burials, and every object associated with them, is clearly of Norwegian
type, and of the heathen period of their Viking time—that is, of the
period ranging between the beginning of the eighth and the end of the
tenth centuries—and that the sword of this peculiar form and the
bowl-shaped brooch of this remarkable type are the most characteristic
objects associated with this class of burials.
The next question that presents itself for determination is, What is the
range or area of this type of burial, associated with these types of
objects, in Scotland?
[Illustration:
Fig. 29.—Brooch found at Ballinaby, Islay, in 1788.
One of a pair (4¼ inches in length).
]
On this same estate of Ballinaby, in Islay, a grave was discovered under
a large standing-stone in the year 1788. There is no precise record of
the circumstances beyond the fact that a pair of oval bowl-shaped
brooches (Fig. 29) were found in it. They were presented to the National
Museum, and are thus preserved. They are of the same variety of type as
those previously described, but differing somewhat in the patterns of
their ornamentation. They are 4¼ inches in length, 2⅞ inches in breadth,
and 1¼ inch in height. Their pins were of iron and are gone, but the
hinge and catch remain in both. The central ornament of the upper shell
is a raised boss, cast hollow in the metal, chased on the upper surface,
and pierced with four holes. The channels cut in the bands of unpierced
metal between the patterns of pierced work, and the holes through which
the plaited strands of silver wires had passed, are visible, but the
wires themselves are gone. The holes for the pins that fastened the
studs of coloured paste on the circular spaces at the junction of the
bands are there, but pins and studs are both wanting. The patterns of
the ornamentation are zoomorphic, representing winged, dragon-like
animals placed face to face. The band round the lower part of the under
shell of the brooch is filled with a suggestion of zoomorphic patterns
in panels, and the flange or flat border underneath it is divided into a
series of raised and sunk spaces, produced apparently by a triangular
punch.
[Illustration:
Fig. 30.—Brooch found in a grave near Newton, Islay.
One of a pair (4⅛ inches in length).
]
In 1845 a similar burial was discovered in the strath near Newton
Distillery, also in Islay. No record of the circumstances is preserved,
but two oval bowl-shaped brooches (Fig. 30) and an amber bead, which
were found in the grave, are in the possession of Mr. John Campbell of
Islay. The brooches are each 4⅛ inches in length, 2¾ inches in width,
and 1 inch in height. The pins had been of iron and are gone, but the
hinge and catch are still traceable. These brooches differ from those
that have been already described, inasmuch as they are not double
shelled but cast in one piece, that is, they are made of a single shell,
which is chased, but not pierced in open-work patterns. The division and
the arrangement of the patterns are much the same as in those first
described, but there are no channels in the partitions for silver wires,
and the partitions themselves are ornamented with a species of fret. The
circular spaces at the junctions of the partitions have been ornamented
with studs of paste pinned on, but studs and pins are both gone. The
patterns of the ornamentation are executed with a graving tool, but they
exhibit so little coherency of design that it is impossible to call them
zoomorphic.[24]
-----
Footnote 24:
A similar grave was found in Mull, and the brooches are in the
possession of Lord Northampton at Torloisk, but I have no further
information regarding them.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 31.—Brooch found in Tiree.
1. Under Shell of Brooch, gilt.
2. Upper Shell of pierced and chased work.
]
In the old Statistical Account of Tiree it is stated that, in digging at
Cornaigbeg, there were found at different times human skeletons, and
nigh them skeletons of horses. Swords, it is said, were also found, but
diminished with rust,—silver-work preserved the handles; there were also
shields and helmets. In March 1847 an oval bowl-shaped brooch of this
special character, which had been found in Tiree, was exhibited to the
Society by Sir John Graham Dalzell, but it was not left in the Museum,
and it is not now known what became of it. But in 1872, the late Rev.
Dr. Norman Macleod presented to the Museum a brooch of this character
found in Tiree (Fig. 31), which is almost precisely of the same pattern
as those first found in Islay. It is 4¼ inches in length, 2¼ inches in
breadth, and 1½ inch in height. It is double, and is here figured with
the upper and under shells separated from each other so as to show the
manner in which they were fitted and pinned together, so that the
smooth-gilded surface of the under shell might shine through the pierced
work of the upper. This brooch also presents a peculiar appearance
common to them all, but which, in this instance, is strongly marked. The
interior of the under shell is impressed with the texture of coarse
cloth so distinctly, that the size, number, and interweaving of the
threads are as visible as in the web. The cloth seems to be coarse
linen, and the appearance is really an impression cast in the metal.
