FOOTNOTES:
[486] Barry's Orkney, p. 225.
[487] Vol. iii. Plate V.
[488] The term Runic knot, as thus applied to the interlaced ornament, is a ridiculous misnomer, which, if it has any meaning, must signify the Alphabet knot!
[489] Guide to Northern Archæology, pp. 43, 70.
[490] Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 99. It is engraved in a superior style in Archæologia, vol. xxii. Plate XXXV.
[491] Chron. Sax. edit Gibs. p. 83, quoted by H. Ellis, Esq., Archæol. vol. xxii. p. 292.
[492] Minutes of S.A. Scot., April 22, 1833.
[493] MS. Soc. Antiq. Scot., read May 1, 1787.
[494] Primeval Antiquities, p. 64.
[495] Collect. de Reb. Hiber. No. xiii. p. 70.
[496] Archæol. Journal, vol. iii. p. 35.
[497] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 354.
[498] "The translators of the Greek poets generally interpret μίτρη by the zone or girdle, (of plaited rushes,) which among the Greeks and Romans was not properly a virgin zone, because it was to be worn by the wife till it became too short."—"In later times the unbinding the coronet and unbuckling the girdle, in putting the bride to bed, were so nearly connected with each other, that the zone and coronet were sometimes put for each other, and μίτρη applied to the former, as in the Argon. of Apoll. Rhod. b. 2. l. 287:—
———ᾧ ἔπι μούνῳ
Μίτρην πρῶτον ἔλυσα καὶ ὕστατον."
—R. Jamieson's notes to Child Axelvold.
CHAPTER VI.
SEPULCHRES OF THE IRON PERIOD.
The descriptions already given of the circumstances under which objects belonging to this era have been found, have supplied some sufficiently characteristic illustrations of the sepulchral rites of the period. Very few well-defined examples, however, of tombs of the era immediately preceding the introduction of Christianity have yet fallen under the notice of observers competent to furnish a satisfactory report of their appearance, or of the peculiarities which have marked the mode of interment in Scotland during this last Pagan age. They are indeed comparatively rare, arising, in part at least, from the period having been one probably of greatly shorter duration than those which have been previously considered; but also we may assume, from increasing civilisation having limited the sepulchral honours of the cairn, or the huge barrow, with its costly deposits, to a very few of the most distinguished chiefs. This latter conclusion receives ample confirmation from many cists found without any superincumbent heap, the contents of which, though of little moment, frequently suffice to connect them with the age of iron. To those tombs of this period, already referred to in previous chapters, one or two additional examples of special interest, however, remain still to be added. Lieutenant-Colonel Miller thus describes a discovery made on his estate of Urquhart, Fifeshire, in the autumn of 1832:—"In trenching the ground within about three hundred yards of Melford, on the Eden, I came upon the remains of two cairns, adjoining which was dug up a spear-head. It was under the root of a tree about an hundred years old, about three feet under the surface, and is the only one of iron that I have met with." The spear-head, which is figured here, measures, in its present imperfect state, only six and a half inches long. The Colonel also describes a dagger, which had very much the appearance of a breakfast knife, but was completely oxidized. There was dug up along with these a small vase, quite entire when found, and in form somewhat resembling a tea-cup, but which was carelessly left on the ground, and broken in the course of subsequent operations. Besides this, several pieces of pottery were met with, one of the thickest of which was strongly vitrified, and also a bronze fibula, and a considerable quantity of bones and ashes.[499] In another cairn, called Gaskhill, near the village of Collessie, in the same county, there was discovered, a few years since, an iron sword, now preserved at Kinloch House. Though greatly corroded, its original form is still sufficiently distinguishable. It measures fully eighteen inches in length, with one edge, returned from the point a short way on the back; differing in this respect from the pointless sword of the ancient Caledonian, as described by Tacitus, though corresponding to other examples found in Scotland, such as those already referred to, which were discovered in the parish of Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, in 1834. In the course of the following year, a large tumulus on the farm of Dasholm, near Garscube, Dumbartonshire, was partially demolished, within which was a stone-chamber containing a bronze or copper relic, described as the visor of a helmet, with a spear-head, the blade of a sword, two small picks, and various other relics, all of iron, but concerning the original use of many of which the discoverers could form no idea.[500] The tumulus has been only very partially explored, and it is not improbable that it may furnish equally interesting contents to some future excavator. In 1836, another large tumulus was opened in the neighbourhood of the Clyde Iron Works, Lanarkshire, which contained, besides two cinerary urns filled with ashes, two bronze bridle-bits, and various other relics, supposed to have formed portions of horse furniture. The relics included in the latter class may justly rank among the most interesting remains peculiar to the Iron Period.
