Dr. Bryce, in his report to the Glasgow Archaeological Society, says that “Bos Longifrons has a wide range in time, from Neolithic down to perhaps even medieval times. It was the domestic ox in Scotland for an unknown period, before, during, and for an unknown time after the Roman invasion. . . . The occurrence of extinct, probably long extinct, breeds, and these only, make the phenomena in this respect at Langbank exactly comparable with those observed at sites of pile buildings in Scotland generally, and thus it becomes indirect evidence against the thesis that the structure belongs to some different category, and to quite recent times.” [40c]
The evidence of the bones, then, denotes any date except a relatively recent date, of 1556-1758; contrary to an hypothesis to be touched on later. It follows, from the presence of Bos at Elie (700 a.d.) that the occupants of the Clyde sites at Langbank may have lived there as late as, say, 750 a.d. But when they began to occupy the sites is another question.
If Roman objects are found, as they are, in brochs which show many relics of bronze, it does not follow that the brochs had not existed for centuries before the inhabitants acquired the waifs and strays of Roman civilisation. In the Nine Caithness Brochs described by Dr. Joseph Anderson, [41] there was a crucible . . . with a portion of melted bronze, a bronze ring, moulds for ingots, an ingot of bronze, bits of Roman “Samian ware,” but no iron. We can be sure that the broch folk were at some time in touch of Roman goods, brought by traffickers perhaps, but how can we be sure that there were no brochs before the arrival of the Romans?
We shall return to the question of the disputable relics of the Clyde, after discussing what science has to say about the probable date and original purpose of the wooden structures in the
Clyde estuary. Nobody, it is admitted, forged them, but on the other hand Dr. Munro, the one most learned authority on “Lake Dwellings,” or “Crannogs,” does not think that the sites were ever occupied by regular “crannogs,” or lacustrine settlements, Lake Dwellings.
VIII—THE ORIGINAL DATE AND PURPOSE OF DUMBUCK AND LANGBANK
The actual structures of Langbank and Dumbuck, then, are confessedly ancient remains; they are not of the nineteenth century; they are “unique” in our knowledge, and we ask, what was the purpose of their constructors, and what is their approximate date?
Dr. Munro quotes and discusses [43] a theory, or a tentative guess of Dr. David Murray. That scholar writes “River cairns are commonly built on piled platforms, and my doubt is whether this is not the nature of the structure in question” (Dumbuck). A river cairn is a solid pile of stonework, with, perhaps, a pole in the centre. At Dumbuck there is the central “well” of six feet in diameter. Dr. Murray says that a pole “carried down to the bottom would probably be sunk in