of objects is that of Burrian in the island of North Ronaldsay,
excavated by Dr. William Traill of Woodwick, the proprietor of the
island. The structure was essentially similar to those that have been
previously described. The wall of the tower was 15 feet thick at the
base, enclosing an area of 30 feet in diameter. The greatest height of
the wall remaining was 10 feet. The doorway was on the south-east side
facing the sea. It was 3 feet 3 inches wide at the outer face of the
wall, and had checks for a door consisting of two slabs projecting on
either side of the passage so as to narrow the aperture to 2 feet 10
inches. Within the door-checks the passage widened to 4 feet 3 inches.
There was but one chamber in the thickness of the wall on the north-east
side of the tower. It measured 9 feet 9 inches by 5 feet 9 inches on the
floor, and was about 5 feet high, the roof having fallen in. The
entrance from the interior court to the chamber was 3 feet 3 inches
high, and 2 feet 2 inches wide. [Illustration: Fig. 224.—Bone Implement
from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] The objects found in the
course of the excavations consisted of a large number of hammer-stones
or oblong water-worn pebbles wasted at the ends by use, a number of
querns and grain-rubbers, sinkstones, pieces of black vesicular lava,
roughly pear-shaped, with holes bored through their smaller ends, and
circular discs of thin slaty stone of various sizes. [Illustration: Fig.
225.—Bone Pins, with ornamental heads, from Broch of Burrian (actual
size).] Among the objects made of bone, which were exceptionally
numerous, were an implement of bone 5½ inches in length (Fig. 224), made
from the radius or wing-bone of a bird by cutting it obliquely across at
one end, and grinding the section smooth; ninety pins of bone varying in
size from 4¾ inches to somewhat less than 1¼ inch in length, many of
which have ornamental heads of the character shown in Fig. 225, while
others of larger size are of the forms shown in Fig. 226, a large number
are crutch-headed like Fig. 227, while one neatly-made pin with a
rounded body (Fig. 228) is [Illustration: Fig. 226.—Bone Pins from Broch
of Burrian (actual size).] cleverly ornamented by its head being carved
in the similitude of two horses’ heads looking opposite ways,
and another coarsely-made pin without a head (Fig. <span
class='htmlonly'>229</span><span class='epubonly'>229</span>) is marked
with transverse scorings. [Illustration: Fig. 227.—Crutch-headed Bone
Pin from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] Besides the pins there are
three needles of bone with elongated eyes, one broken, the others (Figs.
230, 231) 2¼ and 1¾ inches in length respectively. [Illustration: Figs.
228, 229.—Bone Pin with ornamental head, and pin with transverse
markings, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] There are also a number
of pegs of bone, roughly finished, varying in length from 3 inches to 1½
inch, and from nearly ¼ inch to about ⅛ inch diameter. [Illustration:
Figs. 230, 231.—Bone Needles from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] These
have evidently been used in pegging slips of bone or wood, and several
slips of bone, about 3½ inches in length, convex on one side and flat on
the other, occur among the relics, two of them having the pegs still in
the holes. There are also a large number of shaped pieces of bone and
deer-horn which might have served as the handles of small
implements—hafts of knives, and suchlike. Among the smaller objects of
bone there are several button-like articles, one apparently the half of
a square-shaped stud or button of ivory with a small hole for the shank
discoloured by oxide of iron, and two others made from short sections of
the shank-bone of a sheep. One of these has the iron shank still in the
hole. Akin to these in the manner of their formation are several playing
dice, manufactured from sheep [Illustration: Fig. 232.—One of a set of
Dice made from a sheep shank-bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual
size).] shank-bones. They are simple sections of the shank-bone 1⅝ inch
in length, with one or more of the sides rubbed smooth and marked with
the customary numbers in the shape of dots and circles. The one here
figured (Fig. 232) is ground smooth on one side, on which there are six
points; on the convexity of the bone there are five points; on the
naturally flattened side of the bone (which is broken) there are no
markings to be seen at the ends, but the centre portion shows one
marking. The second example has only one side of the bone remaining,
which shows four points. The surface of the bone has scaled off the
third example, and obliterated the numbers.[88] Among the miscellaneous
articles of bone to which no definite use can be assigned, although they
are obviously tools or implements intended for special purposes, there
is one (Fig. 233), strongly made of a roughly cut bone, having a rounded
point with two grooves cut in it so as to have prominent parallel ridges
between and on either side of them. [Illustration: Fig. 233.—Tool of
Bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).] Among the objects of
personal use are sixteen combs, most of them more or less broken, but
several still in a fair state of preservation. [Illustration: Fig.
234.—Round-backed Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian (half actual
size).] [Illustration: Fig. 235.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of
Burrian (half actual size).] One is round-backed and single-edged (Fig.
