by Professor Macpherson, and I had the opportunity of seeing them
subsequently. The ground-plans and sections of them which are here given
(Fig. 42), were made by Mr. Arthur Joass. The largest mound was about 40
feet in diameter and from 6 to 7 feet in height, with a circular
depression in the centre. In an enclosure roughly formed of stones in
the centre of the mound and on the original level of the surface, there
were found traces of an interment, with grave-goods, of the usual Viking
character. They consisted of an iron sword in the sheath, similar to
that found in the Islay grave, an iron axe-head, a spear-head of iron, a
penannular brooch of bronze plated with silver and ending in knobs of
the shape of thistle heads (Fig. 43), an agrafe or belt-clasp of bronze
or brass, ornamented with a scroll-like pattern in relief (Fig. 44); a
small whetstone (Fig. 45), and several portions of dress consisting of
cloth of three different varieties of texture (Fig. 46), one of which is
trimmed with fur.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.—Whetstone (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.—Specimens of Cloth found in the Grave-mound.]
The smaller grave-mound, a few yards distant, contained the fragments of
an iron sword, a whetstone, a plain penannular brooch with knobbed ends,
of a slightly flattened form, in bronze or brass, and some beads of
amber and jet.
Perhaps the most remarkable cemetery of graves belonging to this
intruded Paganism of the Norsemen was that excavated by Mr. William
Rendall, of Pierowall, in the island of Westray, in Orkney, in 1849. The
graves were situated in the sandy links at the north-west side of the
head of the bay of Pierowall. Mr. Rendall’s notes are brief and
imperfect. I have twice gone over the ground explored by him, with the
view of ascertaining certain points in connection with these interments,
and I think there is evidence on the spot that each of them was placed
on the original surface of the ground, that they were surrounded by
roughly made enclosures of stones, and covered by a mound of greater or
less bulk. Mr. Rendall explored two groups of these grave-mounds, the
one containing four and the other five interments.
In the first group, grave-mound No. 1 contained a human skeleton laid on
its right side, north and south, the skull cleft, apparently before
burial, and only one half of it found. Deposited with it there were a
number of iron weapons or implements, among which Mr. Rendall recognised
an iron axe and what he calls the half of a helmet, which I have no
doubt was half of the globular boss of a shield. Grave-mound No. 2
contained the remains of a man, a horse, and a dog. It is not said
whether the whole skeleton of the horse was in the grave, but the remark
is made that the horse was of small size, and the bridle-bit remained
between its jaws. Many pieces of iron were found, among which were a
buckle and a spear-head or part of a sword. Grave-mound No. 3 contained
the remains of a man and a horse with fragments of iron implements.
Grave-mound No. 4 contained a skeleton only.
At a little distance to the north-east of this group of grave-mounds was
the second group. In grave-mound No. 1 was the skeleton of a man. At his
head lay the cup-shaped boss of his shield; at his left side his sword.
A whetstone, a comb, and several glass beads were also found, and many
pieces of iron of whose form and purpose there is no suggestion. In
grave-mound No. 2 was a skeleton, which Mr. Rendall concluded to be that
of a female. Two oval bowl-shaped brooches of brass were found on the
breast, and a little below them a circular ornament and a pin of the
same metal. There were no traces of iron, or remains of iron implements
or weapons. Grave-mound No. 3 contained a small skeleton with two oval
bowl-shaped brooches and a small circular-headed pin on the breast, and
two long single-edged, round-backed combs of bone (Fig. 47) lay on
either side of the neck. No. 4 had been previously disturbed. In No. 5
were two brooches, two combs, and a pin similar to those in No. 3.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.—Round-backed Comb from a Grave-mound in
Westray.]
In 1851 Mr. Rendall presented to the National Museum the contents of a
grave which is not described in these notes but was found in the same
locality. It contained the skeleton of a man, with which there had been
deposited an iron axe, a spear-head of iron, and the iron boss of a
shield, an oval bowl-shaped brooch (Fig. 48), and a penannular brooch of
Celtic form, ornamented with interlaced work of purely Celtic style.[37]
In this remarkable cemetery we have the same type of burial and the same
typical forms of weapons, implements, and ornaments, as in Islay and in
Eigg. Of the whole group of objects found in all these graves there is
but one, viz. the Celtic brooch last mentioned, that is of a type native
to the soil in which they are found.
