beneath the natural surface, under the centre of the mound, laid in a
chest constructed of oaken planks, axe-dressed, and fastened together
with large round-headed iron nails. The chest had somewhat of the form
of a closed bedstead, for it was supported by six posts driven into
the soil at the bottom of the pit. On the bottom planks of this rough
bedstead the skeleton lay extended on cushions filled with feathers,
with the head to the north-east. It had been clothed in garments
worked with gold thread, of excessive richness and beauty. The
fragments preserved include portions of a girdle of silk, ornamented
with fretwork and gold tissue; a mantle of woollen cloth, with a band
of foliageous scroll-work interwoven with figures of human heads and
hands, and further ornamented with figures of animals, and patterns
worked in gold thread; and portions of cuffs or bracelets, also of
silk, ornamented with gold thread. In the interior of the chest or
bedstead, along with the skeleton, there were found the fragments of a
sword and scabbard, with its mountings, inlaid with silver, and two
axes, of which the one was plain, the other inlaid with zoomorphic
patterns in silver, as shown in Fig. 78. On the lid of the chest there
stood at the one end a cauldron of thin brass, two buckets,
constructed of oaken staves hooped with iron, and at the other end lay
a wax candle, 22 inches in length, which had burned for some time,
probably during the funeral ceremonies.—La sepulture de Mammen, par J.
J. A. Worsaae, in the _Memoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires
du Nord:_ Copenhagen, 1870.
Footnote 51:
This and the two following figures are copied from Professor Stephen’s
_Thunor the Thunderer:_ Copenhagen, 1879, folio.
-----
The general result of this examination of the typical form and
ornamentation of these bulbous brooches is that they are found to
possess features that are Celtic, in combination with features that are
distinctive of the art of the Scandinavian heathen time. The obvious
inference is that the birthplace of the type is to be looked for in an
area in which the population were partly Celtic and partly Scandinavian
in their extraction. At the period indicated by the range in date of
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—Runic Monument at Aby, with representation of
Thor’s Head and Hammer.] these silver hoards,[52] and for a considerable
time previous to the earliest date assigned to them, this was the
character of the mixed race of the Gall-gael of the Western Isles, and
it was also to a certain extent the character of the inhabitants of the
northern isles of Orkney and Shetland, though there the Celtic element
was feeble and the northern element strong. But this is precisely the
nature of the mixed art of these brooches. It is more northern than
Celtic, and seeing that the deposit is found in the very area where this
was the special character of the population, the conclusion seems
irresistible that the type is the product of the area in which it is
found. There is no evidence whatever of its having come from the east—no
evidence of its having come from Scandinavia itself. The only other
example of the type that has occurred in Scotland—the plain bulbous
brooch of silvered bronze—which was found with a heathen burial in the
island of Eigg (Fig. 43), also occurs within the area of the mixed
population. A few specimens have occurred sporadically in England,[53]
but there they are confined to the north-western area—that is, the
portion adjacent to the insular territories possessed by the Norse
colonists of the Western Isles. A few specimens have been found in
Ireland, chiefly isolated, but in one remarkable instance associated
with brooches and other metal work of pure Celtic types.[54] In
Scandinavia itself they do not occur in such abundance as to suggest
that they were common ornaments characteristic of the people or the
time. While, therefore, they are partially Scandinavian in the character
of their art, they occur so sparsely in the Scandinavian countries that
they cannot be considered as products that are characteristic of that
area, or indigenous to it, and their presence in such limited numbers in
the archæological deposits of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, is not
inconsistent with the conclusion that the type may have had its
birthplace in the Scandinavian colonies planted in Celtic soil, between
whom and the fatherland there was always such a closely-knit connection
and continuous intercourse.
-----
Footnote 52:
The approximate dates of the hoards are indicated by the coins found
with them.
Footnote 53:
Besides the fragments that occurred in the Cuerdale hoard, two entire
brooches of this type have been found in England—one near Kirby
Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, 5½ inches diameter; and one near Penrith,
in Cumberland, which is the largest on record, the ring being 8¼
inches in diameter, the pin 21 inches long, and the weight of the
whole brooch 25 ounces avoirdupois.