We know from the accounts of the Roman historians, that when the invading army of Agricola was withstood by the united forces of the Caledonians, one of their most formidable provisions for assailing the legions was the native war-chariot. The incidents preserved to us in the narrative of that memorable campaign of the Roman general, furnish the chief historical evidence we now possess of the degree of civilisation to which the native tribes of North Britain had attained at the period when they came into direct collision with the disciplined veterans of Agricola's army. But the most favourable view of the progress then attained by the natives which can be deduced from the allusions of classic historians, is amply borne out by contemporary archæological evidence. The union of so large a force under one native leader for the purpose of withstanding the general enemy, is in itself no slight evidence of an advanced social civilisation. We learn, moreover, that the British warrior had subdued and trained the horse to his service, and was accustomed to yoke it to the war-chariot; an ingenious and complicated piece of workmanship, requiring no slight mastery of the mechanical arts to execute.
This is perhaps the most important characteristic of the last Pagan era which the tumuli reveal to us; while we discover from them also the remarkable fact, that in the sepulchral rites accorded to the most honoured dead, not only the warrior's weapons, but even his chariot and horses, were sometimes interred beside him, not improbably with the idea that they might still suffice for his use in the strange Elysium whither the thoughts of survivors followed their departed chief. The horns of the deer, and other remains of the spoils of the chase, are frequently found in the older tumuli, with also occasionally the skeleton of the dog lying beside that of the hunter. But it is only in this last period when we have reason to believe the Teutonic colonists had brought with them to the British Isles many new arts and customs, that we clearly trace the remains of the horse, or find the relics of the war-chariot among the contents of the tomb, or beside the urn.
The researches of the geologist establish beyond doubt that the wild horse was a native of the British Islands prior to their occupation by the earliest Allophylian colonists, and even prove the existence of several species. "The best authenticated associations of bones of the extremities, with jaws and teeth, clearly indicate that the fossil-horse had a larger head than the domesticated races; resembling in this respect the wild horses of Asia described by Pallas."[501] A smaller species of Equus, the Asinus fossilis, is also found in the more recent or diluvial formations, along with existing as well as extinct species. Professor Owen remarks,—"From the peculiar and well marked specific distinction of the primogenial or slender-legged horses, (Hippotherium,) which ranged from Central Europe to the then rising chain of the Himalayan Mountains, it is most probable that they would have been as little available for the service of civilized man as is the zebra or the wild ass of the present day; and we can as little infer the docility of the later or pliocene species, Equus plicidens, and Equus fossilis, the only ones hitherto detected in Britain, from any characters deducible from their known fossil remains. There are many specimens, however, that cannot be satisfactorily distinguished from the corresponding parts of the existing species, Equus caballus, which, with the wild ass, may be the sole existing survivors of the numerous representatives of the genus Equus in the Europæo Asiatic continent."[502] Whether any of the fossil species existed at the period of earliest colonization in Britain is still open to question; but the occasional discovery of teeth and bones of the horse, along with the culinary debris of the Scottish weems and other primitive dwellings, seems to indicate its existence here among the British Fauna prior to its domestication and training for the Caledonian war-chariot.
