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.
Fig. 99.—Bronze Ornaments found in a Cairn at Towie, Aberdeenshire.
Fig. 100.—Mounting in Cast Bronze from Dowalton Loch (2 inches in diameter).
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
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]]
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.