Footnote 54:
One of these brooches occurred in the remarkable hoard of silver
objects found in the Rath of Reerasta, Ardagh, in Limerick, in 1868.
The hoard consisted of a silver chalice of exquisite beauty, one other
vessel of bronze, three brooches of pure Celtic type, decorated like
the chalice with interlaced designs in panels, in the best style of
the art, and a fourth brooch of the bulbous or “thistle-headed”
form.—_Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. xxiv. p. 433.
-----
In passing finally from the examination of these brooches, it may be
desirable to refer briefly to the materials composing the dress in which
such gigantic ornaments were worn. The perishable nature of these
materials precludes the possibility of obtaining such specimens of them
as would suffice to show the form and appearance of the garments
themselves. But there are occasional instances in which the natural
circumstances of the deposit have been more than usually favourable to
their preservation, and there may be cases in which exceptional
carefulness in the examination of these circumstances may preserve not
only the texture but even the form and appearance of the garment. I have
already alluded to the fact that small portions of the dress from a
grave of the Viking time in the island of Eigg exhibit distinctly the
texture of the woollen fabric, and retain portions of its mountings of
fur. Similar discoveries in Denmark and Norway have established the
truth of the Saga narratives, which testify to the excessive richness of
the ornamentation, and the costly nature of the materials of the dress
of this period.
[Illustration:
Fig. 82.—Hood found in a Moss in St. Andrew’s Parish, Orkney.
(27 inches in length.)
]
The fact that a few examples from Scottish graves have shown the
possibility of obtaining even from these perishable materials the
tangible evidence of the form and fashion of the garments that clothed
the men and women who made and wore these ornaments, gives room for
hope that with increasing interest and greater care the products of
future investigations may complete this evidence. In the meantime we
have but one piece of dress which retains its form, and which may with
some degree of probability be attributed to the mixed population of
the Scandinavian colony. It is a hood of a coarse woollen fabric (Fig.
82), woven with a peculiarly twilled texture, and decorated with a
long fringe of pendent and knotted cords, formed by twisting the
doubled end of a thread with two contiguous threads of the warp. It
was dug up in a peat moss in the parish of St. Andrews, in the
mainland of Orkney, many years ago, and came into the possession of
the late Mr. George Petrie of Kirkwall, after whose death it was
acquired for the National Museum, along with his general collection.
It measures 32 inches in height and 17 inches in greatest width. The
border to which the fringe is attached is 3 inches in width. The
fringe itself is 15 inches in depth. The fabric of which the body of
the hood is composed is worked in alternate stripes, presenting at
their junction the appearance shown in the woodcut (Fig. <span
class='htmlonly'>83</span><span class='epubonly'>83</span>). The
fringe of two-ply cords (Fig. 84), which is its most peculiar feature,
presents a striking similarity to the fringe (Fig. 85) of a portion of
the dress of a woman whose body was discovered in 1835 in digging
peats in the Moss of [Illustration: Fig. 83.—Portion of the Fabric of
the Hood.] Haraldskjaer, in Jutland. The body, which was stretched on
its back, was pegged down in the moss by hooked branches of trees
driven into the peat so as to fasten down the legs and arms at the
knees and elbows, and further secured by other branches placed across
the breast and abdomen, and staked down at the ends. The dress was
well preserved when first discovered, but only a few fragments were
saved, and among them is a portion with a fringe of two-ply cords
(Fig. 85), bearing a suggestive similarity to the fringe of the Orkney
hood. This similarity, so far as it has any value as an indication of
relationship, links the Orkney specimen with the Scandinavian, and
thus gives apparent ground for the inference that the hood may belong
to the period of the Scandinavian colonisation of the islands, and
that, like the brooches, it may represent a typical variety of
head-dress peculiar to the colony.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.—Part of the Border and Fringe of the Hood.]
[Illustration: Fig. 85.—Woollen Fabric from the Moss of Haraldskjaer,
Jutland.]
