spoon-like objects[65] found in England and Ireland, of which Fig. 109
is a characteristic example. Four of these are in the National Museum,
and though no specimens have yet been met with in Scotland, I notice
them here, because their decoration is so nearly related to that of the
Scottish school. In the case of the pair of these peculiar objects found
in excavating for a quarry at Weston, near Bath, the backs of the
circular projections or handles (Fig. 110) are ornamented with patterns
of this character in relief. The front of the disc is ornamented with a
series of circular concentric mouldings, and the bowl of the spoon is
quartered by incised lines. It is a peculiarity of these objects, that
though found in pairs, the two members of the pair, though similar, are
not identical. In some cases it is apparent that they have even been
cast in different moulds. Usually one of the pair has its bowl quartered
by incised lines, while the other has a small hole pierced near the edge
of the bowl. Another pair, also in the Museum, were found in 1861 in a
railway cutting in Llanfair parish, Denbighshire. They are slightly
smaller in size, and differ in the ornamentation of the front of their
discs. One of them (Fig. 111, No. 2) is here shown along with the second
of the Weston specimens.
-----
Footnote 65:
These have been conjectured to be of Christian time, and to have been
used in connection with the celebration of the Eucharist, but the
evidence is insufficient to carry this conclusion. See the papers by
Albert Way in _Archæological Journal_, vol. xxvi. p. 52; and by Rev.
E. L. Barnwell in _Archæologia Cambrensis_, vol. viii. (Third Series)
p. 208, and vol. x. p. 57.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 110.—Backs of the Handles of the pair of Spoon-like
objects found at Weston, near Bath (actual size).]
The same characteristic style of art is seen in the decoration of a
massive collar of cast bronze (Fig. 112), which was found in digging a
well at Stitchell, in Roxburghshire, in 1747, and is now in the National
Museum. Like the armlets found in the Plymouth graves, this collar is
jointed, opening on a hinge in the centre, and fastening in front by a
pin and socket. It is a very massive and heavy ornament, the width of
the opening being 6 inches by 5, and the breadth of the flattened ring
varying from 1¾ inch to ¼ inch. The character of the ornament is simple,
but highly peculiar, and bearing a strong family likeness to the double
escaping and divergent spirals of the later Celtic art. All the patterns
are in relief and cast in the solid, except those on the two panels on
either side of the central opening, which are in _repoussé_ on a thin
plate of bronze fastened to the collar by pins at the four corners.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.—Bronze Spoon-like objects found at Weston and
Llanfair.]
[Illustration: Fig. 112.—Jointed Collar of Bronze found at Stitchell,
Roxburghshire.]
Closely akin to this jointed collar in the idea of its construction and
the form of its ornament is an elegant armlet of thin bronze (Fig. 113),
found in 1826 near Plunton Castle, in the parish of Borgue, in
Kirkcudbright. It is of thin beaten bronze, 1½ inch wide and 2½ inches
in diameter, and, like the collar, it is made to open on a hinge in the
centre, and close by a pin and loops. It is ornamented by three raised
mouldings, beaten up from the back, which pass round it horizontally,
but these are concealed on either side of the hinges by two plates of
thin bronze of quadrangular form, ornamented in _repoussé_ by
trumpet-shaped ornaments connected by peculiar curves, and having studs
placed in the concavities of the curves. These plates are fastened to
the armlet at the four corners by pins, and bordered by a single row of
small studs.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.—Bronze Armlet found in the Parish of Borgue,
Kirkcudbright.]