These under shells were probably cast in moulds prepared in this way—the
side of the mould corresponding to the convex surface with its
ornamental border was cut in soft stone, a thickness of wet cloth was
then fitted into it corresponding to the thickness of the metal, and
over this a lump of clay was rammed hard; the clay was lifted and the
cloth removed, thus leaving a cavity for the metal;[25] the clay became
one side of the mould and the stone the other, and, when the metal was
run in, it produced a cast of the impression of the cloth retained upon
the backing of clay. Thus these brooches present castings in metal of
the textile fabrics of the eighth and ninth centuries, showing the
thickness of its threads, the method of weaving, and the general finish
of the fabric. But there is a still more interesting circumstance
connected with them in respect to the cloth of the period when they were
made and worn. In some instances they have not only preserved casts in
the metal of the impression of cloth in the clay of the mould, but have
actually preserved portions of the dress in which they were worn, or in
which they were fixed when committed to the grave with the body of the
wearer. I have already stated that they have usually had pins of iron,
now represented by a lump of oxidation. In this brooch from Tiree, and
also in one which I brought from Hakedalen, near Christiania, I have
ascertained by careful examination of this lump of oxidation that it has
enclosed and protected from decay a minute portion of puckered cloth
which had been caught between the point of the thick pin and the iron
catch into which it slipped when the brooch was fastened on the dress. I
have been able to remove and mount for microscopical examination some
small scraps of this cloth. It appears to be linen, but with a partial
admixture of another fibre, which may be hemp, and I can detect no
material difference between the cloth in the specimen from Norway and
that from the island of Tiree on our own western coast.
-----
Footnote 25:
The metal of which these brooches are made is not bronze but a very
soft brass. Professor Rygh has given the details of the analyses of
four, and the composition of the metal is as follows:—
Analyses of bowl-shaped brooches. Copper. Zinc. Lead.
1. From Stromsund, Norway 74·78 10·44 14·36
2. From Braak, Norway 72·85 11·90 15·71
3. From Gardness, Norway 88·00 11·90 ...
4. From Denmark 84·44 11·00 3·77
-----
Continuing our inquiry as to the area over which these peculiar relics
have been found in Scotland, we ascertain that there are other instances
of their occurrence in the Hebrides. On the island of Barra a large
grave-mound, crowned by a standing stone 7 feet high, was opened by
Commander Edge in 1862. The grave contained a skeleton placed with the
head to the west, and along with it there were found an iron sword, 33
inches in length, with remains of the scabbard, a shield-boss of iron
and some remains of the shield, a whetstone, two oval bowl-shaped
brooches of this type, and a comb of bone, 8 inches in length.[26] A
similar burial was found “in the island of Sangay” (probably Sanderay)
“between Uist and Harris.” The grave contained a skeleton, and with it
were found a pair of these brooches (closely resembling Fig. 48, from
Pierowall in Orkney), together with a brass pin and a brass needle.[27]
Even in remote St. Kilda the evidences of the occurrence of this typical
form of burial are not wanting. A pair of these oval brooches found in
that island are preserved in the Andersonian Museum, Glasgow.[28]
-----
Footnote 26:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond._ 1861–64, p. 230. The comb is there said to
have been of boxwood, but it seems more likely that it was of bone.
Footnote 27:
One of these brooches is figured in the _Vetusta Monumenta of the
Society of Antiquaries of London_, vol. ii. pl. xx., and it is there
said that “the fellow of it is in the British Museum.”
Footnote 28:
One of these is figured by Worsaae in the _Aarboger for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed_ for 1873.
-----
Coming now to the mainland of Scotland, we find that one of these
brooches is preserved in Ospisdale House, Sutherlandshire, of which
there is no precise record; but there is every reason to conclude that
it is one of a pair found somewhere in the neighbourhood. Another pair
were found in a grave in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin Castle, and the
under shells of them are preserved in the Duke of Sutherland’s museum
there.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.—Bowl-shaped Brooch, found with a Skeleton at
Castletown, Caithness (4½ inches in length).]