-----
Footnote 37:
Figured in the previous series of Lectures—_Scotland in Early
Christian Times_, p. 29, Fig. 22.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 48.—Oval Bowl-shaped Brooch from a Grave-mound in
Westray.]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.—Iron Key, from a Grave-mound in Westray (5¾
inches in length).]
But a still more remarkable set of graves was found at Pierowall by Mr.
Farrer and Mr. George Petrie. Unfortunately there is the same absence of
any precise and detailed record of the phenomena. The first, which
contained the bones of a man and a horse, had been found at the sands of
Gill by Mr. George Petrie in 1841, and the relics from it were deposited
in the Kirkwall Museum. When that museum was broken up and its contents
sold, they were purchased by Colonel Balfour of Trenaby, and sent to the
National Museum. They consist of the bronze cheek-ring of a bridle with
part of the iron bit, and fragments of wood with iron rivets which were
supposed to be the remains of a shield. The second grave was explored by
Mr. Farrer in 1855. There is no record of the phenomena of the burial,
but the objects found were sent to the museum. They are an iron knife, a
small sickle of iron, an iron key of peculiar form (Fig. 49), and a
bronze mounting of a sheath or scabbard-end plated with silver, and
ornamented with an engraved pattern suggesting [Illustration: Fig.
50.—1. Sheath-mounting from a grave in Westray, Orkney. 2. Plan of its
ornament.] a grotesque face (Fig. 50). With these were found large
quantities of decayed wood pierced with iron rivets which were also
supposed to be the remains of a wooden shield. The third grave-mound was
explored by Mr. Farrer and Mr. Petrie in 1863. No record of the
phenomena exists, but the articles found were two iron buckles
apparently of saddle girths, and a quantity of pieces of decayed wood
varying in thickness from 1 to 2 inches, pierced by iron rivets, and
also suggested to be portions of a wooden shield.
In these three instances the principal feature of the interment is the
presence of quantities of wooden planks, sometimes as much as two inches
thick, pierced by iron rivets. When these are closely examined it is
seen that the wood is of oak, that the rivets are peculiar in character,
having round heads on one side and square heads on the other, and that
they frequently pass through the wood obliquely. These are the
characteristics of the clinker-nails which fastened the planking of the
Viking ships. They were square-headed on one side and round-headed on
the other. The fact that these rivets pass through the wood obliquely is
more suggestive of a boat than of a shield. The thickness of wood
between the rivet-heads is more than twice that of any shield of the
time whose thickness is known. No shield-boss or handle was found with
any of these interments, and no shield of oaken planks fastened with
such rivets is known. In point of fact, no shield could be used whose
thickness was two inches of solid oak, and the quantity of wood and iron
found with the interments seems much in excess of what would be required
for shields. I therefore conclude that, in these three instances, the
form of burial was that in which the Viking was laid in his ship—drawn
up on the strand, and set on even keel to receive him and his
grave-goods—and a mound raised over all.
The testimony of the earlier sagas is unanimous that the common mode of
sepulture in the heathen Viking time was by raising a mound over the
remains of the dead, who were placed in their grave-mounds honourably,
with abundance of goods, weapons, ornaments, and costly garments, horses
and sometimes even thralls or slaves. Thus we are told that a great
store of goods was placed in the grave-mound with Hravnkel Freysgode,
and all his war-suits and his good spear. So also we learn that
Skalagrim was laid in his grave-mound with his horse, his weapons, and
his smithy-tools, and Egil was buried with his weapons and his clothing.
Thorgrim, priest of Frey at Sæbol was buried in his ship, over which
they raised the mound after the ancient fashion. But the most striking
of all the saga notices of heathen burial is that of the sepulture of
King Harald Hildetand, who was slain on Braavalla Heath by his nephew
Sigurd Ring, in the middle of the eighth century. After the battle the
victor caused search to be made for the body of his uncle, which he
placed in his chariot in the midst of the grave-mound; then his horse
was slain and laid beside the dead; and Sigurd caused his own saddle to
be placed beside the horse, so that Harald might have his choice and
ride or drive to Valhalla as he had a mind. Then Sigurd made a great
funeral feast, and the nobles threw massive rings and splendid arms into
the grave-mound in honour of the dead king.