In the month of March 1806 a herd boy, passing along the side of the
Shaw Hill, near the House of New Cairnmuir, in the parish of Kirkurd,
Peeblesshire, saw something glitter in the ground, and on scraping the
place with his foot he unearthed a hoard of gold objects, consisting of
two twisted arm-rings, each weighing 8 oz. 12 dwt., a broken ring of the
same form weighing 8 oz. 10 dwt., forty small studs, each weighing about
half a sovereign, and a hollow spherical ornament weighing 4 oz. 5
dwt.—the bullion value of the whole being about £110. One of the twisted
arm-rings passed into the possession of Sir George Montgomery of
Macbiehill; the spherical ornament and two of the small studs were
obtained by Mr. John Lawson of Cairnmuir and placed in the National
Museum; the rest of the hoard is believed to have been melted. The three
arm-rings are spirally twisted rods of gold, with flat circular ends
bent round to encircle the arm. The studs or pellets are nearly
spherical, about the size of a large pea, and marked on the surface with
a cruciform ornament in relief. The spherical ornament (Fig. 114) has
some resemblance to the pommel of a sword, although its form gives no
obvious indication of its purpose. It is 2½ inches in length by 2 inches
in width, and about 1¼ inch in thickness. It has been cast hollow, with
an opening through the centre of the rounded part, and must have been
made by a very skilful workman. One side of it is plain, the other
ornamented in _repoussé_ work of great beauty. The style of the ornament
is simple, elegant, and highly effective. The surface to be decorated is
broken up into irregular spaces by a system of the peculiar curves,
which are so characteristic of the style of art of the bronzes which
have been already described. Some of these spaces are further ornamented
by a peculiar pitting of the surface seen in some of the decorated stone
balls (Fig. 146); others are raised in solid curves of the same peculiar
form, while the interspaces follow the form of the object itself. Studs
and prominences, with spirals in relief, are introduced to give emphasis
to the general design, which commends itself at once to the eye of taste
as one of the most fitly beautiful and unaffected forms of
surface-decoration which could be applied to such a purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 114.—Gold Ornament found on the Shaw Hill, near
Cairnmuir, Kirkurd. Front and back views (actual size).]
In this group of objects in bronze and gold we have characteristic
examples of the work of this early school of decorative art, which in
some of its features bears certain relations to the work of the later
school of Celtic art of the Christian time. But the elements of its
decoration are fewer. It has no interlaced work and no fret—nothing but
curves and spirals. It does not systematically break up its surfaces in
panels, but distributes its decorative effects in spaces that are
circular or oval, or bounded by intersecting curves. Its prevailing
features are not the production of intricately symmetrical and
geometrically regulated patterns, but the production of effects of
balance and beauty by the rhythmic recurrence and variation of curves
and spaces with solid forms which, though not symmetrical, are similar.
Their characteristic curves, as seen in the outlines of their figures
and the sections of their solid forms, are specially peculiar, while the
marked preference for relief in metal-work is in striking contrast to
the general prevalence of chased and engraved designs in the later
school.
It is to this characteristic treatment of the decoration of their
metal-work by this early school of Celtic art that Mr. Kemble refers in
the following remarks:—“When, as is often the case in metal, this
principle of the diverging spiral line is carried out in _repoussé_—when
you have those singularly beautiful curves, more beautiful perhaps in
the parts that are not seen than in those that meet the eye, and whose
beauty is revealed in shadow more than in form—you have a peculiar
characteristic, a form of beauty which belongs to no nation but our own,
and to no portion of our nation but the Celtic portion. It deals with
curves which are not arcs of a circle; its figures are not of the class
we usually designate by the term geometrical; and above all it calls in
the aid of enamel to perfect its work—not _cloisonné_ like the enamel of
the East; not mosaic work of tesseræ like so many so-called enamels of
the Romans, but enamel _champléve_ as Philostratus has described the
island barbarians to have invented it. The engraved spiral line, with
double winding, is found from America to the Baltic, from Greece to
Norway, but the divergent spiral _repoussé_ in metal and ornamented with
_champléve_ enamel, is found in these British Islands alone.”
* * * * *
I now proceed to notice another group of objects in metal possessing
peculiar features still more strongly marked, but exhibiting also the
distinctive characteristics of the same style of art.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.—Bronze Armlet, with enamelled ornaments (one of
a pair), found at Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Front view (5¾ inches in
diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 116.—Bronze Armlet, found at Castle Newe,
Aberdeenshire. Back view (5¾ inches in diameter).]
A pair of these objects were found imbedded in the earth over the
entrance to a curious underground structure in the garden at Castle Newe
in Aberdeenshire. The structure was a long narrow curved subterranean
gallery about 50 feet in length and 7 feet wide on the floor. What
remained of the walls was only 4½ feet high, but showed that it had been
roofed over by bringing the walls gradually towards each other as they
increased in height, till the space could be covered with flat stones of
moderate length. [Illustration: Fig. 115.—Bronze Armlet, with enamelled
ornaments (one of a pair), found at Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Front
view (5¾ inches in diameter).] This form of structure, as we shall see
in a subsequent Lecture, is typical, and extends over the Celtic area.