In Caithness there have been occasional discoveries of interments of
this character, but unfortunately no one seems to have thought a burial
which was associated with “rusty pieces of old iron” worthy of careful
investigation. The Rev. Mr. Pope records, incidentally,[29] a remarkable
discovery of swords “in a peat bank near the house of Haimar” in the
neighbourhood of Thurso, and dismisses the subject with the remark that
“they were odd machines resembling plough-shares, all iron.” A pair of
oval bowl-shaped brooches of great beauty were found at Castletown in
Caithness in 1786. One of these (Fig. 32) is in the National Museum.[30]
It is 4½ inches in length and 3 inches in width. It is double-shelled,
and the gilding, both on the under and upper shells, is still visible,
although the “double row of silver cord along the edge,” which is noted
in the first description of the brooches when they were presented by
James Traill of Rattar in 1787, is now gone. The centre of the convexity
of the brooch is surmounted by a bold ornament, in form somewhat
resembling a crown. The ornamentation is distinctly zoomorphic, the four
projecting ornaments below the centrepiece being carved into the form of
animals’ heads. These brooches were “dug out of the top of the ruins” of
a Broch near Castletown, and were found “lying beside a skeleton, buried
under a flat stone with very little earth above it.” This evidently
implies that the interment had been made in the upper part of the mound
covering the ruins of the Broch.[31]
-----
Footnote 29:
Pope’s Translation of Torfaeus, Wick, 1866, p. 169.
Footnote 30:
The other was given to Mr. Worsaae on the occasion of his visit to
Scotland, and I had no difficulty in recognising it in one of the
cases of the Museum at Copenhagen.
Footnote 31:
It was the custom of the Northmen to bury their dead in mounds raised
in their honour, but they also took advantage of mounds already
raised, and of natural or artificial mounds which were convenient for
the purpose. See also the remarks on the use of the mounds covering
the ruins of Brochs as burial-places in the subsequent Lecture on
Brochs.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 33.—Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch, found in a cist in the
Longhills, Wick.]
Another pair of these oval bowl-shaped brooches from Caithness is also
in the National Museum. They were found in a cist in the top of a
natural mound of gravel called the Longhills, on the north side of the
river, a little above the bridge of Wick, in 1840. Although found
together they differ in pattern, one being nearly similar to the Tiree
brooch, while the other (Fig. 33) differs from all the Scottish
specimens in having eight bosses of open work arranged round the central
boss. They retain portions of the twisted strands of fine silver wire
which lay in the channeled depressions of the upper part.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.—Sword found in Rousay (39¼ inches in length).]
Passing from Caithness to Orkney, we find abundant evidence of the same
form of burial associated with objects of similar character. At
Sweindrow, in the island of Rousay, there is a field in which there are
many graves, from which objects of iron were occasionally turned up by
the plough many years ago, when the soil had been less frequently
disturbed. In the year 1826 a fine specimen of the peculiar type of
sword associated with these burials (Fig. 34) was thus turned up by the
plough in close proximity to the spot where previously the iron boss of
a shield had been similarly discovered.[32] The sword is a long,
broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, with short straight guard and
triangular pommel. It measures 3 feet 3¼ inches in total length, the
blade being 2 feet 8 inches in length. The guard is 5 inches in length
and 1¼ inch in depth. The grip measures 3¼ inches in length. The pommel
is 4¼ inches in width and 3 inches in height. The blade, which is 2⅛
inches wide at the hilt, has been in the scabbard at the time of its
deposit, and blade and scabbard are now converted into a mass of
oxidation. The scabbard has been made of thin laths of wood, the fibre
of which is still visible, covered in some places with leather. There
are also some remains of the side-plates of bone or horn which made up
the grip, and the gilt metallic mounting which adorned both ends of the
grip still remains. The ornament closely resembles that of the silver
mounting of the rim of a horn or beaker (Fig. 35), which was dug up at
Burghead some time previous to 1826, and is now in the Museum. But the
ornament of the sword has a distinctly zoomorphic feeling, and still
more closely resembles the decoration of a similar mounting of the hilt
of a sword of the Viking type dug up at Islandbridge, near Dublin, and
preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
-----
Footnote 32:
This fine sword, now broken in many pieces, was presented to the
Museum in 1874 by the representatives of the late Professor Thomas S.