The typical form of neck ring and arm ring (Figs. 64, 65), which is
associated with the bulbous brooches in these hoards, composed of
hammered rods and intertwisted wires of silver plaited manifoldly, and
formed into a circlet by soldering the ends, does not occur again in
Scotland. But it has obvious relations with a group of personal
ornaments in gold, which present similar features of form and
construction. They are of smaller size than the silver rings, all that
are known being obviously finger-rings.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.—Gold Rings found at Stenness (actual size).]
Two of these (Fig. 86, Nos. 2 and 3) were dug up in the month of August
1879, in a field near the shore of the Loch of Stenness, in Orkney, and
are now in the National Museum. The largest is formed of two double
twists of gold wires, hammered round, and tapering to the small ends,
which are connected by a lozenge-shaped bezel. The smaller of the two is
composed of three strands of gold wire, similarly shaped by the hammer
alone, and intertwisted, and the small ends soldered together. With them
there were also found two plain flat hoops or circlets of gold, of about
an inch in diameter, ¼ inch wide in the widest part, and tapering to the
ends, which are unjoined (Fig. 86, No. 1).
There is also in the Museum a hoard of gold objects of this character,
consisting of six finger-rings of plaited wires, a plain solid ring
formed of a tapering rod (Fig. 87), with the ends unjoined, two portions
of plaited rings cut off, and two portions of plain solid rings
similarly cut. Two of the plaited rings (one of which is shown in Fig.
87) are formed of three wires each, intertwisted, and the ends soldered
together; the wires or rods are simply rounded by the hammer and tapered
to either end. The other four rings are slightly larger. They are
composed of eight wires, each similarly fashioned by the hammer alone,
and ingeniously interplaited, so that two strands of the plait form a
ridge all round the convexity of the ring, the ends united and worked
flat to form a bezel. Unfortunately we are unable to localise this hoard
more closely than that it was found somewhere in the Hebrides.
[Illustration: Fig. 87.—Gold Rings found in the Hebrides (actual size).]
Another hoard of somewhat similar character was found in June 1863, in
the island of Bute, about 300 yards distant from the old church of St.
Blane, in Kingarth. The hoard, [Illustration: Fig. 88.—Ingot of Silver
(actual size).] which was deposited beneath a large stone, consisted of
two gold rings, three long, narrow fillets of thin gold, a small ingot
of silver (Fig. 88), weighing 228 grains, and a number of silver coins,
of which twenty-one were pennies of David I. of Scotland, three of King
Stephen, and one of King Henry I. of England. Of the two gold rings, one
(Fig. 89, No. 1) is a plain solid ring, formed of a rod rounded by the
hammer, and tapered to both ends, and the ends unjoined. The other,
shown in Fig. 89, No. 2, is composed of three similarly-hammered rods or
wires twisted together, and the ends joined into a lozenge-shaped bezel.
The largest of the three fillets found with them is (Fig. 90) 17 inches
in length, and about 3⁄16 inch wide in the centre, tapering to both ends
until it expands into a small terminal loop. The others are similar in
form. They are scarcely thicker than stout writing-paper, and the
largest, though 17 inches in length, weighs only 55 grains. Their
ornamentation consists of zig-zag running patterns, and beaded work in
_repoussé_.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.—Gold Rings found in Bute (actual size).]
It is thus evident that this typical form of construction of personal
ornaments in the precious metals by interplaiting and intertwisting
slender rods of metal, rounded and tapered by the hammer alone, and
their ends soldered together, comes down at least to the twelfth
century, and appears in associations in which there is no suggestion of
an Oriental origin. Its area, so far as our present knowledge enables us
to define it, appears to be limited to the northern and western isles,
no well-authenticated instance having been recorded from the mainland of
Scotland. On the other hand, the area of the type extends eastwards into
Scandinavia, but there the type itself is regarded as one which is not
indigenous.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.—Terminal portions of two Gold Fillets found in
Bute (actual size).]
The type of penannular arm ring, which is of rounded or quadrangular
section, with tapering or slightly flattened ends, of which so many
examples were associated with the twisted rings and bulbous brooches in
the Skaill hoard, has not occurred in any other metal than silver. Like
the other types associated with them, they have not been found in
Scotland beyond the area of the Scandinavian colonisation. Within that
area, however, they appear not unfrequently. Wallace records the
discovery of a hoard of nine in one of the mounds at Stennis, in Orkney.
