Fig. 242.—Stone with Incised Figures of Crossed Triangles, from Broch of Burrian (6 inches in length).
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.
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.
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.