and 12 inches deep (Fig. 51, No. 2), which had been previously opened,
and contained nothing but earth. Underneath it was a smaller cist, 13
inches long, 9½ inches wide, and 12½ inches deep (Fig. 51, No. 3). On
the bottom stone of this under cist was a quantity of clay, in the
centre of which there was a bowl-shaped cavity (_i_) nearly filled with
burnt bones, and covered with a thin slab of clay slate, dressed to a
circular form, over which was another layer of clay (_k_) about 2 inches
thick, with a depression (_h_) in the middle, leaving a portion of the
centre of the stone visible when the upper cover of the cist was lifted.
At a little distance another burial was discovered, placed simply in the
mound without the protection of a cist The deposit of burned bones was
contained in an urn of stone similar to the first, but slightly smaller,
measuring across the mouth 19 inches in the longer and 15 inches in the
shorter diameter, and 15 inches in depth. The urn had been simply set in
the ground, the mouth covered with a flat stone, and a quantity of
stones and earth heaped over it, so that its covering stone was scarcely
more than 18 inches beneath the surface.
Another urn of the same character was found, also set in the ground
about a foot below the surface. It had no covering stone. Two small
cists containing burnt bones and ashes, but no urns, were also found in
the mound separately. At a distance of seven yards from one of these
there was a circular enclosure, formed of oblong beach stones, each
about a foot long, and standing on end about a yard apart. Within this
circle two other cists were discovered, each containing the usual
indications of a burial after cremation—burnt bones, ashes, and
charcoal—but no urns and no deposit of arms, implements, weapons, or
ornaments.[42]
-----
Footnote 42:
Described by Mr. Petrie in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
367.
-----
In a large burial mound at Stennis, Orkney, excavated by Mr. Farrer[43]
in December 1854, another burial was found, accompanied by an urn of
stone of this special character. The mound was 62 feet in diameter, and
about 9 feet high, circular and flat on the top, the sides sloping at a
considerable angle. Near the centre of the mound, and at a height of
about 3 feet above the original level of the ground, there was a cist
formed of massive side stones about 6 feet in length, and end stones
about 2 feet in length, set in the middle of the space between the side
stones, so that the cavity enclosed was only about 2½ feet long, 2 feet
wide, and 2 feet deep. In the cist was an urn of steatitic stone (Fig.
53), 22½ inches [Illustration: Fig. 53.—Large Steatite Urn, found at
Stennis, Orkney (20 inches high).] diameter across the mouth, and 20
inches high. It was filled to about one-third of its depth with calcined
bones, largely mingled with vitrified matter. It differs from the
Stronsay urn in having a triply incised border immediately underneath
the rim. The burial-mound also differs from the Stronsay mound in being
higher and more regularly-shaped. like the Stronsay mound, it contained
more interments than one, although the excavation only revealed two.[44]
The second burial was a little beyond the centre of the mound, to the
northward of the first, and at about the same height above the original
surface of the ground. It was contained in a cist formed of rough
flagstones placed on edge, which measured 33½ inches in length, and 19
inches in width. A small urn of baked clay, 5 inches diameter, and 5
inches deep, stood in the north-west corner of the cist. It contained
fragments of calcined bones, and was unaccompanied by any other relics
whatever. The urn fell to pieces, and has unfortunately not been
preserved. In his account of it Mr. Petrie does not state whether it was
plain or ornamented, and we are thus left with no more definite
indication of its characteristics than that it was made of clay.
-----
Footnote 43:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. ii. p. 50.
Footnote 44:
The unscientific method of opening a burial mound by driving a trench
across it cannot be too strongly condemned. No such investigation can
be regarded as scientific which leaves any part of the mound or of the
site beneath it unexamined; and no one should touch a burial-mound who
is not prepared both to investigate and record its phenomena in a
scientific manner.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 54.—Urn of Steatite, found at Corquoy
(7 inches high).