Another hoard, of which the precise number is not given, was found in
1774 at Caldale, near Kirkwall, with a horn containing 300 silver
pennies of Canute the Great. In 1830 six or seven were found at
Quendale, in Shetland, with a horn full of Anglo-Saxon coins of
Ethelred, Ethelstan, Edwy, and Edgar.
In 1850 a hoard of at least six were found in the island of Skye, but in
circumstances of which there is no record.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.—Penannular Arm-ring of Silver, one of a hoard of
eight, found at Burn of Rattar, Caithness (3½ inches diameter).]
In 1872 a hoard of eight were found in a cist of stones in or close to
an ancient burying-ground near where the burn of Rattar enters the
Pentland Firth, in Caithness. One of these is shown in Fig. 91.
All these are similar in form to each other, and to the rings of the
same type found in Scandinavia in association with the other types of
silver ornaments previously described. They are more frequently plain
than ornamented, and when ornamented their decoration consists simply of
a series of impressions formed by a triangular punch, with one, two, or
three dots in the field. This species of ornamentation is only found on
these silver ornaments in Scotland, but in Scandinavia it is common to
them and to the oval bowl-shaped brooches of brass which were the
characteristic personal ornaments of the closing period of the
Scandinavian Paganism.
It follows from this enumeration of the characteristics of form and
ornament exhibited by the different varieties of these silver ornaments
which have been deposited in hoards within the area of the Scandinavian
colonisation of Scotland, that they possess a character which is
distinctive and peculiar, being neither wholly Celtic nor wholly
Scandinavian, but owing its individuality to an intermixture of
characteristics derived from forms and systems of ornament which are
peculiar to each of these racial areas.
The deposit of such hoards of ornaments and coin is a custom more
characteristic of the Scandinavian than of the Celtic area. Deposits of
this character may have been placed in the soil for simple concealment
at any time, but they are much more frequent in this particular period
than in any other, and there was a motive connected with the Pagan faith
of the people which may have operated to increase their abundance. We
learn from the Saga of Egil Skalagrimson that there was a belief among
the Pagan Northmen that treasure thus buried during their lifetime would
be available for use or display in the life to come.
But whatever may have been the manner or the motive of their
concealment, the fact, which is of special importance for the purpose of
the present investigation, is that they are for the most part relics
which, by their forms and the characteristics of their art, are but
feebly linked with the forms and art of the Celtic area in which they
are found, and strongly linked by their art characteristics with the art
of the Scandinavian Paganism, which was contemporary with the art of the
Christian Celtic school. The soil in which they are found is within that
area of Scotland which was occupied by a mixed population, composed of
the two races whose special art instincts are visible in the mixed art
of the objects—the dominant race, moreover, being that whose art is
dominant in their decoration.
The colonisation of the northern and western coasts of Scotland by the
heathen Northmen forms an episode in the history of our country only
second in importance to the earlier colonisation of its southern
districts by the Romans, and far surpassing it in the interest of its
historical annals. Its archæological interest may be estimated by the
number and variety of the relics which have now been shown to belong to
the Viking period of the Northmen in Scotland—a period of singular
interest alike in connection with its history, its archæology, and its
art.
LECTURE III.
(OCTOBER 24, 1882.)
THE CELTIC ART OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.
In this Lecture I shall deal with certain groups of relics which present
in their forms and their decoration features which we have learned to
recognise as distinctively Celtic.
About the year 1820 a singular object was found in a morass on the farm
of Torrs, in the parish of Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire. Having passed
into the possession of Mr. Joseph Train, it was presented by him to Sir
Walter Scott, and it still remains in the Museum at Abbotsford.[55] It
is of the form of an elongated mask (Fig. 92), somewhat resembling the
frontal of a horse. It measures 10½ inches in total length, but the tip
is apparently imperfect. Its breadth in a straight line across the lower
margin is 3⅝ inches, and about 8½ inches on the round outside. Its
greatest breadth in a straight line across the back is 6 inches, and 11
inches on the round outside, immediately above the insertion of the
horns. At a height of 3 inches above the lower straight margin are
placed two circular holes, one on each side, each measuring 2 inches in
diameter. From between these eyelike holes, and a little above the level
of their centres, two curiously curved, cylindrical, tapering horns
spring close together on either side of the median line. The diameter of
each of the horns at the base is 1⅜ inch, and they rise to a height of
8¾ inches to the top of the curve, the whole length of the perfect horns
along the curve of the outer edge being 16½ inches. The horns are
hollow, the whole object being formed of thin beaten bronze.