Traill, through the Rev. G. R. Omond, Free Church minister at Monzie,
one of the oldest Fellows of the Society.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 35.—Silver Mounting of a Drinking-Horn found at Burghead
(2¾ inches diameter).
]
Except in the island of Westray (in which seven specimens have
occurred), there is no record of the discovery of the oval bowl-shaped
brooches elsewhere in Orkney. I shall describe the remarkable group of
graves in Westray in connection with the phenomena of burial, merely
remarking here that the presence of these brooches and this type of
sword carries the area of this form of burial into the Orkney Islands.
Two oval bowl-shaped brooches, having the usual mark of cloth on the
inside of their inner shells, are also in the museum at Lerwick. They
were found at Clibberswick, in the north end of the island of Unst, the
most northerly island of the Shetland group. Along with them there were
found a plain silver bracelet, two glass beads ornamented with twisted
streaks of white and blue, and a trefoil-shaped brooch of a type which
is also peculiarly Scandinavian, covered with a zoomorphic ornament
consisting of dragonesque forms, whose feet twist under and grasp parts
of their bodies.[33]
-----
Footnote 33:
This trefoil-shaped brooch closely resembles one figured in the
_Memoires de la Société des Antiquaires du Nord_, 1840-44.
-----
The range of these burials, distinguished (among other features peculiar
to themselves), by the presence of this peculiar type of sword and this
remarkable type of brooch,[34] has thus been traced through the western
and northern isles from Islay to Unst, in Shetland, touching the
mainland only in the counties of Sutherland and Caithness. This area,
established on archæological evidence, coincides exactly with the area
established by historical record as that which was colonised and
possessed by the Norwegians in the time of their heathenism.
-----
Footnote 34:
Including those found in the Viking cemetery at Pierowall, in Westray,
Orkney, the total number of these brooches found in Scotland is
thirty-two. The total number of Celtic brooches that I was able to
enumerate was fourteen. The difference is striking, and the fact that
the foreign form occurs in larger numbers than the native form is so
opposed to what is naturally expected, that the explanation becomes of
some interest. It is simple, but significant. The largeness of the
larger number is an archæological result of Paganism. The smallness of
the smaller number is an archæological result of Christianity. The
effect of Paganism was that those who had brooches were buried with
them. The effect of Christianity was that brooches ceased to be buried
with those who had them. The tendency of the one system was to take
all the brooches ultimately into the soil with the remains of the
generations that wore them; the tendency of the other system was to
keep the brooches from going underground. Hence we see that the
preponderance of these foreign relics in the soil of Scotland (which
is almost destitute of native relics of the same age and purpose) is
an archæological result which is directly dependent on the difference
between Paganism and Christianity.
-----
* * * * *
I now proceed to notice other instances in which burials with
grave-goods of a similar character, though differing more or less in
certain special features, have been observed. It is but recently that
they have attracted attention, and the interest and significance of
their peculiar phenomena is only beginning to be understood.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.—Sword-hilt of the Viking time, from a
Grave-mound in the island of Eigg (7¼ inches in length).]
About fifty years ago, a grave-mound situated between the chapel of St.