]
Quite recently a cluster of burial mounds at Corquoy, in the island of
Rousay, Orkney, was examined by Mr. George M'Crie. The largest mound was
about 50 feet in circumference, and 5½ feet high. It contained a cist in
the centre, and on the level of the surrounding ground, composed of four
side stones, a bottom stone, and a covering stone, the joints being
coated with tempered clay. The cavity of the cist measured 2½ feet in
length, by 2 feet in width, and 18 inches in depth. It was almost filled
with clay, ashes, and fragments of bones. In the centre was an urn of
steatite (Fig. 54), oval in shape, with a slightly bevelled rim. It
measures 9¾ inches in its longer, and 8 inches in its shorter diameter,
across the mouth, and stands 7 inches high.
The other mounds contained cists, but no urns or remains of any kind
except comminuted fragments of bones.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.—Urn of Steatite from Rousay, Orkney (7½ inches
high).]
There is in the Museum another urn of this material (Fig. 55) also from
the island of Rousay, but unfortunately there is no record of the
circumstances of its discovery. It is of steatite, oval in shape, the
sides bulging from the bottom upwards. It measures 11 inches by 10
across the mouth, and stands 7½ inches high. It is rudely ornamented by
incised lines cut round the outside immediately under the rim, and is
still about one-third full of calcined human bones.
[Illustration: Fig 56.—Urn of Steatite found in Shapinsay, Orkney (4
inches high).]
An urn of the same character (Fig. 56) was recently found in making a
road through a sand hill about a mile north-east of Balfour Castle, in
Shapinsay, Orkney. It was enclosed in a cist in a small tumulus, the
cist being composed of four slabs for the sides and ends, and a slab for
the bottom, with another flat stone for a cover. When found the urn was
in fragments, but the fragments had been united by some kind of string,
the fibrous texture of which was discernible in the holes which had been
bored on either side of the fractures, and through which the cord had
been passed to repair the breaks.
In 1874 a small burial mound, about 8 feet in diameter and 2½ feet high,
was removed in the course of the construction of a road between the
North and South Havens in Fair Isle, lying midway between Orkney and
Shetland. In the mound there was found a large, oval-shaped,
rudely-formed, and unornamented urn of baked clay. Although imperfect it
measures upwards of 12 inches in height. Beside it there was a smaller
urn of steatite (Fig. 57), also oval in shape, but [Illustration: Fig.
57.—Urn of Steatite, found in Fair Isle (4 inches high).] much more
neatly formed. It measures 5½ inches in its longer diameter, and almost
5 inches in its shorter diameter across the mouth, and stands 4 inches
high. Under the rim is a bevelled band, giving it something of an
ornamental character. Close by this mound, in a flat space, there were
found at intervals a number of flat stones, from 6 to 12 inches under
the surface, and below each stone there was observed what is described
as “a carefully-rounded hole, about 6 inches deep by 10 inches broad,
very smooth in the inside, and lined with about an inch thick of a soft,
black, adhesive substance, resembling a mixture of peat-moss and clay,
and containing in the bottom a whitish substance resembling bone ash.”
These phenomena thus imperfectly observed indicate in all probability a
small cemetery of urns set in the ground, with stone covers, and having
no mounds heaped over them.
In 1821 a mound in the island of Uyea, in Shetland, yielded a group of
six interments, each consisting of an urn of this character filled with
burnt human bones and ashes. Hibbert describes one of the urns as a
well-shaped vessel, constructed of a soft magnesian stone, having the
bottom made of a separate piece, and fitted into its place by a
groove.[45]
-----
Footnote 45:
Mr. Petrie notices a similar instance in Orkney, the bottom being
formed of a lozenge-shaped piece of stone, fitted into its place by a
groove cut round its circumference.
-----
In the month of August 1863, when some excavations were being made on
the summit of an eminence called the Meikle Heog, at Haroldswick, in the
island of Unst, Shetland, for the purpose of planting a flag-staff as a
fishing signal, the labourers broke into a place of sepulture formed of
upright flagstones, and enclosing a number of skulls and bones. Further
examination disclosed another cist similarly formed. Unfortunately there
is no record of the dimensions of these cists. In the one last mentioned
there were found a human skull, some bones of the ox, and six urns or
vessels of chloritic schist or steatite.[46] They were of different
shapes and sizes, as follows:—
-----
Footnote 46:
These vessels are figured and described by Mr. G. E. Roberts in the
_Mem. Soc. Anthrop. Lond._, vol. i. p. 296.