A very curious discovery of the tomb of a British charioteer, with the skeleton of his horse, was made in the year 1829, in the neighbourhood of Ballindalloch, a small post-town in the county of Moray. It is thus communicated in a letter to the secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland:—"A labourer in digging for moor-stones here, a few weeks since, on a moor about a mile from Ballindalloch, found at a depth of above a foot from the surface, a quantity of bones, among which appear to have been a human skeleton, and also the skull and bones of a horse. The whole had been covered up, to my great regret, before I heard of it; but the labourer tells me that there were a quantity of rings and bits of iron, one of them like a great hoop: but all completely rusted. I have been fortunate enough to get hold of what I take to be the bridle [bit] of the horse, two bronze rings, joined by a double link of iron, and also some bronze rings which may have belonged to its harness. There were also some bits of wood, oak I find it to be from a fragment I have; but it was all too much decayed to tell what it had been."[503] The letter is accompanied with a sketch of what is described as "a curious little iron cup found in the grave." It is shewn in the annexed woodcut, and will be at once recognised by the archæologist as the umbo which formed the centre of the shield, and received and protected the hand of its wearer. The fragments of oak found along with it may have also included part of the shield, as well as portions of the war-chariot. Scarcely a doubt can be entertained that in this discovery we have one of the rare examples of the tomb of a British chief, with his arms and his chariot and steed laid beside him,—a piece of wild barbarian pomp which puts all the modern "boast of heraldry" to shame. A bridle-bit in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, which answers closely to the above description, was found in 1822, along with the remains of the horse and rider, about two feet below the surface, in levelling May Street, in the New Town of Largs; and was accordingly assumed as a relic of the celebrated battle fought there with the Norwegian king, Haco, in 1263.[504] It consists of two plain bronze rings, measuring each three and three-quarter inches in diameter, and united by a double link of iron.
Independently of the great interest which justly attaches to the British war-chariot, as an evidence of skill and of considerable progress in civilisation, the horse furniture which usually accompanies it furnishes one of the most illustrative class of relics of the artistic skill of the period. Among these the bridle-bits have most frequently attracted attention. The examples found in Scotland differ in no very remarkable degree from those with which the archæologists both of England and Ireland are familiar. They consist generally of two large bronze rings, united by two or sometimes three links of the same metal. They are frequently highly ornamented, and the marks of later repair observable on many of them suffice to shew the great value attached to them. The beautiful example figured here, was found about the year 1785, in the bottom of a deep moss at the east end of Birrenswork Hill, Dumfriesshire, a locality rich in the remains of Roman and British arts, and where the traces both of Roman and native intrenchments are still visible. The outer diameter of the rings of the bridle-bit measures two and seven-tenth inches, and the ornamental appendages projecting into each ring still retain considerable traces of the red and blue enamel with which they have been filled. It must have been made for a small horse, as the centre piece measures somewhat less than two inches within the perforated loops. It appears to have been long in use. The large rings are much worn, and have been ingeniously repaired by rivetting a new piece to each. The small loops or eyes also attaching them to the bit have had a fresh coating of metal superadded where they were partially worn through.
Bronze Bridle-bit. Annandale.