-----
Footnote 55:
This and many of the other objects referred to in this Lecture have
been described in the _Proceedings_ of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland by Dr. John Alexander Smith, who has specially illustrated
the interesting relics which I regard as belonging to the closing
period of Scotland’s Paganism. They have been referred by Mr. Franks
and others to a special school of art which they have denominated the
“Late Celtic,” but from my point of view I must regard them as the
work of the early Celtic school, which was the precursor and parent of
the greater school of Celtic art of the Christian time which I have
already described.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 92.—Bronze object found at Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire
(10½ inches in length).]
Its ornamentation is as peculiar as its form. It consists of a series of
irregularly divergent spirals in _repoussé_ work repeated symmetrically
but not identically on either side of the median line of the front of
the object. These spirals or scroll-like figures are formed of curves
which are long and flattened, passing suddenly into curves of quicker
motion, and ending in volutes. These curves, though proceeding in the
same direction, do not proceed at parallel or regular distances from
each other, but converge and diverge so as to enclose between them
alternate spaces of varying extent of surface. The spaces enclosed
between the curves are raised, and the spaces enclosed by their
convolutions are flat, but the raised spaces are modelled so as to
express the confluence of solid curves of the peculiar forms already
indicated. These trumpet and spiral scrolls, as they are called,
enclosing irregularly formed curvilinear spaces, and producing designs
which are similar but unsymmetrical, are repeated in different varieties
of pattern on the outer sides of the horns (Fig. 93). In the terminal
convolutions of the scrolls the curves are sometimes arranged so as to
produce a zoomorphic effect, which differs from the later zoomorphism of
the metal-work of the Christian time and of the later manuscripts, in
being more geometrical in form and character. The zoomorphic termination
of the horns has also more of a geometric character than is usual in the
Christian period.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.—Plan of the Horns and their Ornament. (1) The
right horn. (2) Zoomorphic termination of the right horn seen frontwise.
(3) The left horn.]
The object being incomplete, its purpose is not obvious. But it is
suggestive of the probability of its having formed part of a helmet that
Diodorus Siculus, writing only a few years after the conquest of Gaul by
Julius Cæsar, describes the military equipment of certain Gallic tribes
as including “bronze helmets with lofty projections rising out of them,
which impart a gigantic appearance to the wearers; for upon some are
fixed pairs of horns, upon others the shapes of birds and beasts wrought
out of the same metal.” These horned helmets are represented on some of
the consular medals, and the whole description of the Gallic equipment
is so similar to what we know of the habits of the Celtic tribes of
Britain, that it may be concluded that in this respect their customs may
not have been greatly dissimilar.[56] And, in point of fact, there is in
the British Museum a bronze headpiece found in the river Thames, near
Waterloo Bridge, which, from its peculiar form, was at first considered
to be a jester’s cap. But Mr. Franks has shown that it is a military
helmet of native workmanship. It consists of a cap of thin bronze, with
an additional plate at the back, decorated with scrolls of this peculiar
character in low relief, among which are cross-hatched discs once coated
with red enamel. From each side of the cap projects a conical horn
terminating in a moulded button, and upon one side of the horn runs a
string of small projecting studs.
-----
Footnote 56:
The common denarius of the family Furia exhibits a trophy formed of
the horned helmet, the tunic of mail, the peculiarly ornamented oval
shield, and the large war trumpet. On a denarius of Servilia a Gaul
wearing the horned helmet appears aiming a back-handed blow with his
long sword at a Roman antagonist. The name “Cornuti” itself is
suggestive of this peculiarity.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 94.—Bronze Plaque found in Oland (actual size).]