Thus we gather from the early literature of the Scandinavians a very
vivid impression of the character and accompaniments of their heathen
burial. Yet this literary evidence is characteristically defective on
special points that are of paramount interest to the archæologist.
Hence, when it is attempted to be used scientifically, the result is
what might be expected of a scientific operation conducted with
unscientific materials. For instance, Dr. Dasent, gathering the literary
evidence into one generalisation, concludes that the burial took place
in a how or cairn, and that the body was laid in the how with goods and
arms, sometimes in a sitting posture, sometimes even in a ship, but
_always_ in a chamber, formed of baulks of timber or blocks of stone,
over which earth and gravel were piled. Since it is the main object of
our science to attain to great and wide generalisations from completed
evidence, it is manifest that such a generalisation as this, which gives
us what _always_ was the special character of the sepulchral structure
for a given period, would be one of the most precious and costly fruits
of scientific research. Founded on purely archæological evidence, it
could only be the result of the completed investigation of all the
grave-mounds of the period. As here given, it is arrived at by a much
shorter process, viz. the comparison and critical interpretation of a
few texts, for it is not expressly stated in any text, but is an
inference from incidental expressions in several of them.[38] And the
interest with which we must regard the inference lies in the fact that
this special form of sepulchral mound, which is deduced from the
literary evidence as having been _always_ the form in use throughout the
Viking period, is a form which is almost archæologically unknown in that
period.
-----
Footnote 38:
Sometimes the description of a burial mentions the digging of a grave
instead of the raising of a mound. When Thorolf died, Egil took his
body and prepared it according to the custom of the time, then they
dug a grave and placed Thorolf in it with all his weapons and raiment,
and Egil placed a gold bracelet on each of his arms, then they placed
stones over him, and earth over all.
-----
It is to be observed also that the saga evidence is defective as to the
customs connected with cremation.[39] The only literary evidence we
possess in regard to them is to be found in the strange narrative by
Ahmed Ibn-Fozlan, an eye-witness of the ceremonies attending the
incremation of the dead body of a Northern chief.[40] The scene is on
the banks of the Volga, and the date is towards the close of the Viking
time. The narrator tells us that there was a temporary interment till
all the preparations were made; that a female slave who had elected to
die with her master was given in charge to an old hag, who as mistress
of the ceremonies was significantly styled “the angel of the dead;” that
the dead man’s ship was hauled up on the strand and prepared to be his
funeral pile; that, when all was ready, the corpse was taken out of its
temporary grave, arrayed in fur-mounted and gold-embroidered garments,
and laid in state on the deck, where a banquet was spread for him; that
his weapons were placed ready to his hand, and two horses, two oxen, his
dog, and two fowls were hewn in pieces with swords and cast into the
ship; that the woman who was to die, after taking leave of her friends,
was first drugged with strong drink and then brutally slaughtered with a
big knife by the “angel of the dead,” while two men pulled the ends of a
cord wound round her neck and the crowd beat upon their shields to drown
her shrieks; that she was then laid beside her dead lord and the pile
fired by his nearest relative, and after it had burnt out a great mound
was raised over the ashes.
-----
Footnote 39:
Suorri says that the custom of burning the body was over before the
time when the historical sagas begin their chronicle of events. The
fact that it is represented in the mythological sagas as the burial
rite of the Æsir, in the Twilight of the Gods, shows that it was out
of memory as a human custom in Iceland.
Footnote 40:
A translation of this narrative is given in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ix. p. 518.
