Loch of Dowalton
(height, 3 inches).]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.—Basin of thin bronze found in the Loch of
Dowalton (height, 4 inches).]
In the Black Loch, in the parish of Inch, Wigtonshire, an island
explored in 1872 by Mr. C. E. Dalrymple was found to have been a Crannog
formed upon a shoal in the lake. In the centre of the island there was a
circular mound, 45 feet in diameter, and rising to about 5 feet above
the level of the loch and 3½ feet above the general surface of the
island. At a depth of about 5 feet in the centre of the mound there was
a flooring of trunks of trees, chiefly oak and alder, crossing each
other at right angles. This log flooring covered a circular space of
about 50 feet in diameter. At different levels above it and over the
whole of its area there were found many fireplaces or hearths, formed of
two long narrow slabs set on edge and parallel to each other with a
paved space between, and filled and surrounded by ashes and bones of
animals broken and split. In one of these accumulations of ashes and
food refuse there were found a fragment of bronze and a portion of an
iron knife; and in another a broken armlet of glass. A broken
double-edged bone comb, ornamented with dots and circles, and a portion
of a stone disc with a bevelled edge, were also found. The island seemed
to have been surrounded with piles, and a small canoe, dug out of a
single tree, was discovered in the loch, near the narrow channel which
separates the island from the shore.
The general character of the group of relics obtained from these
structures is that of the Iron Age, with indications of a period
subsequent to the Roman conquest. The same character and the same
indications are presented by the group of relics obtained from the
Crannogs of Ayrshire, which have been so carefully investigated by Dr.
Munro.[96] The Lochlee Crannog, near Tarbolton, yielded a very large
collection of objects in the various materials of stone, bone, wood,
bronze or brass, iron, glass, and jet or cannel coal. But with the
single exception of a polished stone celt, the types of the Stone and
Bronze Ages are entirely absent from the group. The same thing is true
of the collections obtained from the Crannog at Lochspouts near Maybole,
and the Buston Crannog near Kilmaurs. But in these Crannog collections
there are certain groups of objects which are closely akin to those
found in Brochs. These are the hammer-stones, oblong water-worn pebbles
wasted at the ends by use, spindle-whorls and querns, the round polished
discs of stone, the peculiarly-shaped bone pins, needles, and borers,
the double-edged bone combs, the deer-horn implements, the bronze
brooches, rings, and pins, and the spiral finger-rings. There are also
certain objects in these collections which present features of form and
ornamentation clearly of the early Celtic types, such as a bridle-bit
from Lochlee (of the same form as that shown in Fig. 101), a block of
ash-wood from the same Crannog with Celtic patterns cut in both sides,
and a bronze mounting from Lochspouts, which is characteristically
Celtic in style. On the other hand, there are certain objects which,
like the harp-shaped fibulæ and the lustrous red ware (commonly called
Samian), are indicative of post-Roman times. The bulk of the relics from
the Crannogs being thus of Iron Age types with indications of post-Roman
time, and with a striking general affinity to the group of relics
obtained from the Brochs, the place of these lake-Dwellings in the
general series may be considered as sufficiently established.[97]
-----
Footnote 96:
Since these Lectures were delivered an exhaustive treatise on _The
Lake-Dwellings of Scotland_, by Dr. Robert Munro, of Kilmarnock, has
been issued. In this copiously illustrated work Dr. Munro has
described the Crannogs in Ayrshire recently excavated under his
personal superintendence, and systematised the whole subject in a
manner that leaves nothing to be desired.
Footnote 97:
That the use of such strongholds in the lochs of Scotland and Ireland
continued in historic times is abundantly attested. In the _Register
of the Privy Council of Scotland_, under the date of 14th April 1608,
one of the articles proposed to Angus M’Coneill, of Dunnyvaig, and
Hector M’Clayne, of Dowart, for reducing them and their clans to
obedience is:—“That the haill houssis of defence, strongholdis, and
cranokis in the Yllis perteining to thame and their forsaidis sail be
delyverit to His Majestie.” Three-legged pots of brass, and ewers of
the forms in use from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century and
later, have been found in several of the Scottish Crannog sites. The
_Irish Annals_ contain frequent notices of the taking of Crannogs. For
instance:—"A.D. 1436. The Crannog of Loch Laoghaire was taken by the
sons of Brian O’Neill. On their arrival they set about constructing
vessels to land on the Crannog in which the sons of Brian Oge then
were; on which the latter came to the resolution of giving up the
Crannog to O’Neill and made peace with him."—_Annals of the Four
Masters._
-----
There is no class of ancient remains within our country of which we have
less precise knowledge than the Hill-Forts. The reason of this is not
their rarity, because they form perhaps the most numerous and
widely-distributed class of ancient structures now existing. But the
ordinary methods of obtaining precise knowledge of their form,
structure, and contents have not been applied to them, and the ordinary
agencies of destruction, incident to a high condition of social and
agricultural progress, have long been busy amongst them.
They differ essentially from all other constructions, because they are
adaptations of naturally elevated sites for defensive purposes. The
natural site is the defensive position, and the fort itself derives its
form and in many cases also its character of construction from the form
and nature of the eminence or promontory on which it is built. It would,
therefore, be contrary to the nature of the circumstances to expect that
they should exhibit any such uniformity of plan or structure as is so
conspicuous in the case of the Brochs. Yet it is clear, from the little
we do know of them, that there are certain groups possessing certain
features of construction in common which differ from other groups
possessing other features of construction in common; and it is evident
that if a sufficient body of available materials existed on record
regarding the different members of these groups their typical
characteristics might be readily deduced. But before this can be done
with that precision and certainty which are requisite for scientific
work, it is necessary (1) that a series of plans and sections to scale
of a sufficient number of examples from each of the various groups
should be obtained; (2) that a series of observations as to the methods
of construction employed in different circumstances and situations
should be made; and (3) that a series of examinations of the enclosed
areas and surrounding ground should be undertaken, with the view of
ascertaining the character of the relics that are associated with the
structures. In the meantime it is only possible to indicate some of
their general characteristics as exhibited by a few of the better known
examples.
They naturally divide themselves into two great classes by their
construction—(1) those that are earth-works; and (2) those that are
constructed of stone.
In most cases the earth-works are so low and slight that they could not
have been of much service unless crowned with palisades. They are
usually on sites that are more susceptible of cultivation than the
hill-tops which are the common positions of the stone-works, and hence
they have suffered more generally from agricultural operations than the
forts of stone. They are usually irregularly circular or oval in plan,
consisting of a varying number of low embankments drawn round the summit
of a natural eminence. The only one of which a scale-plan has been made
is a very characteristic example (Fig. 250), on the Midhill Head, on the
estate of Borthwick Hall, Midlothian.[98] The space enclosed by the
embankments is 410 feet in length from east to west, and 284 feet in
breadth from north to south. The embankments are four in number,
occupying a space round the enclosure, varying from 130 feet to about 80
feet in breadth. They are nowhere more than from 4 to 5 feet in height.
There are two entrances to the enclosed space at the ends of the oval,
and a third on the south side. This example represents in a general way
the class of earthworks of most frequent occurrence, consisting of a
series of circumvallations enclosing the highest part of an eminence of
no great elevation.
-----
Footnote 98:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. xiv. p. 254. The Society is indebted
to the liberality of the proprietor, D. J. Macfie, Esq., for the plan
of this characteristic earth-work, surveyed and described by Mr. W.
Galloway, architect.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 250.—Ground plan of Earthwork on Midhill Head,
Midlothian.]
The Hill-Forts which are constructed of stone sometimes consist of a
single wall drawn round the brow of a hill, and enclosing the more or
less level area which forms its summit. One of this description at
Garrywhoine, in Caithness, is an oval enclosure about 200 paces long by
65 in breadth. The foundation of the wall is about 14 feet thick, and in
some places 3 or 4 feet of its height remains. In the thickness of the
wall on the east side the remains of two chambers are visible. There
were two entrances to the area of the fort, one at the north end and the
other at the south end of the hill. The entrance at the north end has
three of the great corner-stones of the gateway still in position. They
are single stones or flat boulders about 5 feet high, set on end, having
their broad faces in line with the exterior and interior faces of the
wall, and the ends in the line of the entrance which is 7 feet wide.
Only one of the stones similarly placed remains at the south entrance.
The dilapidation of this remarkable example of a stone cashel was due to
the construction of a mill-dam in the valley below, the stones having
been rolled down the hill to form the embankment. I notice it because it
is the only Hill-Fort I have seen which still retains the stone-pillars
of its gateway, and because the story of its demolition illustrates the
fate of many of the most perfect and interesting remains of our
country’s antiquity.
A more complex variety consists of two, three, or more walls drawn
concentrically round the upper part of a conical hill, at short
distances apart, as in the case of the example known as the White
Caterthun in the parish of Menmuir, Forfarshire. The area enclosed is a
long oval about 450 by 200 feet. The enclosing wall has been of enormous
size. Its remains have spread themselves over a width in some places of
nearly 100 feet, and they now form a somewhat rounded embankment of from
4 to 6 feet high, encompassing the summit of the hill. About 150 feet
lower down on the slope of the hill is another wall, equally ruined, and
below it are the remains of a third. Beyond this there is an enclosure
of an oblong form and of less massive construction, abutting against one
side of the outer wall of the fort.[99] A fort of smaller size, but
presenting somewhat similar features of construction, crowns the spur of
Ben Ledi which overlooks the ford at Coilantogle, a little below the
outlet of Loch Vennachar. The hill is precipitous on one side, and the
walls do not encircle it completely, but the external faces of three
encircling walls are in some places visible for a considerable distance
round the less precipitous part of the hill. Abutting on the outer wall,
on the side which is most accessible, is an oval enclosure less
massively constructed, as at Caterthun.
-----
Footnote 99:
Such constructions are frequently found in similar juxtaposition to
the walls of these forts, and rightly or wrongly they have been
regarded as cattle-folds.
-----
There is another variety of these Hill-Forts which has attracted more
attention on account of the singularity of the phenomena which they
present. These are the Vitrified Forts, so called because in their walls
there is always more or less of the scorified or vitrified appearance
which is the result of the action of fire upon masses of loose stones.
Although there has been perhaps more written about these singular
structures than about any other class of antiquities, there is really
little known of their special phenomena, and less of their real
character.[100] In point of fact the real knowledge relating to the
form, measurements, and composition of the structures and the
observation of the phenomena they present has been entirely overlooked
in fruitless discussions as to the modes in which the vitrifaction of
the walls has been produced, and the reasons which may be conjecturally
assigned for it. The result is that to this day, so far as I am aware,
there is not a single scale-plan with sections, of a single one of them.
When such plans and sectional drawings are available in sufficient
numbers, we shall be able to say that the materials exist for the
commencement of a systematic investigation of the nature and typical
relations of the structures.
-----
Footnote 100:
For this reason we are unable to compare the vitrified forts of
Scotland with the scorified and vitrified ramparts which have been
occasionally remarked as occurring in other countries of Europe. I
know no example in England, but a considerable number have been
noticed in France (_Memoires de la Soc. Antiq. de France_, vol.
xxxviii. p. 83), one of which, at Peran in Brittany, has only the
upper part of the walls vitrified, a circumstance which has also been
noticed with respect to several of the Scottish forts. From the fact
of a Roman roofing tile having been found firmly attached to the
melted stones of the vitrified part of the wall of this fort, it is
inferred that the period of the vitrifaction was subsequent to the
Roman conquest. Scorified ramparts in Bohemia have been described by
Dr. Jul. E. Fodisch in the _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
155. It has been frequently stated that they do not occur in Ireland,
but Dr. Petrie has noted four in Londonderry and one in Cavan
(Stokes’s _Life of Dr. Petrie_, p. 223).
-----
The fort on Knockfarril, which overlooks the valley of Strathpeffer, in
Ross-shire, encloses an oval area of about 120 paces in length by about
40 in breadth. It was first described by Mr. John Williams in 1777.[101]
Sections were then made through it from side to side, and Mr. Williams
states that on the north side he found the ruins of the wall 12 feet
high, although he came to the conclusion that this was a section of the
width of the wall which had fallen flat outwards. With regard to the
phenomena of vitrifaction, he states that the whole wall has been run
together into one solid mass, but in another place he states that at the
outskirts of the ruins and at the bottom of the hill there was a great
quantity of large stones which had not been touched by fire, and from
this he concluded that there had been some kind of stone buildings going
round on the outside of the vitrified walls. It is to be observed that
when he speaks of the whole wall being run together into one solid mass,
he is not stating a fact, which he has observed, but a conclusion which
he has formed from a partial examination. “I am of opinion,” he says,
“and it appears by the ruins that the whole of the surrounding wall on
Knockfarril has been run together by vitrifaction much better than the
most of the kind I have seen.” He states also that immediately on the
inside of the surrounding walls there were ruins of buildings in which
the vitrifaction was much less complete, and these he imagined to have
been a range of habitations reared under the shelter of the outer wall.