The pair of objects found in association with this typically Celtic
structure are of quite a remarkable character. They are massively
formed, but highly decorated objects of cast bronze. It is obvious from
their form and decoration that they are designed for an ornamental
purpose. It is impossible that they could have been worn as personal
ornaments either with comfort or convenience, but that impossibility
does not necessarily invalidate the conclusion that they were personal
ornaments, because such things have been worn in all ages, although they
have entailed discomfort and inconvenience to the wearers. The special
form of the objects and the circumstance that a pair of them were found
together are suggestive of their use as armlets. Their form, as shown in
Fig. 115, is the typically Celtic form—penannular, with rounded and
slightly-expanded ends. These terminal expansions have circular spaces
in the centre, bordered by a double raised edging, and filled with
plaques of bronze [Illustration: Fig. 116.—Bronze Armlet, found at
Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Back view (5¾ inches in diameter).]
ornamented with chequered patterns of red and yellow enamels. These
bronze plaques are fixed in their places by iron pins. The body of the
armlet (Fig. 116) is divided longitudinally into three distinct ridges
or bands with convex surfaces, separated by narrow bands of a tooled
chevrony ornament, which lie along the furrows between the ridges. At
intervals there rise from the ridges solid, flattened, and curvilinear
projections of about ¾ inch in length, placed obliquely across the
ridges, and standing in rows from side to side of the armlet. These are
connected longitudinally by less highly raised trumpet-shaped scrolls,
slightly curved, and passing obliquely across till they meet in the
centre. The median ridge stops short at the circular spaces in the
terminal expansions, while the exterior ridges on either side pass round
to form the border of the expansion on which the projecting ornaments
are continued in a less pronounced form. The general contour of the
armlets is that of an oval slightly compressed from front to back. Their
greatest diameter is 5¾ inches, their greatest depth 4½ inches, and the
weight of each is 3¾ lbs. They do not commend themselves to our notions
of elegance and comfort as articles of personal decoration, but they
possess a strong individuality of character, combined with an ingenious
and highly-effective style of decoration which is not met with on any
other class of objects in metal.[66]
-----
Footnote 66:
A denarius of the Emperor Nerva was subsequently found close by the
place where the armlets were discovered. The underground structure
appears, like many of its class, to have been associated with an
overground habitation, the site of which was marked by fire-burnt
pavement, remains of querns, beads, etc., found near the present
surface.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 117.—Enamelled Plates of each of the pair of Bronze
Armlets found at Pitkelloney, Perthshire.]
Another pair of similar armlets found within a few feet of each other,
and slightly covered with earth, on the farm of Pitkelloney, near
Muthil, in Perthshire, are now in the British Museum. They are not
exactly similar in size, though their forms are similar, and their
ornamentation almost the same. One measures 16 inches in circumference,
the other only 15 inches, but the smaller is the heavier of the two,
weighing 3 lbs. 10 oz., while the larger only weighs 3 lbs. 3 oz. The
circular spaces in the expanded ends of the armlet are filled with
enamelled plates, fastened in their places by iron pins. The enamels are
_champléve_ in flat plates of bronze, the colours red and yellow. The
patterns (Fig. 117) are not chequered like those in the Castle Newe
armlets. One presents a plain rectangular cross-like figure in yellow on
a red ground, with a circle of red in the centre. The other has a double
quatrefoil in yellow and red on a red ground, with a yellow centre.
[Illustration: Fig. 118.—Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, Banffshire.
Front view (6½ inches in diameter).]
An armlet of similar character was ploughed up in a field on the farm of
Mains of Auchenbadie, on the estate of Montblairy, in Banffshire, in
1866, and is now in the National Museum. Seen in front (as in Fig. 118)
it is penannular and oval in shape, measuring 6½ inches in its longest
diameter, and 4 inches from front to back. Its width across the middle
of the back (where it is narrowest) is 3¾ inches, and its greatest width
across the terminal expansion is 5⅜ inches. [Illustration: Fig.