-----
Turning now to the evidence derived from the grave-mounds themselves, we
find that it corroborates and supplements the literary evidence in a
remarkable manner. For instance, close above the strand at Möklebust, in
Norway, there is a semi-globular mound 12 feet high and 92 feet in
diameter; round its base there is a ditch 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep,
interrupted on the south and east by accesses on the natural level. The
whole base of the mound was covered by a layer of burnt ashes. In an
oval, about 28 feet long and 14 feet wide, lay a quantity of iron rivets
and nails as they had settled down among the ashes when the planks they
had fastened were consumed. Around the circumference of this oval, and
among these rivets, were found no fewer than forty-two shield-bosses,
mingled with pike-heads, axes, swords, knives, and other implements of
iron. Near the centre of the oval lay a large bronze pot or caldron,
one-third full of burnt human bones, over which were heaped the bosses
of thirteen shields, now firmly rusted to each other and to the sides of
the pot. The pot itself was splendidly enamelled round the rim; in fact,
an exquisite work of art. Among the bones within it was an iron
pike-head, which M. Lorange, who explored the mound, concluded to have
been the weapon by which the Viking met his death. Recounting the whole
phenomena and circumstances of the burial as observed during the process
of exploration, he says: "It seems that the sea-king’s men had drawn his
ship up on the strand, with all its fittings as it was on the day of his
death, laid the dead man in it clad in his best and with his arms and
horse; then they hung their shields round the gunwales as they used to
do when going on a cruise, hoisted the sail, piled wood under and
around, and fired the vessel as she stood. Then, when the fire had done
its work, they gathered the burnt bones into this splendid pot, covered
them with the bosses of the burnt shields, and placed them in the centre
of the heap of ashes over which the great mound was finally reared."
But more frequently the vessel and its contents have not passed through
the fire. One such ship I have seen. It was found under a mound at Tune,
and is now preserved in connection with the museum at Christiania. The
mound was 12 feet high and 80 yards in circumference. The vessel stood
on the original surface on even keel. It is clinker-built; the planks of
oak, the ribs of fir. The keel is 43½ feet in length, and the ship is
low and narrow for her length, which is no more than that of a
first-class herring boat of the present day on the east coast of
Scotland. Each side was of eleven planks, an inch thick, fastened with
clinker nails, having round heads outside and square heads inside. The
seams were caulked with tarred oakum of neat’s hair. The ribs, thirteen
in number, are built of three different layers of wood fastened with
oaken trenails and iron nails. The mode in which they are fastened to
the skin of the boat is peculiar. The upper boards alone are fastened
with oaken trenails, and the lower ones are merely attached to the
planking by ropes of bast passed through holes in the ribs, and then
through corresponding holes in wooden clumps on the planks. The mast was
secured in a step on the bottom lining, and the vessel was steered by a
side rudder. The Viking’s body, which was unburnt, was placed on a
wooden platform abaft the mast. Beside it lay the bones of a horse, with
remains of the saddle. The rest of the grave-goods were of the common
character, comprising merely a few beads of coloured glass, a few
fragments of clothing, a sword of the ordinary Viking type, a
spear-head, a shield-boss, a rolled-up coat of mail, and some tools and
implements of iron.
Another of larger size was discovered last summer in a mound at Gokstad,
near Sandefiord, and is now placed beside the Tune specimen. Its length
is about 80 feet, with a breadth of beam of 17 feet. It is of oak, and
clinker-built, the planks and the frame-timbers connected in the same
peculiar manner as in the Tune ship. All the planks have planed and
moulded edges both inside and out, but there is no trace of the use of
the saw either in the planking or framework of the vessel. Her lines are
well laid; stem and stern are alike sharp and finely modelled. She has
neither deck nor seats for the rowers, although her sides are pierced
for sixteen oars each. The oars, some of which were found on board, were
20 feet long. In rowing, they were passed through circular holes 18
inches below the gunwale, and having narrow slits cut on each side of
them to allow the passage of the blade of the oar. Like all her kind,
she had but one mast and one sail, square in form, and she was steered
by a side rudder. The vessel, though showing signs of wear, had been
comparatively new when drawn on shore to enhance the funeral honours of
its owner. A sepulchral chamber was built of timbers in front of the
mast reaching to the prow. In this chamber the dead Viking was laid,
surrounded with his grave-goods, his arms, and ornaments. That these
were numerous and costly there can be little doubt, but the mound was
broken into at an early date, a great hole cut in the side of the ship,
and the funeral chamber rifled. The few relics that were left, chiefly
mountings of belts and harness, exhibit the finest art of the Viking
time, and the completeness of the equipment of the vessel, from the row
of painted shields round the gunwale down to her cordage and anchor, and
the cooking utensils of the crew—together with the fact that the mound
also contained the remains of three boats and the bones of eight or nine
horses, as many dogs, and a peacock—testify to the wealth and
consideration of the man whose burial rites were thus celebrated.