-----
Footnote 101:
_Account of some remarkable Ancient Ruins recently discovered in the
Highlands. In a series of Letters by John Williams, mineral engineer._
Edinburgh, 1777.
-----
Craig Phadrig, near Inverness, when examined by Williams, presented the
peculiarity of two vitrified walls, the remains of which could be traced
quite round the inclosed area, while the remains of a third were visible
at the entrance at the east end. The outer wall was founded on the rock,
about 6 or 8 paces distant from the inner wall. Its greatest height did
not then exceed 4 or 5 feet, but he found large masses of it adhering to
the rock where it was first run. The area enclosed was from 80 to 90
paces long by about 30 broad.
The fort at Finhaven, near Aberlemno, in Forfarshire, is an irregular
oblong with rounded corners, about 150 paces in length by about 36 in
breadth. The walls are greatly dilapidated, and but a small part of
their height is now visible. They appear to have been about 10 feet in
thickness, and in some places there is still 4 or 5 feet of the height
remaining. The vitrifaction is very unequal, and many parts of the wall
scarcely show the action of fire, while in others the melted matter has
run down among the interstices of the stones.
Dun Mac Uisneachan, in Loch Etive, was described by Dr. Maculloch in
1824, and more recently by Dr. R. Angus Smith, who made extensive
investigations of the area of the fort in 1873-4.[102] It occupies the
top of an oblong hill which is either very steep or actually precipitous
on all sides. The area enclosed is about 250 yards long by 50 yards
broad. It is encompassed on the verge of the hill by a wall which is
still in some places from 5 to 6 feet high. The points made out by the
investigation are thus stated by Dr. Angus Smith—(1) the weaker parts of
the dun or defensible position were walled, the outer wall or part of
wall being vitrified; (2) the wall of the western part is double; the
outer being vitrified, the inner built in layers of flat stone, 9 feet
being the distance from surface to surface; (3) the walls were built
without mortar as in all these forts; (4) vitrified portions of walling
were found overlying portions built in the ordinary manner and
unvitrified. This I regard as the most interesting and important point
ascertained by Dr. Angus Smith’s investigations regarding the
construction of the so-called Vitrified Forts. It shows distinctly that
the wall of a Vitrified Fort is not always, and in every part, a
vitrified wall; and it suggests that instead of taking this for granted,
in every case in which signs of vitrifaction are observed, the inquiry
ought to be directed to the determination of the extent of such partial
vitrifaction, wherever it is found to have been partial. Another
interesting result of his researches was the discovery of the remains of
dwellings within the area of the fort. They were rectangular
constructions, having dry-built walls about 2 feet thick. A large
refuse-heap of bones of the common domestic animals was found near them.
Some querns, a portion of an iron sword, an iron ring about 2 inches
diameter, and a convex plate of bronze 1¼ inch diameter, ornamented with
concentric circles, the hollows of which were filled with red and the
centre with yellow enamel, were found in the course of the excavations.
The character of this relic, with its red and yellow enamels, is closely
allied to that of the similarly enamelled bronzes which have been
already described, some of which have been found in constructions of a
very peculiar type which have yet to be noticed.
-----
Footnote 102:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. ix. p. 396, vol. x. p. 70, vol. xi. p.
298, and vol. xii. p. 13.
-----
The latest examination of Vitrified Forts is contained in a paper by Dr.
Edward Hamilton,[103] in which he gives detailed descriptions of two
such structures in Arisaig, one of which is situated on a promontory in
Loch na Nuagh. It is an irregular oval occupying the whole summit of the
promontory, and measuring about 100 feet in length by about 50 feet in
breadth. The enclosing wall varies from 6 feet in thickness and 7 feet
in height to about 5 feet in thickness and 3 feet in height. In this
case also the wall was not vitrified down to the foundation. Underneath
the vitrified portion there was a depth of 3 feet of walling formed of
water-worn boulders quite unvitrified. The internal part of the upper or
vitrified portion of the wall was also unvitrified. From these
appearances Dr. Hamilton concludes that the vitrifaction was the result
of fire applied to the upper part of the wall externally.
-----
Footnote 103:
_Archœological Journal_, vol. xxxvii. p. 227.
-----
From a consideration of these examples it is evident that the Vitrified
Forts do not differ in any essential point of their character from the
forts that are not vitrified—if vitrifaction be not a feature in the
method of their construction. The results of former investigations have
not produced evidence sufficient to carry the conclusion that the
vitrifaction was accomplished at the time of their construction, or that
it was a method of construction. The determination of this question lies
at the end of an exhaustive investigation, and can only be obtained from
evidence furnished by the phenomena of the structures themselves.
There is one fort in Scotland, at Burghead, in Morayshire, which
presents the peculiar feature of being partially constructed of logs of
oak alternating with layers of stones. The peculiarity of its dry-built
stone rampart is thus described by Dr. Macdonald:—“To strengthen it,
beams of solid oak (still measuring from 6 to 12 feet in length) take
here and there the place of stones, and similar beams inserted end-ways
pass into the mass behind.”[104] We only know the Vitrified Forts from
their greatly dilapidated ruins, and it is a legitimate object of
investigation whether any of them may yet present evidence of having
been constructed with logs and stones in the manner exemplified at
Burghead. This method of construction is characteristic of the Celtic or
Gaulish forts of France. The rampart of Murcens, on the river Lot is
constructed like that of Burghead, of unhewn and uncemented stones. In
its mass, at regular intervals, there have been laid courses of oak logs
disposed longitudinally and transversely as “binders” and “headers.” The
spaces between the logs are filled with stones, and where they cross
each other the transverse logs are fastened to the longitudinal rows by
massive iron nails. There are two rows of logs laid parallel to the face
of the wall and a little apart within its thickness, and these are
crossed at every 3 or 4 feet by logs lying transversely and extending
the whole thickness of the wall, so that their opposite ends appear in
its exterior and interior faces. This is repeated at every 3 or 4 feet
of the height of the wall. The same method of construction, with a
greater proportion of timber to the mass of the wall, appears in the
fort of Impernal, also on the river Lot.[105] It is obvious that by the
application of fire to ramparts constructed on this principle, a
partially scorified and partially vitrified appearance would be given to
their ruins.[106] In the early annals the burning of fortified places
appears as the common method of reducing them, and the legendary
prophecy of the coming of Birnam Wood to Dunsinnane possessed a
peculiarly fateful meaning if its walls were built not of stones alone
but of stones and logs.
-----
Footnote 104:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iv. p. 350. A section and elevation of
the rampart showing the oak-beams in position are given in Plate IX.
of the same volume.
Footnote 105:
Memoire sur les ouvrages de fortification des Oppidum Gaulois de
Murcens, d’Uxellodunum et d’Impernal situes dans le department du Lot.
_Congrès Archeologique de France_, xli. session. Paris, 1875, p. 427.
Footnote 106:
The late Mr. Ramsay, Director of the Geological Survey, records a
circumstance which has an obvious bearing on the question of the
possibility of such vitrifaction. Near Barnsley, in Yorkshire, the
country affords no good material for road-metal the sandstones made
from the debris of granitic gneiss pounding up rapidly under
cart-wheels. "To obviate this defect the following process is
adopted:—The stone being quarried in small slabs and fragments is
built in a pile about 30 feet square and 12 or 14 feet high, somewhat
loosely; and while the building is in progress brushwood is mingled
with the stones, but not in any great quantity. Two thin layers of
coal about 3 inches thick, at equal distances, are interstratified
with the sandstones, and a third layer is strewn over the top. At the
bottom, facing the prevalent wind, an opening about 2 feet high is
left, something like the mouth of an oven. Into this brushwood and a
little coal is put and lighted. The fire slowly spreads through the
whole pile and continues burning for about six weeks. After cooling,
the stack is pulled down, and the stones are found to be vitrified. I
examined them carefully. Slabs originally flat had become bent and
contorted, and stones originally separate glazed together in the
process of vitrifaction."—_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
150.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 251.—Section of Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane, showing
underground chambers within its area. (Not to scale.)]
The Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane (a section of which is shown in Fig. 251) is
an oval circumvallation crowning the summit of a conical hill, some 800
feet in height. The rampart is now chiefly composed of earth intermixed
with boulders, and is in some places about 20 feet wide at the base,
rising to a height of from 6 to 8 feet. Fragments of vitrified matter,
cementing masses of small stones together, are found in the rampart. The
space enclosed is about 150 yards long by 70 yards wide and almost
level. Towards its south-east side were two underground chambers 20 feet
in length, from 6 to 8 feet in width, and 5 to 6 feet high. The chambers
communicated with each other, near their extremities, by two passages
low and narrow, not much exceeding 2 feet in width and 3 feet high. The
floors of the chambers were paved with rough slabs. The walls were built
with undressed stones, which at the height of 2 to 3 feet above the
floor began to converge until the roof was spanned by flagstones laid
across. The floors were covered with ashes and refuse, consisting
chiefly of the bones of horses and cattle, and horns of deer. A quern
was found by the side of one of the passages, and in another were parts
of three human skeletons. Near the entrance to the circumvallation a
bronze spiral finger-ring, described as of exquisite workmanship and
formed like a serpent, was found.[107]
-----
Footnote 107:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. ii. p. 95, and vol. ix. p. 379.
-----
Dunsinnane is the only Scottish hill-fort associated with underground
chambers. But there is a class of underground structures of peculiar
form which is common in Scotland, though unconnected with any variety of
defensive structure. They are mostly situated in arable land now under
cultivation, and have usually been discovered by the plough coming in
contact with the stones of the roof.
[Illustration: Fig. 252.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at
Broomhouse, parish of Edrom, Berwickshire.]
One was so discovered at Broomhouse in the parish of Edrom,
Berwickshire. It had been known before and most of the roofing stones
removed, but on this occasion it came under the observation of Mr.
Milne-Home, who communicated an account of it to the Society of
Antiquaries.[108] It is to such casual circumstances that we owe the
materials of our science. The structure presents the form (shown in the
ground plan, Fig. 252) of a long narrow gallery, entering by a low and
narrow aperture nearly on a level with the surface, widening and
deepening from the entrance inwards, turning first sharply to the left
and then to the right, and terminating in a closed and rounded end. The
opening (A) faced nearly to the south-east. The whole length of the
gallery, measured along the central line of the floor, was 30 feet, its
width at the entrance 2 feet, and at the widest part 6 feet. Only three
of the roofing stones (B,C,D) remained in position. The vertical height
of the walls at the widest part of the structure was 5 feet, and under
the roofing stone (B) next the entrance only 3 feet. It seemed as if the
floor had been paved with natural water-worn stones, but this point was
not clearly ascertained. At the second bend (D) there are checks for a
door, consisting of two oblong stones set on end and still carrying a
massive lintel. The side walls, from the entrance inwards to this inner
door, are vertical. In the wider part of the structure (E) beyond the
inner door they are brought towards each other by the stones overlapping
inwardly, so that the roof might be covered by single slabs laid across.
Nothing was found within it but fragments of bones of animals, among
which the roe-deer was the only one that could be certainly determined.
-----
Footnote 108:
_Ibid._, vol. viii. p. 20.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 253.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Migvie,
Aberdeenshire. (From a plan by Mr. Jervise.)]
At Migvie, in Aberdeenshire, an underground structure (Fig. 253) was
discovered in 1862.[109] It was situated in the summit of a gravel
hillock, and was in form a long, low, and narrow gallery, entering by an
aperture nearly on the level of the original surface, turning first
sharply to the left and then to the right, widening and deepening from
the entrance inwards and terminating in a squarish end slightly rounded
at the corners. The whole length of the gallery measured along the
curvature was 41 feet, the width at the entrance 2 feet, and at the
widest part about 5 feet. Nine stones covering the portion next the
entrance remained in position, the height of the gallery under them
increasing from about 2½ feet at the aperture to 4½ feet at the place
where the covering ceased. The vertical height of the walls beyond this
seemed to have been at least 5 feet. The side-walls were built with
rough boulder stones laid pretty regularly. When the interior was
cleared out the only objects found were a bronze ring, several rude
stone-vessels like roughly-formed cups, large quantities of ashes and
charred wood, and corroded fragments of iron implements.
-----
Footnote 109:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. v. p. 304.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 254.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Buchaam, in
Strathdon.]
The similarity of these two structures is no less striking than the
excessive peculiarity of their distinctive features. These features
are—(1) their position under ground; (2) the contracted entrance; (3)
the form of the chamber—a long, low, narrow, and curved gallery
gradually widening inwards; and (4) the construction of the chamber—with
convergent side-walls supporting a heavily-lintelled roof.