119.—Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie, Banffshire. Back view (6½
inches in diameter).] Its weight is 3 lbs. 9 oz. Like those already
described, it is a solid casting of bronze, having its exterior surface
(Fig. 119) divided longitudinally into three bands—convex exteriorly,
concave interiorly—the middle band stopping short at the circular
aperture in the centre of the terminal expansion, the others passing
round it and uniting at the completion of the circle. [Illustration:
Fig. 120.—Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet found at Auchenbadie,
Banffshire.] A boldly chased pattern of zig-zag ornament lies in the
furrow between each contiguous pair of bands, and along the slightly
depressed furrow at the edges of the outer bands. The convexity of the
exterior surfaces of the bands is studded at equal intervals with bold
projections nearly an inch in length, placed transversely across the
ridges, and standing in rows from side to side of the armlet. From the
outer edges of each of these to the inner edge of the next a slightly
curved and highly raised projection passes obliquely across the ridge,
those on the two outer ridges running parallel to each other, and those
on the central ridge in the reverse direction. The circular spaces in
the terminal expansions (shown in Fig. 118) have lost their enamelled
plates, but the traces remain of the pins and fastenings by which they
were secured in their places. The accompanying plan in outline (Fig.
120) of the form and ornamentation of the armlet, shown as it would
appear if completely flattened out and seen from above, will render
these details more intelligible. From this it appears that the system of
arrangement of the members of the ornament is that of the escaping
double spiral, while the solid forms of the projecting masses are
bounded and outlined by curves of the same formation.
[Illustration: Fig. 121.—Bronze Armlet found at Drumside, Belhelvie,
Aberdeenshire. Front view, seen sideways (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 122.—Bronze Armlet found at Drumside, Belhelvie,
Aberdeenshire. Back view (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 123.—Plan of the Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet
found at Drumside, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire.]
An armlet of similar character, found 6 feet under the surface at
Drumside, in the parish of Belhelvie, in Aberdeenshire, is also in the
National Museum. It is considerably smaller in size (though it is here
shown in Fig. 121 to a larger scale), and measures 4½ inches in its
longest diameter, and 4½ inches in greatest width across the centre of
the circular expansion of the terminal portion. Its weight is only 28
oz. Like the others, it is a solid casting in bronze, the exterior
surface (Fig. 122) triply ridged and studded with projections of the
same flattened oval character as those previously described. The less
highly raised ridges that pass obliquely from projection to projection
are more distinctly trumpet-shaped on the circular terminal part than on
the middle portion of the armlet, and a comparison of their forms with
the ornament round the eye-holes of the swine’s head from Banffshire
(Fig. 95) will show their relationship at a glance. In its form, and the
disposition of the members of its ornamentation (as shown on the
accompanying plan in outline, Fig. 123), this armlet presents a striking
similarity to the one from Achenbadie. It wants the chased border round
the exterior edges of the outer bands, but the furrows between the
ridges of the contiguous bands are similarly ornamented in both. Like
the Castle Newe and Pitkelloney examples, this armlet is one of a pair
which were found together. It is not known what became of the other
specimen of the pair.
[Illustration:
Fig. 124.—Armlet of Brass found near Aboyne (4¼ inches in diameter).
(1) Front view, seen sideways. (2) Back view.
]
Three others were found in ploughing a piece of new land three miles
north-west of Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, and are now in the possession of
the Dowager-Marchioness of Huntly. Two of the three are similar in size
and pattern of ornament, though not identical, one being slightly
smaller than the other. One (Fig. 124) measures 4¼ inches in the longer
and 3¼ in the shorter diameter internally, 2¼ inches in width or height
in the middle of the back, and 3 inches across the middle of the rounded
extremity. Its weight is 20 ounces. The other, which is precisely
similar in the pattern of its ornamentation, measures 4 inches in the
longer and 3 inches in the shorter diameter internally, and weighs 14¼
ounces.[67] Both these examples show an excess of wear at the edge on
one side, where fully half the width of the outer band is worn away. The
third armlet (Fig. 125) is broken and slightly twisted. It is much
plainer, and wants the bold projecting parts of the ornament which are
so conspicuous on the others.
-----
Footnote 67:
These armlets were analysed by Professor Church, and the composition
of the metal determined as follows:—
Armlet No. 1. Armlet No. 2.
Copper 86·49 88·19
Tin 6·76 3·64
Zinc 1·44 9·13
Lead 4·41 —
Loss ·90 —
——— ———
100·00 100·96
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 125.—Armlet found near Aboyne. Back and side view.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 126.—Bronze Armlet in the National Museum. Back and front views
(4½ inches in diameter).
]
An armlet of the same class, preserved in the National Museum (Fig.