-----
No. 1, a flat-bottomed vessel, with an unsymmetrical four-sided outline,
the corners slightly rounded, and the sides bulging from the bottom
upwards, about 7 inches high.
No. 2, a tolerably symmetrical four-sided vessel of similar form, but
thinner and better made, measuring 5½ inches in length, 5¼ inches in
width, and 3½ inches high.
No. 3, a rude thick-sided vessel of the same form, 6½ inches long, 4½
inches high, and 4½ inches wide.
No. 4, a rudely-made and unsymmetrical vessel, oval in outline,
flat-bottomed, the sides bulging from the bottom upwards, and slightly
contracting towards the rim, about 4 inches in length, 3¾ inches in
width, and 4 inches high.
No. 5, a small cup-shaped vessel, oval in shape, 4½ inches long, 3
inches broad, and 2¾ inches high.
No. 6, a rather neatly-made oval vessel, 4½ inches long, and 4 inches
wide at the brim, contracting to 2½ inches long, and 2 inches wide at
the base. It is the only one in the group which bears any ornament, the
ornament consisting of two incised lines scored round the upper part of
the vessel, immediately under the rim.
These burials in the Meikle Heog differ from all the others that have
been described, inasmuch as they are burials unburnt. The character of
the vessels is also different, inasmuch as they are not cinerary urns
placed in the grave for the purpose of containing the burned bones of
the interment. But the general form of the vessels is similar to that of
those which are found in Orkney and the Fair Isle, containing burnt
bones, and the character of the ornament and the nature of the material
of which they are made is identical.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.—Vessels of Sandstone, found at Aucorn, Caithness
(13 inches and 8 inches high).]
Two vessels of stone, of the same irregularly oval shape, but slightly
more ornate in character (Fig. 58), were turned up by the plough on the
farm of Aucorn, in the parish of Wick, in Caithness, in 1853. The larger
vessel is flat-bottomed, oval, and furnished with handles projecting
from its ends. It measures 17 inches in its longest diameter, and 16
inches in its shortest diameter at the mouth, and stands 13 inches high.
The smaller vessel is without handles, measures 10 inches in greatest,
and 9 inches in its least diameter at the mouth, and stands 8 inches
high. The ornamentation of both these vessels is similar in character to
that of all the others, consisting of incised lines drawn round the
outside, immediately below the rim. Unfortunately their contents were
neither examined nor preserved, but Mr. Rhind states that it has been
observed that the grain grows greener and richer on the spot where they
were turned up than anywhere else in the field; and he infers from this,
as well as from the character of the vessels themselves, that they were
deposited with an interment or interments after cremation.
The largest vessel of this description which has been recorded is one
which was presented to the museum in fragments in 1834. It was dug out
of a mound called Wilkie’s Knowe, in the island of Westray, in Orkney,
and an account of its discovery, which has not been preserved, was read
to the Society in April 1835. The form of the vessel is oval, narrowing
from the brim downwards. The circumference of the upper part is about 6
feet, and the thickness of the sides of the vessel 1½ inches. The
material is the same chloritic or steatitic stone of which the others
are formed.
These examples will suffice to show the general characteristics of this
peculiar class of interments. They are interments of bodies usually
burnt, but sometimes unburnt; usually placed in cisted mounds, sometimes
singly, at other times in groups; and generally unaccompanied by any
manufactured article except the urns. The character of the urns is
peculiar. They are not of clay, but of stone. They are not circular, but
oval or irregularly four-sided in shape. They vary extremely in size,
the largest known being 6 feet in circumference, and the smallest less
than 5 inches long and 3 inches high. They are characterised by extreme
simplicity of form and decoration. When they are ornamented the
decoration is confined to the scoring of two or more lines underneath
the rim, and rudely parallel to it. Their range, so far as is at present
known, is confined to Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland, the area proper
of the old Norwegian Earldom of Orkney.