Closely analogous to these in its main features is the underground
structure (Fig. 254) at Buchaam, in Strathdon.[110] It is along narrow
gallery entering by a small aperture in the narrow end nearly on a level
with the original surface of the ground, gradually widening and
increasing in height inwards, and terminating abruptly in a
slightly-rounded end. It differs in one respect from the two previously
described, inasmuch as though it is curved it has not the double
curvature which is the special feature of their form. It curves sharply
to the left, but the curvature is not repeated in the opposite
direction. It is 58 feet in length following the curve along the middle
line of the floor. Its width at the entrance is 3 feet 6 inches, and it
gradually widens until it attains a maximum breadth of 9 feet 3 inches.
The height increases from about 5 feet near the entrance to about 7 feet
at the farther end. The roofing stones were mostly in position and were
of great size, some being 7 to 8 feet in length, 3 feet in width, 18
inches in thickness, and weighing more than a ton. The walls rise
perpendicularly for 2 or 3 feet and then incline inwards with a curve,
so that where the width of the chamber at the floor is 9 feet 3 inches,
it is contracted to 7 feet 9 inches at 4 feet above the floor and at the
roof to 5 feet. The walls are well built, the lower courses of large
cubical stones, undressed, and at the distance of about 12 feet inwards
from the entrance there are checks for a door formed of two oblong
stones set edgeways in the wall and projecting a few inches from its
interior surface. The whole floor of the chamber was paved, and a drain,
10 inches square, well built with a good roof, sides, and bottom, and
having a peculiar box-like opening or sink in the inside of the chamber,
was found leading from its south-east corner. The chamber when opened
was nearly filled with earth and rubbish, and at the bottom there was a
layer of fine blue clay 20 inches in depth, which had been carried
through the walls by percolation of water from the clay bank outside. In
or below this clay which covered the paved floor were found the
following relics of human occupation—an iron ring, and an object in iron
which looked like the shoe of a wooden spade, some staves of a small
wooden cog, a wooden comb, some fragments of pottery of coarse
workmanship, a portion of a quern or handmill for grinding grain,
fragments of deer’s horns, and bones of the sheep and common domestic
fowls. At one corner of the inner end of the chamber the ashes of a fire
remained, and immediately above them there was a well-built smoke-hole.
-----
Footnote 110:
Described by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iv.
p. 436.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 255.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Culsh, parish of Tarland.
(From a plan by Mr. Jervise.)
]
A similar structure (Fig. 255) at Culsh, in the parish of Tarland in the
same county, differs from this one only in being curved to the right
instead of to the left. It is 47 feet in length and 2 feet wide at the
entrance, the width increasing gradually to about 6 feet at the farther
end. The walls are partially formed of large boulders set on end or on
edge to form the lower course, with rudely-built masonry over them. They
converge but slightly, and the roof is formed in the usual manner by
large heavy slabs laid across from wall to wall. The floor is formed of
the natural underlying rock, and the height from floor to roof increases
from 5 feet near the entrance to an average of about 6 feet farther in.
When cleared out in 1853, the earth which filled the chamber was found
largely mixed with ashes on the floor, and the only relics obtained from
its excavation were fragments of coarse unglazed pottery, a large bead,
the bones of cattle, and two querns.
[Illustration:
Fig. 256.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at Kildrummy,
Aberdeenshire.
(From a Plan by Mr. Lumsden of Clova.)]
]
Another (Fig. 256) excavated a few years ago at Clova, near Kildrummy,
also in Aberdeenshire,[111] differs from these in being so slightly
curved to the left as to be almost straight. It measures 57 feet in
length, 2½ feet wide at the entrance, suddenly widening to about 8 feet
at about 20 feet within the entrance. At a short distance from the
entrance there were checks for two doors about 8 feet apart. The
covering stones had been removed from the first 15 feet of the narrow
part, but the roof remained entire over the whole of the wider part of
the structure, at an average height of about 6 feet from the floor. The
earth with which the chamber was filled was largely mixed with charcoal
and bones of animals, among which those of the horse and dog were
recognised. No manufactured relics were found, but two of the stones in
the walls, one being a large boulder, were covered with the small
hemispherical pits known as cup-markings.
-----
Footnote 111:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. xii. p. 356.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 257.—Ground plan and section of Earth-house at Eriboll,
Sutherlandshire.
(From a Plan by Dr. Arthur Mitchell.)
]
An Earth-house at Eriboll, in Sutherlandshire[112] (Fig. 257), resembles
that at Clova in presenting so little curvature as to be almost
straight. The curvature which it has is to the left, and only extends
for a few feet within the entrance. It is said, however, to have been 10
or 12 feet longer than it was when examined in 1865. It was then 33 feet
in length. It is peculiar for the smallness of its size, being nowhere
more than 4½ feet in height, and for the greater part of its length only
2 feet wide, expanding to 3½ for about 3 feet only from the inner end.
In view of this feature of its character, Dr Mitchell remarks that it is
exceedingly difficult to see what purpose such a structure could have
served; but he adds that it is worthy of note that in this district
similar underground constructions are not rare, and that they are called
by a Gaelic name which signifies Hiding-beds. The use of such
underground places of concealment is referred to in the _Saga of Gisli
the Soursop_, which relates to events occurring between the years 930
and 980, and was written in Iceland about the beginning of the twelfth
century. It states that when Gisli was outlawed and every man’s hand was
against him, he went to Thorgerda in Vadil “She was often wont to
harbour outlaws, and she had an underground room. One end of it opened
on the river-bank and the other below her hall.” Again it states that
“Gisli was always in his earth-house when strangers came to the
isle.”[113] The form of Earth-house thus described as then in use for
concealment in Iceland is not the form of the Earth-houses found in
Scotland, which have rarely two openings, but the passage is interesting
because it shows that the traditional use ascribed to the Scottish
examples is a use which was practised among a people who had close
relations with the district in which the tradition still remains
attached to these structures.
-----
Footnote 112:
Described by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vi.
p. 249.
Footnote 113:
_The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw_, Dasent’s Translation, p. 72.
-----
But whatever may have been the actual purpose or purposes to which they
were applied, the fact which is of importance in our investigation is
that these Earth-houses, though ranging in area from Berwickshire to the
north coast of Sutherland, are all of one special character, long, low,
narrow galleries, always possessing a certain amount of curvature,
sometimes greatly, and at other times doubly curved, always widening and
increasing in height from the low and narrow entrance inwards, usually
built with convergent walls and roofed with heavy lintels, which are
always lower than the surrounding level of the ground, so that the whole
structure is subterranean. Occasionally they present variations in
structure as in the case of one at Murroes, in Forfarshire, which,
instead of being built, has its walls constructed entirely of flagstones
set on edge. Similarly, the example at Kinord, in Aberdeenshire (Fig.
258), has its walls constructed of single boulders set on edge or on
end, and it presents the further peculiarity of the chamber being
divided into two branches at the farther end. One at Pirnie, in the
parish of Wemyss, in Fife, and another at Elie, had steps leading down
to the entrance.
[Illustration: Fig. 258.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at
Kinord, Aberdeenshire.]
Occasionally they occur in considerable groups, as at Airlie, in
Forfarshire, where there is a group of five. One of these is of great
size, its length being 67 feet, and its average breadth, from the
farther end to within about 12 feet of the entrance, 7½ feet. The height
at the entrance is only about 22 inches, and the floor slopes down for
about 20 feet till a height of about 6 feet is obtained. The walls are
built of rough undressed boulders laid in pretty regular courses, and
they converge from a width on the floor of a little over 7 feet to about
4 feet at the roof. The covering stones are of great size, many of them
7 or 8 feet in length and 4 feet wide. It contained the usual traces of
cookery in the accumulation of ashes and bones of animals upon the
floor. The only other relics found in it were a brass pin, a stone
mortar-like vessel, and fragments of querns. The other four examples in
the same neighbourhood are known to have existed, but have neither been
measured nor described.
A still more remarkable group was brought under the notice of the
Society in 1816 by Professor Stuart of Aberdeen. They are spread over a
space of a mile or two in diameter on what was then a dry moor in the
parishes of Auchindoir and Kildrummy, in Aberdeenshire. These excavated
houses, he says, are most frequently discovered by the plough striking
against some of the large stones which form the roof. The only opening
to them appears to have been between two large stones placed in a
sloping direction at one end, and about 18 inches asunder. Through this
narrow opening one must slide down to the depth of 5 or 6 feet, when he
comes to a vault generally about 6 feet high, upwards of 30 feet long,
and 8 or 9 feet wide. The floor is smooth, as if of clay, and the sides
are built of rude undressed stones without cement. The walls bend
inwards to form a rude arch, and the roof is covered with large stones 5
or 6 feet long, some of them being over a ton in weight. The whole
structure is beneath the level of the ground and quite invisible, but
many of them were detected by the existence close to them of a square
space about 10 to 15 paces each way dug a foot or two deep with the
earth thrown outwards. These he conjectures to have been the sites of
the summer huts of the people, who retreated to these underground places
in winter, and stored their provisions and concealed their valuables in
them all the year round. But he adds that no article of furniture, and
no utensils or instruments either of stone or metal have been found in
them so far as can be learned, but only a quantity of wood-ashes and
charcoal, chiefly at the farther end, where there sometimes appears a
small aperture at the top as an outlet for the smoke. The whole number
discovered in this locality he estimates at between forty and fifty.
They are found, he says, in other localities, but so great a number
collected in one place has probably never before occurred. The number is
certainly very large, and may probably be over estimated, but it would
not be difficult to find in other parts of Scotland, and specially in
Aberdeenshire, a series of groups of similar structures which, though
not so numerous or so closely aggregated, are so distributed over wide
districts as to show that the custom of constructing these underground
edifices was general and prevalent. Wherever they occur they present the
same individuality of character and the same strongly marked typical
features. Their range in area extends from Berwickshire to Shetland.
They occur in greater or less abundance in most of the counties
bordering on the east coast. A few doubtful examples only are recorded
in those bordering on the west coast. But it is only of late years that
the importance of securing a permanent and exhaustive record of such
casual discoveries has begun to be recognised, and in this direction of
defining the areas of the respective types of structural antiquities, we
are still groping in darkness on the threshold of a great investigation.
[Illustration: Fig. 259.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Cairn Conan, near
Arbroath, Forfarshire. (From a Plan by Andrew Jervise.)]]
I now proceed to notice a few examples which, by their associations or
their contents, disclose indications of the period of the type.
In the spring of 1859 an underground structure of this type (Fig. 259)
was discovered on the farm of West Grange of Conan, near Arbroath,
Forfarshire. It occupies an elevated situation on the south-east slope
of an eminence commanding an extensive view. The structure differs from
all those that have been described, inasmuch as in addition to the long,
low, narrow, and curved gallery widening and increasing in height from
the entrance inwards, which is the typical form, it presents the
additional feature of a circular chamber (A) attached to the long curved
chamber near the narrow end, and also communicating with the surface by
a passage (C C), thus giving to the composite structure a second
entrance. The main chamber or gallery is 65 feet in length along the
curvature of the central line of the floor. Its entrance is 2½ feet
wide, and apparently little more than 18 inches high. It widens but
slightly, till at a distance of 20 feet from the entrance there is an
offset formed by a large stone set at right angles to the passage,
beyond which it widens more rapidly to about 8½ feet across at the
farther end. The walls are built of undressed stones, but in some places
they are partially cut out of the soft rock, which, for a considerable
portion of its length, also forms the floor of the chamber. The circular
chamber (A) is about 10 feet in diameter and 7½ feet high. The floor is
partly excavated in the underlying rock. The walls are rudely built of
undressed boulders. They converge almost from the floor, and the
covering stone was a large boulder resting on the circular apex of the
vaulted roof which impeded the plough and thus led to the discovery of
the structure.
About 20 feet to the north of the underground chamber there was a
circular space from which the soil had been removed. It was rudely laid
with a pavement of undressed flags forming a circular floor a few inches
below the level of the surrounding soil, and about 20 feet in diameter.
Among the flags of this paved space there were found a portion of a
plain bronze ring about 3 inches diameter, the upper stone of a quern or
hand-millstone, two whorls of lead, a number of rudely-hollowed stone
vessels of various sizes, and fragments of implements in iron so greatly
corroded as to be unrecognisable except as fragments of implements with
cutting edges.
The articles found in the underground chambers were few in number. They
consisted of some fragments of pottery, coarse, but wheel-made, pale
yellow in colour, and differing in texture and manufacture from the
usual handmade pottery of native origin found in many of the other
structures of the same class. It closely resembles some varieties of
pottery that are constantly found in the vicinity of Roman stations in
Scotland. A bronze needle and a portion of a quern were the only other
objects found. But that the place had been long occupied was
sufficiently apparent from the quantity of ashes mixed with calcined and
broken bones of the common domestic animals which it contained.
In this case we have distinct evidence of an underground chamber
associated with an overground habitation of less permanent structure, of
which time and cultivation had removed all traces except the circular
paved floor and the casual relics which it contained. There can be no
doubt that the people who occupied this overground habitation also
possessed the underground structure, and used it for purposes connected
with their daily life. There is little now left to disclose what the
manner of that life was, but that little is highly significant. It
discloses that they were a people cultivating grain and rearing cattle
and sheep. They had utensils of stone it is true, and these of the very
rudest form and fabrication, but they also possessed wheel-made pottery
and weapons or implements of bronze, iron, and lead.