I have described these Viking burials found in Norway and in Scotland
partly because they enable us most vividly to realise the peculiar
characteristics of Pagan burial, but chiefly because I am unable to
illustrate the burial phenomena of the Iron Age Paganism of Celtic
Scotland from its own remains. The archæology of Scotland is absolutely
destitute of recorded data for this purpose. The uninstructed excavators
have some respect for stone and bronze, but old iron is shovelled into
oblivion without a moment’s hesitation.
LECTURE II
(20TH OCTOBER 1881.)
NORTHERN BURIALS AND HOARDS.
It has now been shown that the intrusion of the Norwegian Paganism into
the northern and western area of Scotland produced an extension into
this country of types and phenomena which are purely indigenous to the
Scandinavian area. But along with the types and phenomena that are
purely Norwegian we also find, within the area of this intruded
Paganism, a series of modified types—neither purely Celtic nor purely
Scandinavian, but partaking to some extent of the distinctive
characteristics of both. This has already been demonstrated in so far as
the products of this commingling of distinctive styles and customs have
been characterised by indications of Christianity;[41] but there still
remain to be discussed a group of phenomena and objects of this mixed
character which either present no distinct indications of Christian
associations or exhibit characteristics that are distinctive of
Paganism.
-----
Footnote 41:
_Scotland in Early Christian Times_ (second series), pp. 226-232.
-----
I therefore proceed to describe a series of burials occurring within the
same area in which the distinctive form of burial with arms, implements,
and ornaments of purely Norwegian types also occur, but differing from
these, inasmuch as though they present unequivocal indications of
Paganism they do not so distinctly indicate their origin. As we examine
their characteristics it will be seen that they form a group strictly
local in its range, and possessing affinities which are rather Norwegian
than Celtic.
[Illustration:
Fig. 51.—Sectional view of Burials in Stronsay, Orkney.
1. Section of Cist with Stone Urn.—_a_. Urn, seen in section, 17
inches deep _b_. Burnt bones in the urn. _c_. Cist of flagstones, 2
feet square. _d_. Boulder stones supporting sides of cist.
2 and 3. Double cist with burnt bones, close to No. 1.
]
In July 1869 the late Mr. George Petrie investigated the contents of a
burial-mound, situated on the crown of a ridge overlooking the sea, at a
place called Orem’s Fancy, in the island of Stronsay, Orkney. The
burial-mound is a low, elongated accumulation of stones and earth,
partly indistinguishable from the natural ridge, and apparently about
fifty yards in length. Several burials had been discovered in it from
time to time in the process of bringing it under cultivation. One of
these (Fig. 51, No. 1), which was carefully examined by Mr. Petrie, was
contained in a cist of rough slabs, the sides being 25½ inches and 22
inches in length, and the width and depth of the cavity about 23 inches.
The bottom of the cist was formed of a rough slab, and the covering
stone of a larger slab of the same character. The cist contained a large
and somewhat irregularly-shaped urn of stone, hollowed evidently by a
metal tool. The urn (Fig. 52) stood on the bottom slab of the cist (as
shown in the foregoing section) and was covered by a thin slab of clay
slate, rudely dressed [Illustration: Fig. 52.—Urn of Steatitic Stone
from Cist No. 1, at Orem’s Fancy, Stronsay (17 inches high).] at the
edges to a circular shape. The urn was filled to a depth of about 5
inches with burnt bones, largely mixed with vitrified matter, and run
together in masses. No fragments of implements, weapons, ornaments, or
other articles were present among the bones. The fragments of bone were
greatly comminuted, but portions of the long bones, vertebral processes,
and fragments of the skull were recognisable. The urn of stone was
therefore the only remarkable feature of the interment. It is a
rudely-formed vessel of irregularly-conical form, narrowing from the
brim to the bottom. At the brim, which is oval in form, it measured 20¾
inches in its longer, and 18 inches in its shorter diameter. Its depth
is 17 inches, and the greatest width across the bottom 15 inches. The
rim is smooth and slightly rounded, and the marks of the tool by which
the vessel was scooped out of the block of stone are distinctly visible.
The stone is a soft and easily-worked steatite.