Urns of steatitic stone are of common occurrence in the burial mounds of
the Viking time in Norway.[47] But they are rarely placed in cists of
stones, and they are usually accompanied by such deposits of arms,
implements, and ornaments, as have been described in the previous
Lecture. This form of burial, which is found in the area of the
Norwegian colonisation of the north of Scotland, is not completely
comparable to the common form in Norway. But it presents as its
characteristic feature the single point in which Norwegian burials of
that period differ from all others. Nowhere else in Europe are urns of
steatite the characteristic feature of any class of burials. In this
respect, therefore, these northern interments in Scotland link
themselves with interments of the Viking time in Norway. But they are so
far differentiated from the common Norwegian type as to constitute a
distinct variety of that type peculiar to the area proper of the
Norwegian colony which founded the earldom of Orkney in the time of the
Scandinavian Paganism.
-----
Footnote 47:
A few notices of these are appended to show the character of the
burials:—At Hof, in the district of Hedenmarken, round the church are
several grave-mounds. In some of these there were found, in 1842, four
axe-heads, three spear-heads, fragments of two double-edged swords, a
pair of stirrups, two bridle-bits, ten arrow-points, a fire-steel,
fragments of a shield-boss, a ring, a kind of pincers, and other
fragments, all of iron, along with two vessels of steatite, the one
having an iron handle, and the other containing burnt bones and
oxidised iron fragments.—_Nicolaysen’s Norske Fornlevninger_, p. 59.
In a circular grave-mound at Gaarden, Ostre Alm, Hedenmark, there was
found an urn or vessel of steatite with remains of its iron handle, a
two-edged sword contorted and broken into three pieces, a bent
spear-head of iron, an iron axe-head, two shield-bosses of iron, a
bridle-bit, a pair of stirrups, a strap-buckle and two iron tags, a
portion of a comb of bone, pretty long, and toothed only on one side,
made of small pieces of bone held between two slips of bone riveted
together, two hemispherical table-men of bone, and a small figure in
bone of animal resembling a dog. In the urn lay ashes.—_Foreningen for
Norske Fortidsmindesmækers Bevaring_, 1866, p. 88. At Nordby Sagbrug,
Akershus, there were found in a small low grave-mound, the pieces of a
bowl-shaped urn of steatite, 7 inches diameter, in which were ashes
and burnt bones, and along with it a two-edged sword of iron, the
blade 30¼ inches long, a spear-head, an axe-blade, and other iron
relics.—_Foren. for Norske Fortids. Bev._, 1867, p. 49. At Elset, in
Solum parish, province of Bratsberg, there was found a bowl-shaped urn
of steatite of the kind so commonly occurring in graves of the later
Iron Age. It had an iron hank round the rim and an iron bow-handle,
and was full of burnt bones.—_Foren. for Norske Fortids. Bev._, 1868,
p. 115.
-----
* * * * *
I now pass to the description of another series of objects, having no
distinct connection with interments, but possessing associations and
characteristics which also link them with the intrusion of the Norwegian
element into the northern districts of Scotland.
In the month of March 1858 a boy, chasing a rabbit into a hole in the
links of Skaill, in the parish of Sandwick, Orkney, found a few
fragments of silver which had been unearthed by the rabbits at the mouth
of their burrow. The news of this discovery soon spread in the
neighbourhood, and a number of people having joined in the search, a
large quantity of silver articles were found in the sand. Mr. George
Petrie of Kirkwall (a zealous corresponding member of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland) was speedily upon the spot, and fortunately
succeeded in securing the bulk of the articles, which had become
dispersed in various hands, and they finally found their way through the
Exchequer to the National Museum. The aggregate weight of silver thus
recovered amounted to 16 lbs. avoirdupois.
The hoard, which had apparently been deposited in one spot, consisted of
three classes of objects—personal ornaments, ingots of silver, and
coins. The personal ornaments formed the bulk of the deposit. They were
of three varieties—brooches, neck rings, and arm rings, all of silver.
[Illustration:
Fig. 59.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(15 inches long).