A singular interest attaches to this little settlement, inasmuch as it
not only shows us the association of the two forms of underground and
overground structure which united to make one habitation, but also gives
the associated grave-ground of the family. A few yards distant from the
dwelling there was a group of six graves. They were full-length,
stone-lined graves, rudely constructed, with three or four flattish
slabs forming the sides, and one stone placed for each end. They lay so
near the surface that the covering stones had mostly been removed by the
plough, and the remains in them were greatly decayed. The only
manufactured object found in them was a single ring or child’s bracelet
of cannel coal. This is the only instance on record of the discovery of
a cemetery associated with the double dwelling of the people who
constructed these subterranean galleries.
Among the rubbish thrown out in the course of the excavation there was
found a beautiful spiral bronze bracelet of the form of a double
serpent, decorated in that peculiar style of art which has been
described in the third Lecture of this course as the precursor or
earlier development of the art of the Celtic Christian time.[114] Here
we find the earlier art associated with this peculiar type of structure,
and with a manner of sepulture which is destitute of all indications of
Christianity. It is associated also with wheel-made pottery of a type
that is only found in situations suggestive of Roman intercourse, and
therefore indicates a period when Christianity had not yet supplanted
the Paganism of the country. It was also in a precisely similar
association with one of these underground structures that the massive
bronze armlets (Figs. 115, 116), described in the same Lecture, were
discovered at Castle Newe. They also are decorated in this peculiar
style of art and enriched with enamels. Their workmanship evinces skill
and taste of a very high order, and the occurrence of these works of art
in such associations may serve to remind us how greatly we should have
erred if we had estimated the capacity and culture of the inhabitants of
these structures by their architectural character alone, or if we had
measured their condition and acquirements merely by the fact that they
burrowed under ground.
-----
Footnote 114:
This bracelet is described and figured as Fig. 140, at p. 160 of this
volume in the Lecture on the Celtic Art of the Pagan Period.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 260.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Tealing, Forfarshire.
(From a Plan by Andrew Jervise.)
]
Another structure of the same type (Fig. 260), but of larger dimensions,
was discovered in 1871 in a field at Tealing. It was 80 feet in length
measured along the curve, 3 feet wide at the entrance and widening
gradually to 8½ feet at the inner end, where it is a little more than 6
feet high. It has checks for a door at a little distance within the
entrance, and a second pair about 16 feet from the farther end. The
usual evidences of occupation were found in the presence of ashes,
charcoal, and animal bones throughout the excavation. The manufactured
relics unfortunately have neither been described nor figured, although
they constitute the largest and most varied collection of objects ever
obtained from such a structure. They are enumerated by Mr. Jervise as
follows:—A piece of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian, a
bracelet, bronze rings, and coarse pottery, no fewer than ten querns, a
number of whorls and stone cups, and an article made of iron slightly
mixed with brass. The occurrence of the red lustrous ware in these
Earth-houses, as well as in the Brochs and Crannogs, is an indication of
the period of the occupation of these structures which is of great
significance. The large size of the gallery, in the present instance,
and the occurrence in it of ten querns, indicate that it was frequented
by a considerable number of people. It has another feature of interest
in the presence, on one of the rude boulders which form the walls, of a
number of cup-markings, one of which is surrounded by five concentric
circles. Another stone with forty-six cup-markings on it lay on the
margin of a circular paved space close to the entrance of the structure.
These cup-markings form one of the enigmas of archæology. They are
shallow pits, roughly hemispherical in form, hollowed by pointed tools
in the surfaces of rocks, boulders, and standing stones. Sometimes they
are on vertical surfaces, sometimes on horizontal surfaces, occasionally
on the under surfaces of stones placed as the covers of cists. Most
frequently the cups are simple rounded hollows, but very frequently they
are surrounded by a series of concentric circles of varying number, and
often a straight gutter proceeds from the central cup through the
circles. They are sometimes hewn in groups upon the solid rock of a
hillside, sometimes on earth-fast boulders, occasionally on the stones
of stone circles, and often on stones in sepulchral cairns or in
connection with cists. They are not confined to Scotland, or even to
Britain. They are found in Scandinavia, in France, in Germany, and
Switzerland. They appear on the Continent in associations which refer
them to the Bronze Age at least, but they also occur in associations
which show that the custom survived to the late Iron Age, and even in a
modified form to Christian times. Their occurrence here, in connection
with this underground structure, has therefore no special significance
with respect to the age of the structure, and there is nothing in the
association or the circumstances in which they occur in this particular
instance which contributes to our knowledge of the purpose or
significance of the markings themselves. They may or may not have been
sculptured on the stone before it was taken to form part of this
underground gallery, and the only thing they tell us for certain is that
here, at some time or other, there was a custom of which traces are
found scattered over a wide area of Western Europe.
[Illustration: Fig. 261.—Sketch ground plan of Earth-house at Newstead,
and stone with Roman moulding found in it.]
But other indications have been found in connection with the structure
and contents of these singular buildings, which carry the period of
their construction close up to the time of the Roman occupation of the
southern portion of Scotland. An underground structure of this special
type (Fig. 261) was discovered near the village of Newstead, in
Roxburghshire, in 1845.[115] It fortunately came under the observation
of Dr. John Alexander Smith, who has given a carefully prepared notice
of its peculiarities in the _Proceedings_ of the Society. It was of the
usual form, a long, low, and narrow gallery turning sharply to the right
and widening and gradually increasing in height from the entrance. It
measured 54 feet in length along the curve of the central line of the
floor, and widened gradually from 4 feet at the narrow end to 7 feet at
the farther end. The height was not ascertainable, as the roofing stones
were gone, and scarcely more than 3 feet of the height of the side walls
remained. But the walls presented the peculiarity of being built with
hewn stones, laid in pretty regular courses, though not jointed with
mortar or any other cement. Among the fallen stones in the interior of
the structure there were many flat slabs bevelled on one edge, and two
measuring about 4 feet in length which presented a rope-moulding (Fig.
261) of distinctively Roman character. No relics were obtained from the
excavation of the building, but the character of the squared and
bevelled stones and the presence of the Roman moulding indicate that the
construction of the underground structure was subsequent to the period
of the Roman occupation of that part of the country. Another structure
of similar character was found in an adjoining field, but not built with
squared stones. In all probability the squared stones of the one
structure were due to the presence in its immediate neighbourhood of
some Roman construction, the stones of which were utilised by the
underground builders.
-----
Footnote 115:
Described by Dr. John Alexander Smith in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._,
vol. i. p. 213.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 262.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Crichton Mains,
Midlothian.]
[Illustration: Fig. 263.—Sections of Earth-house at A, D, and E on
ground plan.]
[Illustration: Fig. 264.—Ambry in Earth-house at Crichton Mains.]
[Illustration: Fig. 265.—Stones in Earth-house at Crichton Mains.]
Another structure of the same type (Fig. 262) was found in 1869 at
Crichton Mains, in Midlothian.[116] It was of the usual long, narrow,
curved form, 51½ feet in length, and gradually widening from 5 feet 10
inches just within the entrance to 9 feet at the farther end. A number
of the roof-stones remained in position, and the floor throughout being
formed of the natural rock it was seen that the average height was about
6 feet. The walls converge from the floor for about half their height
and rise somewhat perpendicularly above that, thus giving to the
cross-section the form of an ogee vault. The door (A, in Figs. 262,
263), formed of two upright stones crossed by a lintel, is 3 feet high
by 33 inches wide, and the top is about 5 feet under the present surface
of [Illustration: Fig. 264.—Ambry in Earth-house at Crichton Mains.] the
ground. Fourteen feet inwards is a passage at right angles to the
gallery, the entrance to which is shown at F in Fig. 262. It is 13 feet
long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet 6 inches high, rising by low sloping steps
in the rock to what seems another entrance nearer the surface, also
shown in Fig. 262 at E. At G is a small ambry (Fig. 264). No relics were
found in the excavation; but here and there in the interior faces of the
walls there were a number of squared stones faced with the diagonal
broaching and stugging which is so common in late Roman work.[117] About
thirty of these are visible. Two are shown in Fig. 265. There were also
other hewn stones, some of which had apparently formed portions of water
conduits (H, Fig. 265), and others adapted to different [Illustration:
Fig. 265.—Stones in Earth-house at Crichton Mains.] purposes. The
lintel-stone of the door of the side passage is moulded and bevelled on
the edge in a similar way to the bevelled stones found in the structure
at Newstead. It seems evident that this underground building, like that
at Newstead, has been partially constructed with stones taken from a
ruined building of late Roman workmanship, and that both are
consequently later than the commencement of the Roman occupation of the
country. Similar indications are given by the discovery of wheel-made
pottery of Roman type in the Earth-house at Cairn Conan, and of
fragments of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian in the
Earth-houses at Tealing, Pitcur, and Fithie. The presence in most of
them of querns and implements of iron, and the entire absence of such
implements as are characteristic of the ages of stone and bronze, are
indications pointing to the same conclusion. On the other hand there is
a complete absence of indications of Christianity, and the
characteristics of the ornamentation of the bronze armlets found in
association with them are those which belong only to the earlier and
partial development of Celtic art, which preceded its subsequent and
complete development under the new impulses and opportunities afforded
by Christianity. It seems therefore that, so far as our present
knowledge will carry us towards a definite conclusion, the period of
this peculiar type of structure will lie between the time of the general
establishment of Christianity and the departure of the Romans from
Scotland.
-----
Footnote 116:
Described by Lord Rosehill in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
105.
Footnote 117:
This “diamond broaching” is very common in the reparations of the
Roman wall and its stations between the Solway and the Tyne, while the
stones used in Hadrian’s original erections are severely plain.—Dr.
Bruce, in _Lapidarium Septentrionale_, p. 39.
-----
The range of the type includes the whole eastern area of Scotland,
stretching from Berwickshire on the south to the Shetland Isles. Its
special form is so peculiar that it must be held to constitute a
distinction sufficiently characteristic to separate the Scottish group
from all other varieties of underground structures, and sufficiently
constant to warrant us in assigning to it a specific value. There is an
Irish group and a Cornish group of underground structures, but they do
not generally present the special features of form which characterise
the Scottish group. The Irish examples are usually associated with
raths, thus resembling the specimen in the rath of Dunsinnane, which is
the only one known of that special variety in Scotland. They are
excavated in the area enclosed by the interior rampart of the rath, and
consist of one or more chambers, sometimes circular or oval in plan but
often rectangular, and connected together by low narrow passages.
Sometimes the chambers are lined with masonry, and roofed by overlapping
courses forming a rude dome-shaped vault; at other times they are simply
excavated in the hard earth, while the passages and doorways are lined
with stones. They thus differ considerably in form from the Scottish
variety, and they differ also in being usually associated with raths or
earthworks, while the Scottish structures are usually contiguous to the
sites of overground habitations.
The general features of the Cornish group, on the other hand, are more
allied to those of the Scottish area, inasmuch as they are often
associated with clusters of overground habitations. One at Chapel Euny,
in the parish of Saucreed, near Penzance, contiguous to the sites of
four circular huts, is an underground gallery presenting features of
remarkable similarity to that at Cairn Conan, in Forfarshire. The
gallery, which is slightly curved, is about 60 feet in length, 6 feet
wide, and from 6 to 7 feet high. A circular chamber, 16 feet in
diameter, constructed of large granite blocks, each overlapping the one
below it and thus forming a domed roof which must have been 10 or 12
feet high, was connected with the wider end of the gallery by a passage
10 feet long, opening off one side. Another small offset near the
narrower end of the gallery, also about 10 feet long, slopes up to the
surface, presenting an entrance doorway 2 feet 8 inches in height, with
recesses on either side as if to retain a slab to close the doorway. The
floors of the gallery and chamber were paved with flat stones, and
provided with drains underneath the pavement. The relics found in the
structure were whetstones; hammer-stones; spindle-whorls; several
varieties of domestic pottery, red and black, mostly plain, but
occasionally ornamented with markings made by a pointed instrument; an
iron spear-head; and a fragment of the red lustrous ware commonly called
Samian.[118] Another at Halligey, near Trelowarren, consists of a
slightly-curved gallery 90 feet in length, from 3 to 5 feet in width,
and about 6 feet high in the middle, becoming lower towards the
extremities. It has a small rectangular chamber off one side at the
farther end of the main gallery. The main gallery opens off the middle
of the side of a shorter and wider gallery 28 feet in length, 5½ feet
wide, and 6 feet high. At one end of this shorter gallery a narrow
passage rises to the surface. The entrance passage is provided with
checks for two doors, and the whole structure is strongly and
substantially built and lintelled with large flags. On the surface there
are traces of two embankments with an intervening ditch surrounding a
large area within which there may have been a cluster of overground
structures.[119]
-----
Footnote 118:
These details are taken from a paper by William Borlase, Esq., in the
_Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London_, 1868 (Second
Series, vol. iv. p. 161), where a ground plan and sections, with
woodcuts of the structural appearance of the building are given. Mr.