A remarkable discovery of ornaments, bronze rings, bridle-bits, and other portions of horse furniture was made in a moss at Middleby, Annandale, in the year 1737. The whole of these were secured by the zealous Scottish antiquary, Sir John Clerk, and are still preserved, along with numerous other objects collected by him, at Penicuick House. The bridle-bits, though plainer than the one figured above, are of the same type, and one of them corresponds to it in the want of uniformity of the two rings, which is probably to be accounted for from their being designed for a pair of charioteer's horses, the more ornamental ring being designed for the outside, where it would be most exposed to view. The duplicate of this appears, from a note in the handwriting of Sir John Clerk attached to the example still preserved at Penicuick House, to have been presented by him to Mr. Roger Gale. Drawings of the principal objects of this valuable collection were forwarded to the Society of Antiquaries of London at the time of their discovery, by Sir John Clerk, and are still preserved.[505] One or two of the most remarkable objects found at Annandale are figured here from the originals at Penicuick House. They are nearly identical in type with the collection of antiquities found within the extensive intrenchments at Stanwick, on the estate of the Duke of Northumberland, and since presented by His Grace to the British Museum. Some of the principal objects are engraved in the York volume of the Archæological Institute, the Stanwick relics having been exhibited during the Congress of 1846. Another discovery of nearly similar character was made at Polden Hill, Somersetshire, in 1800.[506] These also have been secured for the British Museum, and correspond with the Annandale bridle-bit, figured above, in the beauty of their enamel as well as in the form and ornamental details of many of the articles. The great beauty of these objects and the amount of decoration expended on the horse furniture, prove at once the high state of the arts at the period to which they belong, and also the wealth and luxury of the people, which enabled them to lavish such costly ornamentation even on their harness and the furnishings of their war-chariots. No account is known to have been preserved of the circumstances attending the interesting discovery at Middleby, but the place where they were found precludes the idea of their having belonged to a sepulchral deposit. By far the most ample notice we possess of one of the latter, affording a valuable illustration of the precise use of the objects of antiquity described above, as well as of the rites and customs of their owners, occurs in an account of the opening of some barrows on the Wolds of Yorkshire, communicated to the Archæological Institute by the Rev. E. W. Stillingfleet, Vicar of South Cave, in that county. The following account of the contents of one of these, which proved to be the sepulchre of a British charioteer, is abridged from Mr. Stillingfleet's interesting narrative.
"The elevation of the barrow was uncertain, from its crown having being levelled; its diameter was from eight to nine yards. The cist was nearly a circle of eleven or twelve feet. In this cist, excavated to the depth of about a foot and a half in the chalky rock, and on a nearly smooth pavement, the skeleton of a British charioteer presented itself, surrounded by what in life formed the sources of his pride and delight, and no inconsiderable part of his possessions. The head of the charioteer was placed to the north with an eastern inclination. He rested on his back, his arms crossed on his breast, and his thigh and leg-bones appearing to have been crossed in opposite directions. Very near to his head were found the heads of two wild boars. Inclining from the skeleton, on each side, had been placed a wheel; the iron tire and ornaments of the nave only remaining. In diameter the wheels had been a trifle more than two feet eleven inches. The diameter of the ornaments of iron, plated with copper, which had encircled the nave as a kind of rim, was very nearly six inches. Each of the wheels had originally rested on a horse, the bones of which were found under or adjoining to them; the head of each horse being not far from that of the charioteer on opposite sides. From the size of their leg-bones these horses were of unequal height, but probably neither of them reached thirteen hands."
In the charioteer's cist were also found the bridle-bits, rings, buckles, and others of the metallic furnishings of the harness. Many of these objects closely correspond to those found both at Stanwick and in the Middleby Moss, leaving no room to question their native origin and workmanship, and thus freeing us from any uncertainty apparent in the communication by Sir John Clerk to the London Antiquaries, who has thus cautiously labelled his drawings,—"Horse-furniture found in a moss in Annandale in Scotland, supposed to be Roman or old Danish, or British!" The chariot and horses, as well as the personal ornaments and weapons of war, deposited beside the buried chief, were no mere idle funeral pomp, but destined for his use in a future world. Doubtless his faithful attendants anticipated, when lavishing such costly rites on his sepulture, that they were furnishing them for his entrance into the Valhalla of the Gods, proudly borne in the chariot in which he had been wont to charge amid the ranks of the enemy, and achieve such deeds of valour as form the highest attainments of barbarian virtue. It is to be remarked, however, that the articles found in the Yorkshire barrows differ from those discovered in Annandale, in being of iron plated with copper; whereas the latter appear to be entirely formed of bronze, and perhaps should, on this account, be assumed to be of a somewhat earlier date; unless, as is fully more probable, they mark a period when the use, or the full knowledge of the working of iron, was very partially diffused throughout the British islands, and when, therefore, the older and more familiar metal was still to be looked for among the more northern tribes.