]
The brooches are of great size, and unusually heavy and massive in their
construction. The metal is brittle, and most of them are more or less
broken. The largest of those that are entire (Fig. 59) consists of a
plain penannular ring, formed of a solid cylindrical rod of silver, ¼
inch thick, the ring forming an incomplete circle 6¼ inches diameter,
and terminating in bulbous knobs, which are furnished with expansions
giving them a strong resemblance to thistle heads. These knobs are each
1¼ inches in diameter. They have been cast hollow, with a short
cylindrical collar at either side, through which the ends of the ring of
the brooch pass, to be riveted at their terminations. A similar knob
with similar collars at either side fits loosely on the ring of the
brooch. Its upper part terminates in the conventional thistle head, and
its lower part is prolonged into a stout pin of great length. This pin,
which is fitted by a socket at its upper end upon a projection of the
bulbous head, is, like the ring of the brooch, a solid rod of hammered
silver, cylindrical in the upper part, passing into a squarish section
in the middle of its length, and tapering gradually to a bluntish point.
The total length of the pin from head to point is 15 inches. The only
parts of the brooch that are ornamented are the knobs and their collars,
and the terminal expansions which give their suggestive resemblance to
thistle heads. The spherical surfaces of the knobs are plain on one
hemisphere, and the other is decorated with engraved designs of
zoomorphic character (Figs. 71-73), to which I shall direct attention at
a subsequent stage, for the purpose of determining the typical
relationship of the style of ornament. The collars are decorated by a
series of bands of engraved parallel lines, passing obliquely across the
spaces they fill. The terminal expansions are decorated with triangular
spaces, filled with parallel lines, and alternating with spaces that are
plain.
Another brooch, the pin of which is gone, is a similar ring of hammered
silver, ¼ inch thick, and 6¾ inches diameter, with bulbous knobs, which
are plain, though the collars and terminal expansions are ornamented
with a T-like fret, and with bands of triangles filled with parallel
lines.
Among the other brooches there are three which present a different
variety in the ornamentation of their bulbous extremities. The largest
of these is formed of a solid cylindrical bar of silver, ⅜ of an inch in
thickness, bent into an incomplete circle 8 inches in diameter, and
terminating in bulbous expansions 1½ inches in diameter. The pin of this
brooch is gone, but if it bore the same proportion to the diameter of
the ring as is exhibited by that of the brooch first described, it could
not have been much under 20 inches in length. The bulbous knobs of this
brooch are differently ornamented on their opposite hemispheres. The
surface of the one hemisphere is covered with a peculiar prickly
ornamentation, which intensifies their suggestive resemblance to thistle
heads. These prickles have been cut out of the solid. They are square at
the base, cylindrical, and slightly tapering at the points. They stand
somewhat over an eighth of an inch in height, and each has been
separately finished in the upper part by a hollow drill. The opposite
hemispheres of the bulbs are ornamented by engraved circular patterns of
interlaced work (Fig. 68), and the collar of the expanded part is also
ornamented with a running pattern of interlaced work (Fig. 70.)
[Illustration:
Fig. 60.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(5½ inches diameter).
]
The second of these three brooches (Fig. 60), is equally massive and
handsome, though smaller. The ring is a solid cylindrical bar of silver,
¾ inch in thickness, bent into an incomplete oval 5½ inches in diameter.
The bulbous ends of the penannular ring are decorated on the one
hemisphere with the prickly ornament which has just been described, and
on the other hemisphere by a T-shaped fret, enclosed in a circle placed
in a lozenge-shaped space, bordered by incised lines, as shown in the
woodcut under the figure of the brooch.
The third of these brooches consists of a penannular ring, formed of a
solid cylindrical rod of silver ¼ inch thick, and 6½ inches diameter. It
wants the pin, but the head, which is still on the ring, is furnished
with a tapering projection, which fitted into a socket in the upper end
of the pin. The bulbous extremities are not ornamented on one hemisphere
with the prickly ornament, but have the one hemisphere plain and the
other decorated with patterns of zoomorphic character (Figs. 75 and 76),
while the bulbous head of the pin, which still remains on the ring of
the brooch, has the remarkable anthropomorphic ornamentation shown in
Fig. 77, and on the circular top of the pin-head is seen the interlaced
ornament shown in Fig. 69.
[Illustration:
Fig. 61.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill
(5 inches diameter).
]
Another brooch with bulbous extremities, which also wants the pin, has
its bulbs plain. Along with these bulbous ring-brooches there are other
three examples of the same type which present variations in the form of
the extremities of the pin and the penannular ring.