Borlase mentions other structures of the same class at Pendeen,
Bolleit, Chysoster, and Bodinar.
Footnote 119:
Paper by J. T. Blight, Esq., in _Archæologia_, vol. xl. p. 113, with
ground plan and woodcuts.
-----
Like the Scottish examples the Earth-houses of Cornwall are long narrow
galleries of dry-built masonry, but they are not so strongly marked by
the peculiar feature of single or double curvature which distinguishes
the Scottish group. They are comparatively few in number, and any
indications of the period of their occupation that have been observed
point also to a time not far distant from the close of the Roman
occupation of the country. No other group of such underground structures
is known in any other part of Europe, or indeed anywhere else in the
world. These excavated chambers, possessing the characteristics which
have been described, are peculiar to the Celtic area, and the specially
typical form with the strongly marked curvature is found only in
Scotland.
Of the culture and civilisation of the people who constructed these
strange subterranean cells, it may be impossible in the present
condition of our knowledge to form an adequate estimate. But we can say
this of them with certainty, that whatever may have been the special
motives and circumstances that induced them to give this peculiar
expression to their architectural efforts, they exhibit in other
respects evidences of culture which, though it may be held to be
inferior in range and quality to the culture of the Christian time,
compares not unfavourably (so far as it goes) with that which is
exhibited in connection with the superior architecture of the Brochs.
And while on all these lines of investigation we have traced the
manifestations of these early forms of culture and civilisation up to
points at which they seem to touch the culture and civilisation of the
Roman Empire, it is to be observed that they do no more than touch
it—they are not merged in it. In all their distinctive features they are
still Celtic, and Celtic exclusively. There is nothing Roman in the
forms of the prevailing types; there is nothing Roman in the art that
decorates these forms; there is nothing Roman in the typical character
of the structures in which they are found. The forms, the art, and the
architecture are those of Scotland’s Iron Age—the Pagan Period of her
Celtic people.
INDEX.
Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, bronze armlets found near, 148.
Aby, Sodermanland, Sweden, Runic monument at, 99, 101.
Airlie, Forfarshire, Earth-houses at, 292.
Analysis of oval bowl-shaped brooches, 41.
—— of bronze armlets, 148, 161.
Animal Remains found in Brochs, 215, 221, 222, 231, 237, 238.
Armlets of bronze, massive, penannular, decorated in relief and with
enamels, 141-155.
—— spiral and serpent-formed, 156-161.
—— found in Earth-houses, 297.
—— found in Broch of Yarhouse, 231.
Arm-rings of silver, 86, 87, 88, 109.
Arms buried with Christian dead, 5, 6.
Architecture of the Brochs of Scotland, 174-208.
Art, Celtic, of the Pagan Period, 112.
Auchenbadie, Banffshire, bronze armlets found at, 144.
Auchindoir, Aberdeenshire, Earth-houses at, 292.
Aucorn, Caithness, vessels of sandstone found at, 75.
Axe-head, inlaid with silver, from Mammen How, 97.
Axes found in Viking graves, 21.
Ayrshire, the crannogs of, 269.
Backies, Sutherlandshire, Broch of, 202.
Balearic Islands, the Talayots of, 206.
Ball of bronze ornamented with spiral patterns, 161, 162.
Balls of stone ornamented with spiral and other patterns, 162–170.
Ballinaby, Islay, Viking graves at, 14, 38.
Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbright, bronze mirror and other articles found at,
126.
Barra, grave mound in, 42.
Bayeux Tapestry, maces figured in the, 170.
Bead of Vitreous Paste found in Broch of Bowermadden, 233.
Beads of variegated glass found in Viking graves, 27.
Ben Ledi, Hill-Fort on a spur of, 275.
Birdlip, near Gloucester, bronze mirror found in a grave at, 132.
Birrenswark, Annandale, enamelled bridle-bit found at, 123.
Bishops buried with their vestments, 5.
Bodinar, Cornwall, hut structures at, 207.
Borrowston, Shapinsay, Orkney, Broch of, 197.
Bowermadden, Broch of, 232.
Braavalla Heath, battle of, 60.
Brass, hammer-marked plates of, found in Broch of Carn-liath, 222.
Brochs, Architecture of the, 174–208.
—— geographical distribution of the, 192.
Bronze, vessels of, from Dowalton Loch, 266, 268.
Brooch of Brass, circular, found at Yarhouse, 225.
Brooches, oval, bowl-shaped, found in Viking graves, 24, 38, 39, 40,
44, 45,57.
—— analysis of, 41.
—— geographical distribution of, 34.
—— silver, penannular, with knobs like thistle-heads, 54, 79, 81, 93,
101, 102.
Broomhouse, Berwickshire, Earth-house at, 282.
Brounaben, Caithness, Broch of, 200.
Buchaam, Strathdon, Earth-house at, 285.
Bunrannoch, Perthshire, bronze armlets found at, 149, 153.
Burghead, silver mounting of a drinking-horn found at, 46.
Burghead, fort built with logs and stones at, 279.
Burial, survival of Pagan customs in Christian, 3.
—— clothed and with grave-goods, 4, 5, 6, 7.
—— of laymen in clerical habits, 6.
Burials in the mounds covering the ruins of Brochs, 219, 225.
—— with urns of steatite in Orkney and Shetland, 66–76.
—— in Norway, 77.
Burraness, island of Yell, Shetland, Broch at, 184.
—— Unst, Shetland, Broch of, 195.
Burray, Orkney, east Broch of, 197,236.
Burrian, North Ronaldsay, Broch of, 245.
Burwick, near Stromness, Broch of, 202, 238.
Bute, island of, gold fillets and rings found in, 107.
Cairn Conan, Forfarshire, Earth-house at, 294.
Caithness, the Brochs of, 209, 223, 232, 234.
—— oval brooches found in, 43, 45.
Caldale, Kirkwall, arm-rings of silver found at, 109.
Caledonian Valley, number of Brochs to the north of the, 192.
Campbell, William, of Ballinaby, Viking graves discovered by, 14.
Carn-liath, Sutherlandshire, Broch of, 202, 221.
Cassimir, Frederick, buried with his arms and horse, 6.
Castle Cole, Sutherlandshire, Broch of, 185, 194.
Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire, enamelled bronze armlets at, 141.
Caterthun, Forfarshire, Hill-Fort of, 274.
Chapel Euny, Sancreed, Cornwall, Earth-house at, 305.
Charcoal, ritualistic use of, in Christian burial, 8, 9.
Charlemagne, manner of the burial of, 4.
Childeric, King, manner of the burial of, 4.
Clay, vessels of, with incense and holy water, use of, in Christian
burial, 9,10, 11, 12.
Clergy buried in their vestments, 5.
Clibberswick, Unst, pair of oval brooches and trefoil ornament found
at, 47.
Clickamin, Lerwick, Broch of, 195, 196.
Cloth of various kinds, fragments of, from Viking graves, 42, 55.
Cloth, castings of texture of, in bowl-shaped brooches, 41.
—— Hood of Woollen, from moss in Orkney, 103.
Clothing, burial of, with Christian dead, 4, 5, 6.
Clova, Aberdeenshire, Earth-house at, 288.
Cockburn Law, Berwickshire, Broch at, 186.
Coins, Cufic and Anglo-Saxon, found with hoards of silver ornaments,
88, 89, 91.
—— Roman, found in Broch of Lingrow, 244.
Coldoch, Perthshire, Broch of, 190.
Combs of bone, double-edged, found in Brochs, 237, 240, 249, 250.
—— round-backed, found in Brochs, 233, 240, 249.
—— long-handled, found in Brochs, 213, 222, 240, 241, 251.
Cornwall, Earth-houses of, 305.
Corquoy, Rousay, Orkney, urn of steatite found at, 71.
Craig Beg, Ballater, ornamented stone ball found at, 165.
Craig Phadrig, near Inverness, Vitrified Fort of, 277.
Crannog of Loch Laoghaire, the siege of the, 271.
Crannogs of Dowalton Loch, 264.
—— of Ayrshire, 269.
Cranokis of the Isles, the, 271.
Cremation a typical characteristic of Pagan burial, 2.
—— punishable with death, 4.
—— narrative by an eye-witness of the ceremonies attending a burial
after, 61.
Crichie, near Kintore, bronze ornaments found at, 123.
Crichton Mains, Midlothian, Earth-house at, 301.
Crosiers, burial of, with archbishops, 5.
Crucibles found in Brochs, 221.
Cuerdale, hoard of silver ornaments and coins at, 91.
Culbin Sands, Elginshire, bronze spiral armlet found at, 156.
Cullswick, Shetland, Broch at, 185, 195.
Culsh, Aberdeenshire, Earth-house at, 287.
Cup-markings on rocks and stones, area of, 299.
Dice of bone found in Broch of Burrian, 248.
Discs of polished stone found in Brochs and Crannogs, 220, 232, 236,
241, 270.
Dowalton Loch, Crannogs in, 264.
—— bronze mounting found in, 123.
Drinking-horn, silver mounting of a, 46.
Drumside, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, bronze armlets found at, 146, 147.
Dun Alisaig, Ross-shire, Broch of, 185.
—— Carloway, Lewis, Broch of, 185.
—— Dornadilla, Sutherlandshire, Broch of, 185.
—— Mac Uisneachan, Loch Etive, Vitrified Fort of, 277.
Dunsinnane, description of the Hill-Fort of, 281.
Earth-houses of Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall, 282, 304.
—— of Scotland, period of, 304.
Eigg, Viking graves in, 48, 49, 53, 54.
Elgin, ornamented stone ball found at, 162.
Elie, in Fife, Earth-house at, 292.
Enamel on shields, bridle-bits, horse-trappings, and armlets, 120, 123,
125, 126, 141, 143.
Eriboll, Sutherlandshire, Earth-house at, 289.
Erik, King of Denmark, buried with his sword, 5.
Esthonia, relapse of Christian converts to heathenism in, 4.
Eucharist, spoon used in celebration of the, 134.
Fair Isle, urn of steatite found in, 73.
Finhaven, near Aberlemno, Vitrified Fort of, 277.
Fordoun, Kincardineshire, ornamented stone ball found at, 164.
France, Celtic or Gaulish forts of, 280.
Freelands, Glasterlaw, ornamented stone ball found at, 164.
Garrywhoine, Caithness, Hill-Fort of, 273.
Gauls, shields and helmets of the, 119.
Gisli the Soursop, Saga of, 290.
Glas Hill, Towie, ornamented stone ball found at, 163.
Glass, variegated beads of, found in Viking graves, 27.
—— black, smoothing implements of, found in Viking graves, 30, 36.
Glenelg, Brochs in the valley of Glenbeg in, 181, 182.
Gökstad, near Sandefiord, ship-burial at, 64.
Gold, hoards of ornaments of, 106, 107, 108.
Goni, Sardinia, Nuraghe of, 193.
Grain, charred, found in Brochs, 234.
Grave-goods, Christian burials with, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Grange of Conan, near Arbroath, bronze spiral armlet found at, 160.
Hamilton, Dr. Edward, investigation of Vitrified Forts in Arisaig by,
279.
Harald, Earl of Orkney, 200.
Harness, bronze mountings of, 122, 123.
Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland, grave-mound at, 74.
Harpsdale, Caithness, Broch of, 199.
Harray, Orkney, Broch at Manse of, 198, 199, 236.
Hell-shoes bound on the feet of the dead, 6.
Helmets of bronze with horns, 116.
Hildebrand, B. E., on the supposed Oriental origin of the silver hoards
of the Viking time, 90.
Hildetand, King Harald, burial of, 60.
Hill-Forts of Scotland, 272.
Hoards of silver ornaments and coins, 78, 89, 109.
—— of gold ornaments, 106, 107, 108.
Hogsetter, Whalsay, Shetland, defensive structure in the Loch of, 260.
Hood of woollen fabric found in a moss in Orkney, 103.
Horse, the flesh of the, as an article of food, 215.
Hravnkel Freysgode, grave-mound of, 59.
Ibn-Fozlan, Ahmed, narrative of a burial after cremation by, 61.
Illumination from fourteenth-century manuscript, representing a burial
service, 12.
Impernal, construction of the ramparts of, 280.
Ingots of silver, 88, 107.
Iron, tools and weapons of, found in Viking graves, 14, 15, 45, 52, 56,
58.
—— articles of, found in Brochs, 213, 214, 219, 221, 223, 232, 234,
237, 250, 257.
—— articles of, found in Earth-houses, 285, 295, 298.
Kettleburn, Caithness, Broch of, 200, 209.
Key of iron from a grave of the Viking time in Westray, 58.
Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire, Earth-houses at, 292.
