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.
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.
