The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

In the communication of Dr. Robinson to the Royal Irish Academy, previously referred to, he laid before that body a report of a most valuable discovery made about eighteen years since in King's County. It consisted of a large bronze vessel, which contained, in addition to various relics acquired by the late Dean of St. Patrick's and other individuals, thirteen litui or trumpets of bronze, the largest having their seams rivetted; thirty-one bronze celts of different sizes; twenty-nine spear-heads; three gouges; and thirty-one bells, believed to be for sheep or cattle—all of bronze. The account of this remarkable discovery had been reserved for sixteen years, owing to the strange suspiciousness of the Irish peasants by whom it was found, who imposed on the purchaser the promise of keeping the details secret during their lives. The last of them died in the winter of 1848, and then he felt himself at liberty to communicate the particulars which Dr. Robinson laid before the Academy.

"The vessel, which is now in the collection of the Earl of Rosse, was found in the townland marked Dooros Heath, in sheet 30 of the Ordnance Map of King's County, near Whigsborough, in what appears from the description to have been a piece of cut-out bog, about eighteen inches below the surface. It is composed of two pieces neatly connected by rivets. The bronze of which the sheets are formed possesses considerable flexibility, but is harder than our ordinary brass, and it must have required high metallurgic skill to make them so thin and uniform. On the other hand, it is singular that neither in this or any other bronze implements with which I am acquainted, are there any traces of the art of soldering; if it might be supposed objectionable in vessels exposed to heat, yet in musical instruments this would not apply. Such vessels have often been found, but the contents of this are peculiar. When discovered (without any cover) it seemed full of marl, on removing which it was found to contain an assortment of the instruments which may be supposed most in request among the rude inhabitants of such a country as Ireland must have been at that early epoch.... It seems likely that the collection was the stock of a travelling merchant, who, like the pedlar of modern times, went from house to house provided with the commodities most in request, and it is easily imagined that if entangled in a bog with so heavy a load, a man must relinquish it.

"This is connected with another question, the source from which the ancient world was supplied with the prodigious quantity of bronze arms and utensils which we know to have existed. This caught my imagination many years since, and I then analyzed a great variety of bronzes, with such uniform results that I supposed this identity of composition was evidence of their all coming from the same manufactures. Afterwards I found that the peculiar properties of the atomic compound already referred to are sufficiently distinct to make any metallurgist who was engaged in such a manufacture select it. It also appears to me more permanent in the crucible."

Dr. Robinson states that this alloy, when used for weapons, is a constant chemical compound containing fourteen equivalents of copper and one of tin, or nearly eighty-eight parts of the former and twelve of the latter by weight. But no account is given by him of the process of analysis, and the results justify the supposition that in these experiments, as in those of Dr. Clarke of Cambridge, he had assumed the absence of all other metals, and sought only for copper and tin.[287] Notwithstanding the opinions quoted above, Dr. Robinson still inclines, on other grounds, to the conclusion that we are justified in tracing the bronze to some common source, and this he conceives to be the Phœnicians. In all the weapons and implements the points are entire and sharp, and the edges unbroken. The spear-heads are the most remarkable as specimens of workmanship. They are of various sizes, and of great diversity of pattern, and also have their points and edges perfect as if they had never been used. They prove, as Dr. Robinson remarks, not only that the workmen who made them were masters of the art of casting, but also that they possessed high mechanical perceptions; their productions shewing a skilful adaptation of the material to the end in view. These indications appear to him to confirm the idea of their derivation from some foreign source. "Yet," he also adds, "in many of them the colour of the bronze is such as, at first sight, to excite a suspicion that they were gilded." This has already been noted as a peculiarity observed hitherto almost exclusively in the primitive bronze relics of Scotland and Ireland, and even there occurring in greatest abundance in certain districts. Dr. Petrie observed, at the meeting of the Academy, that all the bronze relics found in King's County have the characteristic golden tinge referred to, and added that the number of beautiful moulds for hatchets and other implements of warfare found from time to time in Ireland, prove that the ancient Irish understood the art of manufacturing bronze instruments such as those discovered in the vessel found at Dooros Heath.

With the desire of testing as far as possible the exact bearing of the chemical evidence on this interesting inquiry in relation to relics of the Scottish Bronze Period, I obtained permission from the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to submit various specimens of bronze in the Society's collection to chemical analysis. The results will be found to differ very remarkably from that ideal uniformity which has been supposed to establish the conclusion of some single common origin for the metal, if not indeed for the manufactured weapons and implements. The experiments have been made in the laboratory and under the directions of my brother, Dr. George Wilson, whose acknowledged experience as an analyst is sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of the results. In these analyses it will be seen that the presence of lead has been detected in every instance in greatly varying quantities, but in two of the examples exceeding the tin.

Five of the examples were selected from specimens in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, the sixth (No. 4) is an axe in my own possession.[288] They are arranged according to the quantity of copper present in each. No. 1 is a piece of a large bronze cauldron found in the neighbourhood of Lauder, Berwickshire. The chief portions of it, which still remain in the Scottish Museum, appear to have been partially melted by excessive heat, so as to make a large hole in the side of the vessel, and above this a thin plate of metal has been rudely rivetted to repair the injury. No. 2 is a piece of a leaf-shaped sword dredged out of Duddingstone Loch near Edinburgh; No. 3, part of one of the large bronze vessels usually styled Roman camp-kettles, found at Huntly Wood, near West Gordon, Berwickshire; No. 4, an axe-head in my own possession, which was found in draining a field near the village of Pentland, Mid-Lothian. This was of the bright yellow metal so common in the earlier bronze relics of Scotland and Ireland, and of the very rudest workmanship, having apparently been cast in sand. It was full of air-holes, and only ground at the edge like the most primitive axe-heads of flint. Its specific gravity, however, it will be observed, is high, so that it must have been hammered in order to give firmness and consistency to the imperfect results of the crucible and mould. No. 5 is a piece of a bronze cauldron dredged up from Duddingstone Loch, which appears, like other large vessels of this period, to have had bronze rings attached to it for suspension, one of which has been figured on a previous page, from the original in the Scottish Museum. No. 6 is one of the implements to which the name of Palstave is now given. It was found in the parish of Denino, Fifeshire, and appears to have been very imperfectly cast—probably in loam. Like the axe-head No. 4, it was rough and full of air-holes, while from its peculiar form it could not be subjected to the after-process of hammering. Its specific gravity is accordingly unusually small. The examples, it will be seen, present every requisite of variety, including weapons, implements, and vessels, from Fife, Mid-Lothian, and Berwickshire, selected solely as furnishing a comprehensive diversity in the elements of comparison. The following are the results of the analyses and the description of the process by which they were obtained, nearly the whole of the experiments having been repeated several times:—

ANALYSES OF ANCIENT BRONZES.