Kings and Clergy, manner of the burial of, in Middle Ages, 4.
Kinord, Aberdeenshire, Earth-house at, 291.
Kintradwell or Kintrolla, Sutherlandshire, Broch of, 202, 216.
Knockfarril, in Ross-shire, Vitrified Fort of, 276.
Lake-dwellings of Scotland, 263.
Lamps of stone found in Brochs, 212, 232, 236, 241.
Lenormant, M., on the Truddhu of Southern Italy, 206.
Levenwick, Shetland, Broch of, 234.
Liechestown, Banffshire, swine’s head of bronze found at, 117.
Lingrow, Orkney, Broch of, 242.
Livonia, relapse of Christian converts to heathenism in, 4.
Llanfair, bronze spoons found at, 135, 136.
Loch Duich, Inverness-shire, Broch at, 183.
Maces, mediæval, figured in the Bayeux Tapestry, 170.
Maddad, Earl of Athol, 200.
M’Crie, George, grave-mounds in Rousay explored by, 71.
Metal-work of early Celtic School of Art, characteristics of the
decoration of, 140.
Middleby, Annandale, harness mountings of bronze found at, 123.
Midhill Head, Midlothian, Earthwork on, 272.
Migvie, Aberdeenshire, Earth-house at, 284.
Mirrors of bronze, Celtic, 127, 130, 132.
—— Roman, 133.
Möklebust, Norway, grave-mound at, 62.
Montrose, pierced vases of clay in a Christian grave at, 11.
Mould of Clay for making Bronze Pins found in Broch of Lingrow, 245.
Mountings of bronze found at Henshole on Cheviot, 122.
Mousa, Shetland, the Broch of, 174, 200.
Munro, Robert, M.D., investigation of Crannogs in Ayrshire by, 269.
Murcens, construction of the ramparts of, 280.
Murroes, Forfarshire, Earth-house at, 290.
Neck-rings of silver, 84, 85.
Needles of Bone found in Brochs, 247.
Newry, County Down, Ireland, bronze armlet found at, 154, 155.
Newstead, Roxburghshire, Earth-houses at, 300.
Newton, Islay, oval brooch found at, 39.
Nicolaysen, description of smoothing implements of glass by, 36.
Northmen, Pagan forms of belief of the, 32.
Nuraghi of Sardinia, the, 193.
Olaf, King of Denmark, buried with his sword, 5.
Oland, island of, bronze plaques with representations of warriors found
in, 20, 116.
Old Stirkoke, Broch of, 232.
Okstrow, Birsay, Orkney, Broch of, 199, 240.
Orem’s Fancy, Stronsay, Orkney, urns of steatite found at, 67, 68.
Ornament of the bowl-shaped brooches of brass, characteristics of the,
25.
—— of the penannular brooches of silver of the Viking time, 93–99.
Orkney, ornamented stone balls found in, 168, 169.
—— Brochs of, 197, 236, 238, 240, 242, 245.
_Orkneyinga Saga_, notice of hunting of Reindeer in, 231.
Otranto, Italy, the Truddhu of, 206.
Paganism, typical character of burials of, 2.
Pantellaria, the Sesi of, 206.
Petrie, George, grave-mounds explored by, 58, 67.
Pierowall, Westray, Orkney, grave-mounds of the Viking time at, 55, 58.
Philostratus, notice of enamelling by, 125.
Pins of Bone found in Brochs, 237, 239, 246, 247.
—— of Bronze found in Brochs, 233, 237, 242.
Pirnie, parish of Wemyss, Fife, Earth-house at, 292.
Pitalpin, near Dundee, bronze spiral armlet found at, 159.
Pitkelloney, near Muthil, bronze armlets found at, 143.
Plunton Castle, bronze armlet found near, 137.
Pottery of the Brochs, the, 215, 221, 230, 237, 240, 242, 244.
—— of the Earth-houses, the, 287, 288, 295, 298, 304.
Quendale, Shetland, arm-rings of silver found at, 109.
Quern found at Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbright, 126.
Querns found in Brochs, 212, 220, 222, 243, 246.
—— found in crannogs, 270.
Rattar, Caithness, arm-rings of silver found at, 109.
Rattray, Castle Hill of, pierced vase of clay found at, 12.
Rendall, William, exploration of Viking graves at Pierowall, Westray,
by, 55.
Reindeer, remains of, found in Brochs, 221, 231.
Rhind, Alexander Henry, exploration of the Broch of Kettleburn by, 209.
Rousay, Orkney, urns of steatite found in, 71.
Rygh, Professor, comparison of oval brooches found in Norway and in
Scotland by, 35.
Saga of Gisli the Soursop, the, 290.
—— the _Orkneyinga_, 231.
Sagas, testimony of the, to the forms of heathen burial, 59.
Samian Ware found in Brochs, 237, 242.
—— found in crannogs, 270.
Saucepan of bronze found at Stanhope, Peeblesshire, 152.
—— found in Dowalton Loch, 266.
Seafield Tower, Kinghorn, bronze armlet found at, 154.
Seal, the flesh of the, as an article of food, 215.
Sesi, the, of the Isle of Pantellaria, 206.
Shapinsay, Orkney, urn of steatite found in, 72.
Shaw Hill, Kirkurd, hoard of gold objects found at, 138.
Shields found in Viking graves, 18, 56.
—— of bronze, decorated with enamels and figures of animals, 119.
Ship-burials of the Viking time in Orkney, 59.
—— in Norway, 62, 63.
Shoes, burial with, 6, 7.
Silver, ornaments of, found in Viking graves, 27, 28.
—— hoards of ornaments and coins of, 78, 89, 109.
—— Fibula of, found in the Broch of Carn-liath, 223.
Skaill, Orkney, hoard of silver ornaments found at, 78.
—— ornamented stone balls found at, 168.
Skalagrim, burial of, 59.
Skinnet, Caithness, Broch of, 199.
Skjern, North Jutland, Runic monument at, 99, 100.
Skye, arm-rings of silver found in, 109.
—— ornamented stone ball found in, 167.
Smith, Dr. R. Angus, investigation of Vitrified Fort on Loch Etive by,
277.
Smith’s tools found in Viking graves in Scotland, 23.
—— found in Viking graves in Scandinavia, 35.
Snaburgh, Unst, Shetland, Broch of, 195.
Solomon’s seal, geometric figure called, 255, 256.
Spoons of bronze, Celtic, 134, 136.
Stanhope, Peeblesshire, bronze armlet found at, 150.
Stennis, Orkney, arm-rings of silver found at, 109.
—— urn of steatite found at, 69.
—— finger-rings of gold found at, 106.
Stitchell bronze collar found at, 136, 137.
Stone cups found in Brochs, 218, 233.
Stuart, Professor, description of Earth-houses by, 292.
Sutherlandshire, oval brooches found in, 43.
—— the Brochs of, 216.
Sweindrow, Rousay, Viking sword found at, 45.
Swine’s head of bronze found in Banffshire, 117.
Sword-hilt of Viking time found in Eigg, 49.
—— found at Ultuna in Sweden, 52.
Swords of iron found in Viking graves, 17, 33, 45, 48.
—— with sheaths of bronze, 121.
Sword-sheath of bronze found near Mortonhall, 120.
Talayots, the, of the Balearic Islands, 206.
Tealing, Forfarshire, Earth-house at, 298.
Thor, conventional representations of, 97, 99, 100, 101.
Thor’s Hammer, amulets in form of, 91, 99.
Thorgrim, priest of Frey, burial of, 60.
Tiree, oval brooches found in, 40.
Torrs, Kirkcudbright, bronze object like the frontal of a horse, found
at, 112.
Torwood, Stirlingshire, Broch at, 188.
Towers, Round, of Ireland, 204.
Towie, Aberdeenshire, bronze ornaments found at, 122.
Trelan Bahow, Cornwall, bronze mirror found in a grave at, 131.
Truddhu, the, of the Terra d’Otranto, Italy, 206.
Tune, Norway, ship-burial at, 63.
Tweezers of bronze, 214.
Ultuna, Sweden, grave-mound of Iron Age at, 51, 52.
Unst, Shetland, urns of steatite found in, 74.
Urns of steatite from grave-mounds in Orkney and Shetland, 67, 68, 69,
70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76.
Uyea, Shetland, urn of steatite found in, 73.
Valhalla of the Northmen, the, 32.
Vases of clay, pierced and containing charcoal and incense, buried in
Christian graves, 10, 11, 12.
Vik, in Norway, sword found at, 33.
Vitrifaction, modern practice of, for macadamising roads, 281.
Vitrified Forts of Scotland and France, 275, 280.
Walston, Lanarkshire, ornamented bronze ball found at, 161–162.
Weaving, implements of, found in Brochs, 252.
—— combs used in, 253, 254.
Weston, near Bath, bronze spoons found at, 134, 135.
Westray, Orkney, Viking graves in, 55, 58.
—— large vessel of steatite found in, 76.
Williams, John, description of Vitrified Forts by, 276.
Whale, the flesh of the, as an article of food, 215.
Woollen fabrics from mosses in Orkney and Denmark, 103–106.
Yarhouse, Thrumster, Caithness, the Broch of, 195, 223.
THE END.
_Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh._
=ARCHÆOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS=
=RECENTLY PUBLISHED.=
----------
_Now ready, in One handsome Vol., 8vo, pp. xx., 326, with 270
Illustrations,
price 21s._
ANCIENT SCOTTISH LAKE-DWELLINGS
OR CRANNOGS
WITH A
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER ON REMAINS OF
LAKE-DWELLINGS IN ENGLAND
BY
ROBERT MUNRO, M.A., M.D.
F.S.A. Scot.
[Illustration]
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS.
=Times, October 4, 1882.=
“It is a most valuable and methodical statement of all the facts
connected
with his own excavations in Ayrshire, supplemented by a summary
of what is known of Crannogs and Lake-Dwellings elsewhere. The work is
profusely illustrated with charts, plans, and engravings of many of the
objects discovered during the excavations: it will doubtless become a
standard authority on the subject of which it treats.”
---
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS.
=Athenæum, November 11, 1882.=
“... Our readers may be assured that they will find very much to
interest and instruct them in the perusal of the work.”
=Saturday Review, October 7, 1882.=
“... The issue of these reports in a handy volume was taken in hand by
Dr. Munro, and the result is seen in the carefully-prepared and
admirably got-up volume to which we have now to invite attention.”
=The Nation, New York, October 26, 1882.=
“The work here briefly noticed ranks in external appearance with the
best of its kind. It is beautifully printed, and the 264 woodcuts
inserted in the text are admirably executed; but equal praise cannot be
bestowed on the five plates accompanying the volume. The publication is
a highly valuable contribution to Archæology, and doubtless will find
many readers in this country.”
=Academy, October 14, 1882.=
“Dr. Munro speaks with authority, as he has personally witnessed
excavations at the more important Lake-Dwellings, and has, we should
gather, left but few unexamined. He is, moreover, a careful observer and
one well read in the literature of the subject.”
=St. James’s Gazette, August 24, 1882.=
"This very interesting volume is a first attempt to bring together in a
compendious form, _à propos_ of certain recent discoveries in
Wigtonshire and Ayrshire, all that is at present known to Archæologists
about primitive British Lake-Dwellings. The result is naturally rather
material for the history than a history of these singular structures.
Indeed, Dr. Munro is less inclined to theorise about their origin—though
on this point he has some very well-defined views—than to array in order
the evidence we possess of their geographical distribution, the plan on
which they were built, the physical aspect of the country at the time of
their construction, and the degree of civilisation attained by its
inhabitants. Such an enumeration is itself a proof of the attractive
nature of the questions which await the explorer of these lacustrine
strongholds."
=Pall Mall Gazette, September 20, 1882.=
“It belongs to the very best class of well-selected materials.”
---
=Sir John Lubbock, in Nature, December 14, 1882.=
“Whilst thanking him for what he has already accomplished, we may
express a hope that he will continue his researches.”
=Glasgow Herald, October 27, 1882.=
"As we have pointed out, the explorations of the last two years have, so
to speak, resurrected an ancient people, and we may hope that further
explorations will enable us better to fix their position in prehistoric
times, and better to understand their modes and habits of life and their
surroundings. In the meantime we heartily welcome Dr. Munro’s admirable
study, and recommend it to the perusal of all interested in the
important subject of which it treats.... The volume is a most
interesting one, and will remain for many years to come _the_ authority
on the subject."
=Scotsman, November 22, 1882.=
“In this handsome and copiously illustrated volume, the results of the
investigations of the Scottish Lake-Dwellings (in which Dr. Munro has
himself taken the chief part) are systematised; and the story of this
forgotten phase of life in Scotland is presented with all the freshness
of a new interpretation of a large and interesting portion of the early
history of the country.... And his work has now done for Britain what
the well-known work of Keller had previously done for the Lake-Dwellings
of Central Europe.”