It is obvious, from the various examples already cited, that much diversity existed in the modes of interment practised in Scotland during the last heathen period. The cairn and tumulus, the cist and cinerary urn, all occur accompanied with contemporary relics. The Danish antiquaries are able to refer to a definite period when cremation was abandoned for inhumation. But if the date assigned by Mr. Worsaae for the close of the Danish Bronze Period be correct, it very nearly corresponds with that of the introduction of Christianity into Scotland, when our later Iron Period came to a close. Perhaps it is to this closing period of the Pagan era that we shall most consistently refer the substitution of the earliest forms of rude oaken coffins for the primitive cist of stone. Mr. Worsaae has described the investigation of a remarkable barrow in 1827, at the village of Vollerslev, containing a cist hollowed out of a very thick oaken stem, about ten feet in length, within which was found the remains of a woollen mantle, a sword, dagger, palstave, and brooch of bronze, a horn comb, and a round wooden vessel with two handles. English archæologists are familiar with a corresponding oaken cist brought to light a few years since, on the opening of a tumulus at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, within which lay a skeleton, and beside it a bronze spear-head, flint javelin and arrow heads, ornaments of bone, and a small shallow basket of wicker-work. The whole of these interesting relics are now deposited in the Scarborough Museum. So far as this single example goes, it rather tends to connect the remarkable deposit with a much earlier period. It is referred to in Mr. Thom's interesting preface to the English edition of the Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, as, with one exception, the only discovery of the kind known to have taken place in England. Probably, however, such examples are less rare than is supposed. They have already been observed in more than one instance in Scotland, though little calculated to excite interest in the minds of those under whose observation unfortunately such discoveries most frequently come. On the removal of a tumulus, a few years since, on the estate of Cairngall, in the parish of Longside, Aberdeenshire, two such oaken cists were exposed. They are thus described by Mr. Roderick Gray:—"One of them was entire; the other was not. They had been hollowed out of solid trees, and measured each seven by two feet. The sides were parallel, and the ends were rounded, and had two projecting knobs to facilitate their carriage. The bark of the trees of which they had been formed remained on them, and was in the most perfect state of preservation. No vestige of bones was found in either of them. They had been covered over with slabs of wood, and lay east and west."[507] A more remarkable ancient sepulchre of somewhat similar character was discovered in the parish of Culsalmond, in the same county, in the month of May 1812. The following account of it is furnished by the Rev. F. Ellis:—
"In preparing a field for turnips, the plough, at a spot from which a large cairn of stones and moss had been removed about thirty years before, struck against something which impeded its progress. On examination this proved to be a wooden coffin of uncommon size, and of the rudest conceivable workmanship. It had been formed from the trunk of a huge oak, divided into three parts of unequal length, each of which had been split through the middle with wedges and stone axes, or perhaps separated with some red-hot instrument of stone, as the inside of the different pieces had somewhat the appearance of having been charred. The whole consisted of six parts,—two sides, two gables, a bottom, and a lid. Only a small part of the lid remained, the greater part of it having been splintered and torn up by the plough. The coffin lay due east and west,—the head of it being in the east end of the grave. The sides were sunk into the ground thirteen and a half inches below the bottom piece. In the middle of them were grooves of rough and incomplete workmanship, and of the same length at the bottom. The projecting parts of the sides rested on a hard substance much mixed with ashes which had undergone the action of a very strong fire, and on which part of the grave had evidently been erected the funeral pile. In a corner of the coffin was an urn which was broken in the digging out. It had been formed of a mixture of clay and sand; narrowest at bottom, very wide at the top, and about ten or eleven inches deep. After the different pieces were placed in the grave in their proper order, it appears to have been surrounded with a double row of unhewn stones."[508]