126), has both its ends considerably cut away, so as to widen the
opening. It measures 4½ inches in greatest diameter, and 3¼ inches in
greatest width across the circular extremity. The locality in which it
was found is unknown, although there is some probability that it may be
one of two said to have been found in the neighbourhood of Bunrannoch,
Perthshire. In the pattern and arrangement of its ornamentation it has a
strong resemblance to the one next to be described. In all the previous
cases these remarkable objects have been found unassociated with other
articles, but in the case which follows there was an association which
is suggestive of the period of the type.
In 1876, Mr. Lindsay, the tenant of the farm of Stanhope, in
Peeblesshire, in searching for a rabbit underneath a large flat stone on
the hillside, found the following articles among smaller stones
underneath the larger one:—(1) a bronze armlet of the special character
of those that have been described; (2) two flat circular buckle-like
articles of bronze; and (3) a well made saucepan of bronze with a long
side handle. The place where they were discovered is a small hollow
close to the brow of a crag some 400 feet high, and lying below the
summit of the hill, so that it cannot be seen unless by coming close to
the brow of the hill overlooking it.
[Illustration: Fig. 127.—Bronze Armlet found at Stanhope, Peeblesshire.
Front and back views (4½ inches in diameter).]
The armlet (Fig. 127), which is similar in form and ornamentation to
those which have been described, measures 4½ inches in greatest diameter
internally, and 4 inches from front to back. It is 3 inches wide across
the middle of the back where it is narrowest, and 4½ inches across the
centre of the terminal expansions. Its weight is 1 lb. 14¾ oz. The
enamels which usually filled the circular spaces in the terminal
expansions are absent, and there is no trace of the fastenings which
held them in their places. The analysis of this armlet by Dr. Stevenson
Macadam shows it to be a true bronze consisting of:—
Copper 90·69
Tin 9·29
Loss ·02
————
100·00
[Illustration: Fig. 128.—Buckle-like object of Bronze found at Stanhope,
Peeblesshire.]
The buckle-like objects (Fig. 128) are slightly oval in shape, formed of
a single casting in bronze, consisting of an oval penannular ring 2¾
inches in diameter, convex exteriorly, and slightly hollow behind. It is
decorated with two oval ornaments, with bosses at one side, and
furnished with a somewhat rectangular projection, having a loop at the
back. The ornamentation presents the same character as that of the
armlet, but is lower in relief, consisting of curved and trumpet-like
forms projecting from the surface.
The saucepan (Fig. 129) is also a single casting in bronze, thin and
beautifully finished, and tinned inside. The bowl of the pan is 6 inches
wide at the mouth, the sides slightly bulging in the middle, and
contracting to a diameter of 3¾ inches across the bottom. Its depth
inside is 3⅞ inches. The bottom of the vessel is ornamented on the
outside by four projecting concentric bands which give it strength,
while the thinning of the metal in the interspaces would serve to
transmit the heat quickly. It is furnished with a flattened side handle
5½ inches in length, having a circular expansion at the end. This
special form of saucepan of tinned bronze, with the long flat side
handle terminating in a circular ornamented and perforated expansion, is
found all over the area of the Roman Empire.[68] They seem to have
spread over the area of the Roman colonisation with other products of
Roman manufacture, and when they are found in association with objects
that are not Roman in form and style of decoration, their presence is an
indication that the period of the deposit cannot be widely distant from
the time of the Roman occupation. The conclusion drawn from the
association of this saucepan with these objects of native workmanship
decorated in this purely indigenous style of art, is plainly that this
native style of art was already in the period of its highest development
at or about the time of the Roman occupation of the southern portion of
Scotland.
-----
Footnote 68:
Another saucepan of this form found in the Loch of Dowalton, and
bearing the maker’s name stamped on the handle, is described in
connection with the relics from Crannogs in Lecture VI.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 129.—Saucepan of Bronze found with the Bronze
Armlet, etc., at Stanhope, Peeblesshire.]
All these armlets are of one special variety of form, penannular, with
expanded ends, having the exterior surface divided into three parallel
bands, the middle band stopping short at the circular opening in the
expanded extremity, and the bands on either side of it passing round the
openings to unite as one endless band.
[Illustration: Fig. 130.—Bronze Armlet, locality unknown, but probably
from Bunrannoch, Perthshire (4½ inches in diameter).]
[Illustration: Fig. 131.—Bronze Armlet. Back view.]
[Illustration: Fig. 132.—Plan of Ornamentation of Bronze Armlet.]