Donan and the shore in the island of Eigg, was levelled by the tenant of
the land. No observations of the phenomena of the burial were made, but
the objects found were fortunately preserved.[35] The principal object
found in this grave-mound was a sword-hilt of bronze (Fig. 36), 7½
inches in length. In its form it resembles the hilt of the Islay sword,
but is greatly superior to it in the beauty of its ornamentation and the
skill of its workmanship. Indeed, I know no finer or more elaborate
piece of art workmanship of the kind, either in this country or in
Norway. It is constructed in four pieces—the triangular pommel, the
cross-piece under it, the grip, and the guard. Each of these has been
cast and worked separately, and they are all united by [Illustration:
Fig. 37.—Side view of Pommel of Sword-hilt.] the tang of the blade which
passes up through them. The decoration is difficult to describe, but it
is not difficult to perceive the harmony, elegance, and fitness of the
general design. Each of the four parts is treated with reference to its
decoration as a separate whole, but they also combine to give to the
entire object a completely harmonious design. The triangular pommel is
placed upon a cross-piece answering in character to the cross-piece
below the grip, and the grip answers in character to both. The ends of
the pommel are formed as heads of animals, the zoomorphism more
suggested than expressed, and more distinct in the front view of the
whole hilt (Fig. 36) than in the side view of the pommel alone as here
represented (Fig. 37). The grip and the cross-piece below it are all
decorated in the same style, with a beautiful pattern formed of a series
of arcaded spaces with quadrate ornaments between. The patterns chased
in the arcaded spaces are apparently zoomorphic in character, and the
quadrate ornaments between them are plates of silver pinned on to the
bronze, a circle being incised round every pin head, and each pair of
circles connected by a line drawn from the right side of the one to the
left side of the other, so as to resemble an S-shaped scroll. The edges
of the grip (Fig. 38) are ornamented with three sunk panels of
interlaced work alternating with four plain panels. The upper side of
the guard (Fig. 39) has two ornaments of similar character, each
consisting of four loops round a pellet, the bands composing the loops
crossing each other in the centre of the figure. There is nothing that
is distinctively Celtic in the style of this interlaced work. Indeed,
there is so little of it, that it would be difficult, from this specimen
alone, to form any opinion as to the relations of interlaced ornament to
the system of decoration characteristic of the Viking period. I have
already stated that the mere presence of interlaced work is not a
feature which can be relied on as a certain indication either of the
Celtic or the Scandinavian character of the ornament of which it forms a
part. In consequence of the close intercourse which subsisted between
the areas of the two distinctive schools of art during the Viking time,
the influence of the one upon the other is traceable in such
transitional styles as that of the Manx crosses and the decorations of
the Skaill brooches to be hereafter described. And the Celtic manner,
with a Scandinavian spirit, is distinctly discernible in the decoration
of a sword-hilt (Fig. 40) found in a grave-mound of the Viking time at
Ultuna, in Sweden.[36]
-----
Footnote 35:
They are now deposited in the Museum, and have been fully described by
Professor Norman Macpherson, LL.D., in an elaborate paper, read before
the Society, on the Antiquities of Eigg.
Footnote 36:
The tumulus contained the remains, still distinctly recognisable, of a
ship in which a warrior had been entombed along with his arms and two
horses. The iron nails which fastened the planks together were still
visible in their places. The vessel appeared to be a galley of no
great size, carrying a single mast. Alongside of the body, which was
unburnt, was found a sword, the blade of iron, and the splendid hilt
of gilt bronze decorated with interlaced patterns of extreme beauty
and elegance. Remains of the wooden sheath and its gilt mountings were
also found. A helmet of iron was also found, having a crest or ridge
of bronze, containing zinc as an ingredient—the only helmet of the
Pagan period in Sweden hitherto known. There were also found a
magnificent umbo or boss of a shield, in iron plated with bronze, and
adorned with patterns of interlaced work, the handle of the shield,
nineteen arrow-heads, the bits of two bridles, a pair of shears, all
in iron; thirty-six table-men and three dice, in bone. Besides these
there was an iron gridiron and a kettle of thin iron plates riveted
together, with a swinging handle, as also bones of swine and geese,
probably the remains of the funeral feast.—_La Suede Prehistorique_,
par Oscar Montelius, Stockholm, Paris, and Leipzig, 1864, p. 114.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 38.—Edge of Grip of Sword-hilt.]
[Illustration: Fig. 39.—Upper side of Guard of Sword-hilt.]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.—Sword-hilt found in a Grave-mound at Ultuna,
Sweden.]
In the grave-mound at Eigg there were found, along with the sword-hilt,
a buckle or fastener of a belt of bronze or brass (Fig. 41), attached to
a thin plate of the same metal, and a solid lump of metal apparently of
a similar alloy, 2½ inches in length, which appears to have been one of
the feet of a large three-footed pot.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.—Buckle of Bronze (actual size), from a
Grave-mound in the island of Eigg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 42.—Ground-plan and Sections of Grave-mounds in
Eigg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 43.—Brooch of Bronze, silvered, from Grave-mound in
Eigg (2½ inches diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 44.—Belt-Clasp (actual size).]