It was my good fortune to witness the exhumation during the present year of examples of this remarkable class of oaken cists, under circumstances of peculiar interest. In the course of constructing an immense reservoir on the Castlehill of Edinburgh for supplying the city with water, an excavation was made on this, the highest ground, and in the very heart of the ancient capital, to a depth of twenty-five feet.[509] After removing some buildings of the seventeenth century and several feet of soil, in which were found various coins of the Charleses and of James VI., a considerable portion of a massive stone wall was discovered, which there can be little doubt formed part of the defences of the city, erected by authority of James II., exactly four centuries before: A.D. 1450. Lower down, and entirely below the foundations of the ancient civic ramparts, the excavators came upon a bed of clay, and beneath this a thick layer of moss or decayed animal and vegetable matter, in which was found a coin of the Emperor Constantine, thus suggesting a date approximating to the beginning of the fourth century. Immediately underneath this were two coffins, each formed of a solid trunk of oak, measuring about six feet in length. They were rough and unshapen externally, as when hewn down in their native forest, and appeared to have been split open. But within they were hollowed out with considerable care, a circular space being formed for the head, and recesses for the arms; and indeed the interior of both bore considerable resemblance to what is usually seen in the stone coffins of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They lay nearly due east and west, with the heads towards the west. One of them contained a male and the other a female skeleton, unaccompanied by any weapons or other relics, but between the two coffins the skull and antlers of a gigantic deer were found, and alongside of them a portion of another horn, artificially cut, and most probably the head of the lance or spear with which the old hunter armed himself for the chase. The discovery of such primitive relics in the very heart of a scene of busy population, and the theatre of not a few memorable historical events, is even more calculated to awaken our interest, by the striking contrast which it presents, than when found beneath the lone sepulchral mound, or exposed by the chance operations of the agriculturist. An unsuccessful attempt was made to remove one of the coffins. Even the skulls were so much decayed that they went to pieces on being lifted, but the skull and horns of the deer found alongside of them are now deposited in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. It is not altogether unworthy of notice here, as possibly indicating the Celtic origin of this early substitute for the primitive stone cist, that our term coffin appears to be derived from the Gaelic, cobhan, a coffer or wooden chest; Greek, κοφινος, a wicker-basket or coffer, though the more usual modern Gaelic name applied to the coffin is ciste-mairbh, or chest of the dead.
The great diversity in the later heathen sepulchral rites may be traced with much probability to the causes which have suggested the term Teutonic as most applicable to the period immediately preceding the introduction of Christianity. The isolation of the British Celtæ was at an end. Not only were the Teutonic races of the Continent effecting numerous settlements in the British Isles, and falling back on the more northern and purely Celtic tribes, as they were compelled to give way to the inroads of the Roman legions on their earlier scenes of colonization; but even where the Celtic population maintained their ground, we have abundant evidence that very extensive intercourse with the south was familiarizing them with the arts and civilisation of the continent of Europe. Such intercourse could not fail also to introduce to them many novel rites and superstitions such as are still traceable in the folk-lore of the whole Teutonic races. Numerous independent proofs unite in confirmation of the fact of an entirely new era having taken the place of the early Bronze Period. The uses and relative values of the metals had obviously been finally adjusted. The Scottish bridle-bit shews the adaptation of the iron for use and the bronze for ornament; and this is even more apparent in the plated harness of the British charioteer found on the wolds of Yorkshire. All the evidence concurs in shewing how great was the change that had taken place since the primitive metallurgist laboriously fashioned his weapons from the rare and costly bronze, still supplying numerous deficiencies with implements of horn and stone. The variety, moreover, in the sepulchral deposits, and in the character of objects designed for the same purpose, is no less indicative of the important changes superinduced on primitive arts, than are the various modes of sepulture suggestive of a diversity of national customs and creeds, or of the indifference and scepticism which are the forerunners of change. Everything betokens the close of the long Pagan era which we have followed down from that remote dawn of archæological annals in which we catch the first dim traces of the aboriginal Briton mingled among alluvial relics of strange animal life, to the commencement of authentic written history and inscriptions, preparatory to a new period of which our own century forms a part.