HUMAN BONES.
M. Engelhardt, in describing the Kiökkenmöddings of Denmark, says that no human bones have been found among the shell-heaps. Sir John Lubbock has also said that “the absence of human remains satisfactorily proves that the primitive population of the North were free from the practice of cannibalism.” Recent investigations have, however, cast some doubts upon this statement. For instance, Mr. Laing, M.P., read a paper before the Ethnological Society on the 14th December 1864, in which he described the results of his investigations of the kitchen-middens at Keiss in Caithness, about eight miles north of Wick. Large masses of periwinkle and limpet shells, mixed with bones, flint splinters, and bone instruments of the rudest sort, were found. Among the bones, part of the jaw of a child was discovered, which had been broken as if to get at the marrow; and affording ground for presumption that cannibalism was prevalent, or, at least, was occasionally resorted to among the race to which the remains refer.
THE STONE PERIOD.
No human bones were found in the shell-heaps of either Boyndie or Brigzes; so that Mr. Laing’s remarks may, after all, prove to be a mere conjecture. “One thing,” says Edward, “must be observed—that no implements have as yet been found mixed up with our shells; but whether this would indicate an earlier or a later date, it would be premature even to hint. Flint flakes, a portion of a flint knife, and a stone-axe or hatchet, have been found near some of the Morayshire mounds, but not in them. They are, however, considered to belong to the same period. In the same way, the flint flakes, arrow-heads, elfshots, found in the lower part of Banffshire, as also the two curious rough-looking bits of stones formed like knives, lately dug up near Banff, and now placed in the Banff Museum, doubtless belong to the same bygone days. Of this, however, we have a proof beyond doubt, that those who had for a time sojourned at Boyndie had, like the men of Denmark, gone out to sea fishing. This we learn from the fact that spines of large rays or skate, bones of other big fish, such as the cod, ling, and haddocks, bits of old sponge-eaten shells, as the scallop (Pecten maximus and opercularis), the cow shell (Cyprina Islandica), and the roaring buckie (Fusus antiquus), are found in our shell-mound. Now these cannot be got except in pretty deep water; and although no traces of any of their vessels have as yet been met with near the mound, still one, a canoe—very similar to the ancient Danish canoe—was dug up some years ago from a piece of marshy ground betwixt Portsoy and Cullen.
“During a recent excavation of the mound in the presence of a clerical friend, we came upon the two following species of shells not previously noticed—the flat-topped periwinkle (Littorina littoralis) and the grey pyramid shell (Trochus cinerarius). These shells are both very common amongst the rocks at the present day. As the list indicates, the periwinkle was the most frequent shell in the mound; but we went deeper down, and the farther we went into the bank the limpet was most predominant, and in fact was almost the exclusive shell.
ANTIQUITY OF SHELL-MOUNDS.
“Taking all these circumstances into account, and weighing the matter carefully over, we cannot come to any other conclusion than that the Kitchen-middens must be of a very remote age. We know nothing of the people who formed these mounds of shells and bones. Tradition and history are altogether silent. Archæology seems powerless to help us, and ethnology’s vision fails to penetrate the depths of obscurity. It would appear to be one of those mysteries of the past which baffles even the wisest.”
AN OLD BONE.
Edward collected further samples of articles taken from kitchen-middens for the Museum, including a series of shells—the oyster, the cockle, the periwinkle, and the brown buckie or whelk—gathered from the shell-heaps on the farm of Brigzes, near Elgin. He had also several other fragments of antiquity collected in the Museum, one of the most interesting of which was the joint-bone of some extinct animal. The story connected with this bone is rather curious.
Before Edward had any official connection with the museum, he visited it one day in company with his master; and there he first saw this particular bone. He was struck by its size, thickness, and peculiar shape. The idea flashed across his mind that he had seen something like it in a picture; but he could not remember where. Seeing his intent glance, the curator asked him if he knew anything about it? “Nothing,” said he, “except that it appears to me to be a semi-fossilised bone of some of the pre-Adamite monsters that are dug up now and then; but what it is I cannot tell.” “It looks to me,” said the curator, “to be nothing more than the root of a tree: in fact I am sure it is. If it were a bone, as you say, surely some of the gentlemen composing the Scientific Society would know.” “Give it time,” replied Edward, “and some one will yet be able to tell us all about it.” “Time indeed!” said the curator, “we have had it lying here far too long. I have often thought of throwing it into the fire, and I will do so when I have next the opportunity. It would never have been here but for that old fool (naming a previous curator), whose only aim seems to have been to get the place filled up with useless trash.”