=Aberdeen Free Press, October 23, 1882.=
"A most valuable contribution to Scottish Archæology—a volume that ought
to find a place on the shelves of every district library in the
country."
=Inverness Courier, August 24, 1882.=
“It will serve at once as a record of what has been achieved, as an
incentive to further research, and as a guide to the direction in which
that research should be made.”
=North British Daily Mail, August 14, 1882.=
“The plan of the work is admirable, and it has been wrought out in
masterly fashion, so much so indeed that it may be placed on the same
shelf with the historical volumes of Anderson, Skene, and Robertson,
without any danger of their falling out.... As a scholarly conspectus of
everything of real significance that has been published relating to
Crannogs since Dr. Joseph Robertson first directed attention to their
prevalence in Scotland, it will be welcomed as a serviceable index even
by the most learned archæologists; while to the general reader, desirous
of becoming acquainted with the hitherto widely-scattered results of
inquiry on this subject, it will be a boon, the value of which cannot be
exaggerated.”
=Dundee Advertiser, August 22, 1882.=
“Dr. Munro had a voluminous but confused literature before him when he
began his explorations, and he has succeeded in bringing together in
this volume such a mass of original matter and of detailed discovery as
should enable the least imaginative student to frame a theory.... We
have much pleasure in recommending this book as one of the most
exhaustive works upon the subject yet published. The illustrations are
profuse and well executed.”
=The Antiquary, Vol. vii. p. 67.=
"Dr. Munro has come forward in a very acceptable volume, which is now
before us, and has undertaken to give a history of the excavations into
ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings, together with some very valuable
suggestions as to the age and general characteristics of these
prehistoric remains. We cannot, of course, follow Dr. Munro into all the
details he treats of, but our readers will, we are sure, thank us for a
summary of what Dr. Munro so ably tells us, and for the rest we most
warmly recommend all antiquaries to make themselves possessors of this
really remarkable book—remarkable in many ways, in closeness of detail,
in extent of learning, in breadth of philosophical treatment, in the
wealth of admirably executed and thoroughly appropriate
illustrations.[120]"
-----
Footnote 120:
“We cannot pass over one other important accessory to the
characteristics of this book. The publisher has certainly spared
nothing to make his part of the work equal to the importance of the
subject, and in paper, print, and tasteful appearance, there is
nothing to be desired. We cannot always say this much of the
publications which come before us; but it is a pleasure to do so in a
case like this.”
-----
=Westminster Review.=
“The book is throughout a model of the careful record of facts, which
require the most intelligent and patient observation to make the record
of any value.”
---
RHIND LECTURES.
_Now ready, in One Vol. 8vo,
276 pp., with 84 Woodcuts and three 4to Plates, price 12s._
SCOTLAND
IN
EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES
_THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHÆOLOGY—1879_
BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, LL.D.
KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND
[Illustration: IN THE BURYING-GROUND, EILEAN NA NAOIMH]
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS_
1881
=CONTENTS.=
I. MATERIALS AND METHODS.
II. STRUCTURAL REMAINS.
III. STRUCTURAL REMAINS.
IV. EXISTING RELICS—BOOKS.
V. EXISTING RELICS—BELLS.
VI. EXISTING RELICS—CROSIERS AND
RELIQUARIES.
_Illustrated with 5 plates on separate pages and 82 in the text._
---
=From the British Architect and Engineer.=
“We know of no work within the reach of all students so completely
realising its professions, and we can confidently recommend to the
architect, artist, and antiquary, young and old, this volume on Celtic
art in Scotland.”
[Illustration: sample image]
RHIND LECTURES.
_In One Vol. 8vo, price 12s.,
with 143 Illustrations in the text, and 3 Full-page Photographs in
carbon._
SCOTLAND
IN
EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES
(SECOND SERIES)
_THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHÆOLOGY FOR 1880_
BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, LL.D.
KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND
[Illustration: sample image]
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS
1881
=CONTENTS.=
I. DECORATIVE METAL WORK—BROOCHES.
II. DECORATIVE STONE WORK—MONUMENTS.
III. THE ART OF THE MONUMENTS.
IV. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MONUMENTS.
V. INSCRIBED MONUMENTS—IN CELTIC AND
OGHAMS.
VI. INSCRIBED MONUMENTS—IN RUNIC AND ROMAN
LETTERS.
=Journal of the British Archæological Association.=
SCOTLAND IN EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES.—“_The Past in the Present_ has been
rapidly followed by the issue of the book, the title of which stands at
the head of this paragraph. It would be difficult, perhaps, to find two
books on archæological subjects, published in England during the past
year, which can compete with these in the excellence of their
production, and the logical and argumental value of their teaching.”
[Illustration: DANIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS—JONAH (1) CAST INTO THE SEA;
(2) DISGORGED BY THE WHALE; (3) REPOSING UNDER THE GOURD.]
RHIND LECTURES.
_Now ready, in One Vol. 8vo, 372 pp., with 148 Woodcuts, price 15s._
THE
PAST IN THE PRESENT:
WHAT IS CIVILISATION?
BY ARTHUR MITCHELL, M.D., LL.D.
[Illustration: PAGE 169.]]
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS
1880
=CONTENTS.=
I. THE SPINDLE AND WHORL.
II. CRAGGANS AND QUERNS, ETC.
III. BEEHIVE HOUSES, ETC.
IV. CAVE LIFE.
V. STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON AGES.
VI. SUPERSTITIONS.
[Illustration: CART WITHOUT WHEELS.]
=The Nation, New York.=
“The early portion of the work, devoted to an account of the primitive
manners and customs of the Scotch islanders, their implements, houses,
and superstitions, is an attempt made, on historical grounds, to prove
the futility of the reasoning which attaches to archæological finds an
immense antiquity, and to demonstrate the existence already in the Stone
Age of an intellectual culture perhaps equal to that of the present
day.”
=Saturday Review.=
“Few more interesting Archæological works have lately been published
than the ten ‘Rhind Lectures’ which make up Dr. Mitchell’s Volume, ‘The
Past in the Present.’ We must thank him heartily for the manner and the
method of his book, for the curious and valuable facts which he has
collected from personal observation, and for the admirable woodcuts
which adorn as well as illustrate his volume.”
[Illustration]
_In One Vol. Royal 8vo, with Maps, Plans, and numerous Illustrations
in Wood-Engraving and Chromolithography._
RESEARCHES
AND
EXCAVATIONS AT CARNAC
(MORBIHAN)
THE BOSSENNO AND MONT ST. MICHEL
BY JAMES MILN
[Illustration]
_EDINBURGH DAVID DOUGLAS_
1877
[Illustration]
_In One Vol. Royal 8vo, with Maps, Plans, and numerous Illustrations in
Wood-Engraving._
EXCAVATIONS AT CARNAC
(BRITTANY)
A RECORD OF ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN
THE ALIGNMENTS OF KERMARIO
BY JAMES MILN
[Illustration]
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS_
1881
MR. JAMES MILN’S ARCHÆOLOGICAL WORKS.
=_EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS._=
"Mr. Miln has made some interesting discoveries, and his record of them
is simply and modestly written. He seems to have spared no pains either
in making his excavations or in writing and illustrating an account of
them. The Bossenno at Carnac in Brittany was a heap of ruins of Roman
buildings, and though some attention had been already bestowed on the
Roman remains of the neighbourhood, it had not been previously explored.
Mr. Miln had thus an opportunity worthy of an ambitious archæologist,
and he succeeded in using it well. He is careful to commit himself to
few theories, and shows coolness and judgment in the presence of the
most attractive fields for speculation. He has brightened his pages,
however, by one or two interesting passages on modern customs among the
Breton peasantry which he can trace, as he seems to show, to remains of
the Pagan worship of their half-Romanised ancestors. The nocturnal
procession and fête of St. Carnely are very picturesquely described; and
the whole book, considering its subject, is wonderfully devoid of the
dryness we might expect in it."—_The Saturday Review._
"We have no space for remarks upon the glass, coins, fragments of iron
sword-blades, bronze statuette of an ox, spurious Samian ware, etc., or
upon the excavations at Mont St. Michel of foundations of a much later
date than the preceding. We must refer our readers to the work itself,
from which they will derive much interesting and useful
information."—_Academy._
[Illustration: _The remaining Copies of these two valuable Books are to
be sold together at 31s. 6d._]
=ICELANDIC SAGAS, Translated by Sir GEORGE DASENT.=
---
_Two Vols. Demy 8vo, with Maps and Plans, 28s._
=THE NJALA SAGA=
BURNT NJAL
FROM THE ICELANDIC OF THE NJAL’S SAGA
BY
SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L.
[Illustration: =Graysteel.=]
--------------
_Small 4to, with Illustrations, 7s. 6d._
=THE GISLI SAGA=
GISLI THE OUTLAW
FROM THE ICELANDIC
BY
SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L.
---
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS.
=Dedicated by special permission to Her Majesty the Queen.=
_Will shortly be issued in One Vol. Quarto, Half Citron Morocco._
A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE
OF THE
MEDALS OF SCOTLAND
=from the Earliest Period to the Present Time=
BY R W. COCHRAN-PATRICK, M.P.
LL.D. GLAS., LL.B. CANTAB., B.A. EDIN., V.P.S.A. SCOT., F.S.A., MEMBER
OF THE
NUMISMATIC SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC. ETC.
[Illustration: sample illustration]
The object of this Work is to give, as far as possible, a complete
series of the Medals relating to Scotland. It will contain descriptions
of all now known to exist of the Sovereigns of Scotland, and those of
the Sovereigns of Great Britain specially relating to Scottish events.
The series of Medals of the Stuart Family, both before and after the
Revolution, will be fully described; as well as those relating to
National events and to private persons. A selection of the more modern
local Medals will also be given. The Work will be illustrated in
facsimile by plates of all the important pieces.
_Price to Subscribers, 2:10s._ (PRICE TO BE RAISED AFTER PUBLICATION).
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_In Two Vols. 4to, Half Bound in Citron Morocco.
A few Copies may still be had at Five Guineas._
RECORDS
OF THE
COINAGE OF SCOTLAND
=From the Earliest Period to the Union=
COLLECTED BY
R. W. COCHRAN-PATRICK, M.P.
[Illustration: sample illustration]
ONLY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED.
=With Sixteen Full-page Illustrations printed in permanent Ink by the
Autotype Company.=
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS_
_Uniform with the foregoing, in One Vol. 4to, price 31s. 6d._
EARLY RECORDS
RELATING TO
MINING IN SCOTLAND
COLLECTED BY
R. W. COCHRAN-PATRICK, M.P.
[Illustration: sample illustration]
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS_
RECORDS OF THE COINAGE OF SCOTLAND.
=EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS.=
"The future Historians of Scotland will be very fortunate if many parts
of their materials are so carefully worked up for them and set before
them in so complete and taking a form."—_Athenæum._
"When we say that these two volumes contain more than 770 records, of
which more than 550 have never been printed before, and that they are
illustrated by a series of Plates, by the autotype process, of the
coins themselves, the reader may judge for himself of the learning, as
well as the pains, bestowed on them both by the Author and the
Publisher."—_Times._
"The most handsome and complete Work of the kind which has ever been
published in this country."—_Numismatic Chronicle_, Pt. IV., 1875.
"We have in these Records of the Coinage of Scotland, not the production
of a _dilettante_, but of a real student, who, with rare pains and the
most scholarly diligence, has set to work and collected into two massive
volumes a complete history of the coinage of Scotland, so far as it can
be gathered from the ancient records."—_Academy._
-------
EARLY RECORDS RELATING TO MINING IN SCOTLAND.
=EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS.=
"The documents contained in the body of the work are given without
alteration or abridgment, and the introduction is written with ability
and judgment, presenting a clear and concise outline of the earlier
history of the Mining Industries of Scotland."—_Scotsman._
"The documents ... comprise a great deal that is very curious, and no
less that will be important to the historian in treating of the origin
of one of the most important branches of the national industry."—_Daily
News._
"Such a book ... revealing as it does the first developments of an
industry which has become the mainspring of the national prosperity,
ought to be specially interesting to all patriotic Scotchmen."—_Saturday
Review._
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
ARCHÆOLOGICAL ESSAYS
BY THE LATE
SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON, BART.
EDITED BY THE LATE
JOHN STUART, LL.D.
AUTHOR OF THE “SCULPTURED STONES OF SCOTLAND.”
_Two Vols. 4to._ 21_s._
1. Archæology. │6. Leprosy and Leper
│ Hospitals.
2. Inchcolm. │7. Greek Medical
│ Vases.
3. The Cat Stane. │8. Was the Roman
│ Army provided with
│ Medical Officers?
4. Magical Charm-Stones. │9. Roman Medicine
│ Stamps, etc. etc.
5. Pyramid of Gizeh. │
[Illustration: ANCIENT ORATORY IN THE ISLAND OF INCHOLM.]
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_SPECIMEN PAGE._
SCOTTISH CHARM-STONES. 211
"The (then) chief, journeying with his clan to join Brace’s army before
Bannockburn, observed, on his standard being lifted one morning, a
glittering something in a clod of earth hanging to the flagstaff. It was
this stone. He showed it to his followers, and told [Illustration: Fig.
17. Clach-na-Bratach.] them he felt sure its brilliant lights were a
good omen and foretold a victory—and victory was won on the hard-fought
field of Bannockburn.
"From this time, whenever the clan was ‘out,’ the Clach-na-Bratach
accompanied it, carried on the person of the chief, and its varying hues
were consulted by him as to the fate of battle. On the eve of
Sheriffmuir (13th November 1715), of sad memory, on Struan consulting
the stone as to the fate of the morrow, the large internal flaw was
first observed. The Stuarts were lost—and Clan Donnachaidh has been
declining in influence ever since.
“The virtues of the Clach-na-Bratach are not altogether of a martial
nature, for it cures all manner of diseases in cattle and horses, and
formerly in human beings also, if they drink the water in which this
charmed stone has been thrice dipped by the hands of Struan.”
The Clach-na-Bratach is a transparent, globular mass of rock-crystal, of
the size of a small apple. (See accompanying woodcut, Fig. 17.) Its
surface has been artificially polished. Several specimens of round
rock-crystal, of the same description and size, and similarly
[Illustration: =ANCIENT CELTIC SCOTLAND.=]
-------
WORKS BY WILLIAM F. SKENE
HISTORIOGRAPHER-ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND.
I.
THE FOUR ANCIENT BOOKS OF WALES
CONTAINING THE CYMRIC POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO THE BARDS OF
THE SIXTH CENTURY, BY WILLIAM F. SKENE.
_With Maps and Facsimiles, Two Vols. 8vo, 36s._
II.
CELTIC SCOTLAND
A HISTORY OF ANCIENT ALBAN.
_In Three Vols. 45s., Illustrated with Maps._
I.—HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. II.—CHURCH AND CULTURE.
III.—LAND AND PEOPLE.
"Forty years ago Mr. Skene published a small historical work on the
Scottish Highlands,
which has ever since been appealed to as an authority, but which has
long been out of print. The
promise of this youthful effort is amply fulfilled in the three weighty
volumes of his maturer years.
As a work of historical research it ought in our opinion to take a very
high rank."—_Times._
III.
CHRONICLES OF THE PICTS
CHRONICLES OF THE SCOTS
AND OTHER EARLY MEMORIALS OF SCOTTISH HISTORY.
_In One Vol., Royal 8vo._
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_In One Vol. Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, price 8s._
‘A BUSHEL OF CORN’
BY A. STEPHEN WILSON
AUTHOR OF ‘THE BOTANY OF THREE HISTORICAL EPOCHS’
[Illustration]
=Dedicated by permission to the Highland Society.=
The object of the Work is an investigation by experiments into all the
more important questions which range themselves round a bushel of Wheat,
a bushel of Barley, and a bushel of Oats.
-------
_Crown 8vo, with 5 Plates, 3s. 6d._
THE BOTANY
OF
THREE HISTORICAL RECORDS
PHARAOH’S DREAM,
THE SOWER, & THE KING’S MEASURE
BY A. STEPHEN WILSON
[Illustration]
"The book is useful as affording illustrations of Scripture incident and
teaching."—_Inverness Courier._
"The writer deserves credit for the pains he has taken in making his
researches, and by means of well-designed woodcuts he has so illustrated
the work as to make his arguments as clear as is possible."—_Courant._
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_Two Vols. Demy 8vo, 19s. 6d._
SOCIAL LIFE IN FORMER DAYS
CHIEFLY IN THE PROVINCE OF MORAY
=Illustrated by Letters and Family Papers=
BY E. DUNBAR DUNBAR
LATE CAPTAIN 21ST FUSILIERS
[Illustration: THUNDERTON HOUSE.]
_In One Vol. Demy 8vo, 12s._
-------
STUDIES IN ENGLISH HISTORY
BY JAMES GAIRDNER AND JAMES SPEDDING
1. THE LOLLARDS.
2. SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.
3. KATHERINE OF ARRAGON’S FIRST AND SECOND MARRIAGES.
4. CASE OF SIR THOMAS OVERBURY.
5. DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS.
6. SUNDAY, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
"The authors’ names alone are a sufficient guarantee that the Essays in
this beautifully printed volume were worth reprinting."—_St. James’s
Gazette._
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
=Mr. G. W. T. OMOND.=
_In Two Vols. Demy 8vo._
THE
LORD ADVOCATES OF SCOTLAND
=From the Close of the 15th Century to the Passing of the=
=Reform Bill=
BY GEO. W. T. OMOND, ADVOCATE.
-------
=Prof. PIAZZI SMYTH.=
_Three Vols. Demy 8vo, 56s._
LIFE AND WORK AT THE GREAT PYRAMID
=With a Discussion of the Facts Ascertained=
BY
C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS.L. AND E.
ASTRONOMER-ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND
-------
=Prof. SCHIERN.=
_Demy 8vo, 16s._
LIFE OF JAMES HEPBURN
EARL OF BOTHWELL
BY PROFESSOR SCHIERN
COPENHAGEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH BY THE REV. DAVID BERRY, F.S.A. SCOT.
-------
=Prof. WILSON.=
_Two Vols. Post 8vo, 15s._
REMINISCENCES OF OLD EDINBURGH
BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
TORONTO
AUTHOR OF “PREHISTORIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND,” ETC. ETC.
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_To be completed in Three Vols. Demy 8vo._
THE
USES AND MANUFACTURE
OF
IRON AND STEEL
=From Prehistoric Ages to the Present Time=
BY
ST. JOHN V. DAY
C.E., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. (SCOT.); MEMBER OF THE IRON AND STEEL
INSTITUTE; MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS;
ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS; MEMBER
OF COUNCIL OF THE INSTITUTE OF PATENT AGENTS, ETC.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SICKLE FOUND AT KARNAK.]
-------
Vol. I. in October.
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_One Vol. Small 4to,
With Index, and thirteen Full-page and ten Woodcut Illustrations, 21s._
LINDORES ABBEY
AND
THE BURGH OF NEWBURGH
=Their History and Annals=
BY
ALEXANDER LAING, LL.D.
F.S.A. SCOT.
[Illustration]
"This is a charming volume in every respect."—_Notes and Queries._
"The prominent characteristics of the work are its exhaustiveness and
the thoroughly philosophic spirit in which it is written."—_Scotsman._
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_In One Vol., 4to, price £3:3s._
_A few Copies for sale on large Paper, price £5:15:6._
KALENDARS
OF
SCOTTISH SAINTS
WITH
=Personal Notices of those of Alba, etc.=
BY THE LATE
ALEXANDER PENROSE FORBES, D.C.L.
BISHOP OF BRECHIN
"A truly valuable contribution to the archæology of
Scotland."—_Guardian._
"We must not forget to thank the author for the great amount of
information he has put together, and for the labour he has bestowed on a
work which can never be remunerative."—_Saturday Review._
"His laborious and very interesting work on the early Saints of Alba,
Loudonia, and Strathclyde."—_Quarterly Review._
_In One Vol., 8vo, Half Morocco, price 12s._
MISSALE DRUMMONDIENSE
THE ANCIENT IRISH MISSAL IN THE
POSSESSION OF BARONESS WILLOUGHBY D’ERESBY
DRUMMOND CASTLE, PERTHSHIRE
EDITED BY THE LATE REV. G. H. FORBES
SCOTCH EPISCOPAL CLERGYMAN AT BURNTISLAND, ETC. ETC.
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
=C. MACLAGAN.=
_One Vol. fol., 31s. 6d._
THE HILL FORTS, STONE CIRCLES,
AND OTHER STRUCTURAL REMAINS OF ANCIENT SCOTLAND.
By C. MACLAGAN,
LADY ASSOCIATE OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND.
=With Plans and Illustrations.=
-------
=Mr. VANS AGNEW.=
_In One Vol. 8vo, 21s._
THE LETTERS & PAPERS OF SIR PATRICK WAUS OF BARNBARROCH
_DURING THE LATTER HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY_
=From the Originals in the Family Charter Chest.=
EDITED BY R. VANS AGNEW.
-------
=Mr. ANDREW JERVISE.=
_One Vol. demy 8vo, Illustrated, 14s._
THE HISTORY & TRADITIONS OF THE LAND OF
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By ANDREW JERVISE.
NEW EDITION, EDITED AND REVISED BY THE REV. JAMES GAMMACK.
_50 Copies printed on large paper, 42s._
-------
=LORD CRAWFORD.=
_In Two Vols. demy 8vo, price 32s._
THE EARLDOM OF MAR.
=In Sunshine and Shade during Five Hundred Years.=
BY THE LATE ALEXANDER, EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES.
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
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‘RED BOOK OF MENTEITH’
REVIEWED
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LYON KING-OF-ARMS.
-------
_Crown 8vo, 4s._
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THE ART OF PEDIGREE MAKING
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Governing Families of England_. But it is rich in the materials of
comedy also.
"The first case selected by the writer before us is one which has often
excited our mirth by the very completeness of its unrivalled absurdity.
Nobody can turn over the popular genealogical books of our day without
dropping on a family called Coulthart of Coulthart, Collyn, and
Ashton-under-Lyne. The pedigree given makes the house beyond all
question the oldest in Europe. Neither the Bourbons nor Her Majesty’s
family can be satisfactorily carried beyond the ninth century, whereas
the Coultharts were by that time an old and distinguished house.
"We are glad to see such a step taken in the good work as the
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commend to those who want a bit of instructive and amusing
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-------
_In One Vol. 8vo, 10s. 6d._
HISTORICAL ESSAYS
=In connection with the Land and the Church, etc.=
BY E. WILLIAM ROBERTSON
AUTHOR OF “SCOTLAND UNDER HER EARLY KINGS.”
-------
_In Two Vols. 8vo, Cloth 36s._
SCOTLAND UNDER HER EARLY KINGS
=A History of the Kingdom to the close of the 13th Century=
BY E. WILLIAM ROBERTSON.
-------
_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
_In Preparation, in One Vol. Demy 8vo, with numerous Illustrations._
ECCLESIOLOGICAL NOTES
on
SOME OF THE ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
=With other Papers relating to Ecclesiological Remains on the
Scottish Mainland and Islands=
BY
THOMAS S. MUIR
AUTHOR OF “CHARACTERISTICS OF CHURCH ARCHITECTURE,” ETC.
-------
=CRAIG’S CATECHISM.=
_In Fcap. 8vo, Half Morocco, price 12s. 6d._
A SHORTE SUMME
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WHOLE CATECHISME
BY JOHN CRAIG
REPRINTED IN FACSIMILE FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF 1581
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BY THOMAS GRAVES LAW
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MDCCCLXXXIII
_In the Press, to be ready in November._
THE
HISTORY OF LIDDESDALE
ESKDALE, EWESDALE, WAUCHOPEDALE
AND THE
DEBATEABLE LAND
=Part I. from the Twelfth Century to 1530=
BY
ROBERT BRUCE ARMSTRONG
-------
The Edition will be limited to 275 Copies, demy quarto, and 105 Copies
on large paper (10 inches by 13).
[Illustration]
With an Appendix of 70 documents, arranged in chronological order down
to 1566. The selection has been made from private Charter-chests, MS.
collections in London and Edinburgh, and rare printed works, and
comprises Charters, Rent-Rolls, Excerpts from the Accounts of the Lord
High Treasurer, Bonds of Manrent, Bonds for the Re-entry of Prisoners,
Lists of Scottish Borderers under English Assurance, Injuries inflicted
by the English and by Scottish Borderers under English Assurance from
September 1543 to June 1544, Interesting Letters and a Military Report
on the west march of Scotland and Liddesdale by an English Official,
etc. etc.
The Volume will be illustrated by Maps, Etchings, Lithographs, and
Woodcuts, all of which, with the exception of Blaeu’s Maps of Liddesdale
and Eskdale, and the Etchings of James IV., James V., and the Earl of
Angus, by C. Lawrie, will either be from the author’s drawings or wholly
executed by himself.
The Lithographs in colour will include facsimiles of four interesting
representations of Scottish Border Castles and Towns drawn between the
years 1563 and 1566, Plates of Arms of the Lords of Liddesdale, of the
Clans of the District, of Lindsay of Wauchope, also of the Seals of John
Armstrong and William Elliot, etc. etc.
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_EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS._
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Footnotes
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Transcriber’s Note
The very few errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been
corrected, and are noted here.
The references are to the page and line in the original.
59.29 Thus we are told that[ a] great store of goods Inserted.
140.32 is found in these British Islands along.[”] Added.
Corrections to footnotes are denoted by page, resequenced note number,
and line.
98.51.22 _Memoires de la [Societe/Société] Royale des Corrected.
Antiquaires du Nord:_
270.96.2 issued[.] Added.
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