234), measuring 3 inches by 2 inches, the back pierced with three
triplets of small holes, and ornamented with a profusion of dots and
circle markings. It is formed of five thin slips of bone laid together
lengthwise, and held in their places by two slips laid transversely
across them on opposite sides, and fastened by four iron rivets. The
teeth of the comb have been very regularly cut by a fine saw, and the
saw-marks on the under edges of the transverse slips show that the
cutting of the teeth was performed after the pieces of the comb were
fastened together. The rest of the combs are all double-edged. One
measuring 2¾ inches by 2 inches (Fig. 235), is formed of four slips of
bone inserted between two transverse slips, and held together by three
rivets of iron. [Illustration: Fig. 236.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from
Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] The transverse slips are
ornamented by a single line incised along each border, and by four sets
of two concentric circles with central dots ranged at equal distances
along the centre of the slips. The teeth are widely but regularly cut,
narrowing towards the points, and those towards the sides of the comb
shorter than those in the middle. Another comb of the same character
(Fig. 236) measures 5½ inches in length, by 2 inches in breadth. This is
the largest comb obtained from a Broch. It is formed of six slips of
bone enclosed between two transverse slips fastened by five rivets of
iron. Above and below each rivet is an ornamented dot and circle
marking. A similar marking is placed in the centre of each of the broad
terminal teeth at either end of the comb. The transverse slips are much
marked by the saw. The teeth are well cut and regular in length and
thickness; they show strongly the marks of wear by use, chiefly towards
their bases, where minute transverse lines are worn deeply into the
corners of the teeth, almost completely encircling them. Besides these
combs for the hair, there were found no fewer than eighteen of the
long-handled combs, which are of such frequent occurrence among the
relics recovered from Brochs. That shown in Fig. 233 appears to be of
deerhorn, but they are mostly made from portions of the outer table of
the jaw-bone of the whale. They vary in length from 3 inches to 5½
inches. [Illustration: Fig. 237.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of
Burrian, Orkney (4¾ inches in length).] They also vary considerably in
the size and form of the teeth, some, like Fig. 238, having teeth that
are short and pointed, and rounded in section, while the teeth of
others, like those in Fig. 239, are longer, less pointed, and more
rectangular in section. [Illustration: Fig. 238.—Long-handled Comb from
the Broch of Burrian (4¼ inches in length).] It has been already stated
that sixteen combs of the ordinary single and double-edged forms which
are characteristic of the comb used for the hair were found in this
Broch. [Illustration: Fig. 239.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of
Burrian (4 inches in length).] It is therefore probable that these
eighteen long-handled combs were intended for some other purpose. They
are not only unfitted by their clumsiness for this special and personal
use, but the strength of the teeth, their coarseness, and the manner in
which they are marked by the use to which they have been put are
suggestive of implements for some manufacturing process rather than
objects of the toilet. Another circumstance of their association is of
some importance in the inquiry as to the nature of their special
purpose. There is only one other implement which occurs with equal
frequency in collections made from Brochs. In this same Broch, which
yielded sixteen combs for the hair and eighteen of the long-handled
implements, there were upwards of thirty spindle-whorls for spinning
with the distaff and spindle. [Illustration: Fig. 240.—One of a number
of Smoothing Implements of Bone from the Broch of Burrian (6½ inches in
length).] As this implies the existence of a very considerable
manufacture of thread, and as the presence of the industry of weaving is
also suggested by the occurrence of a number of smoothing or calendering
implements of bone (Fig. 240), which had seen much service, it is
probable that these eighteen long-handled implements may have had some
connection with the process of making cloth from the thread spun by the
spindle-whorls. The evidence as to the special use of the implement is
derived (1) from the specialty of its form—it is long-handled; and (2)
from the marks of wear upon its teeth, which are more distinct towards
the apices of the teeth than towards their bases. These marks are such
as would result from combing fibres in the preparation of lint or even
of wool for spinning; but for this use the implement is not well suited
by its form, and the marks on the teeth are often such deeply-cut
transverse lines, as would rather imply the contact and friction of
threads. And it is the fact that a comb of this special form,
long-handled, and having a few stout teeth on the end of the handle, was
used in the operation of weaving when the warp was fixed upright, as it
always was in the older form of loom. The purpose for which the comb was
used was the driving of the weft home as each successive thread was
passed through the upright sheds of the warp by the shuttle. Such
weaving-combs were used by the Egyptians,[89] the Greeks, and the
Romans,[90] and they continued in use throughout Europe even in late
mediæval times. In some varieties of carpet-weaving, in which alone the
upright mode of working is now retained, the weft is driven home by a
similar instrument made of iron. The Hindoo weaver of the present day
retains the form of the implement used by his remote ancestors, although
the materials of which it is made are now wood and iron.
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—Weaving-comb of Wood and Iron used in
India (13 inches in length).] One such implement (Fig. <span
class='htmlonly'>241</span><span class='epubonly'>241</span>) is in the
National Museum. Although its teeth are of iron, a close examination
suffices to show the marks of use, and in the iron comb as well as in
those of bone, it is towards the apices and not towards the bases of the
teeth that the transverse striations appear.[91]
[Illustration: Fig. 224.—Bone Implement from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches
in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 225.—Bone Pins, with ornamental heads, from Broch of
Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 226.—Bone Pins from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.—Crutch-headed Bone Pin from Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Figs. 228, 229.—Bone Pin with ornamental head, and pin
with transverse markings, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: Figs. 230, 231.—Bone Needles from Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 232.—One of a set of Dice made from a sheep
shank-bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
[Illustration: .ca Fig. 233.—Tool of Bone found in the Broch of Burrian
(actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 234.—Round-backed Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(half actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 235.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(half actual size).]
[Illustration: Fig. 236.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian
(5½ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 237.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian,
Orkney (4¾ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 238.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4¼
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 239.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4
inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 240.—One of a number of Smoothing Implements of Bone
from the Broch of Burrian (6½ inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—Weaving-comb of Wood and Iron used in India (13
inches in length).]
-----
Footnote 88:
Dice of this form have not been otherwise found in Scotland. They are
occasionally found in Viking graves in Norway.
Footnote 89:
An Egyptian weaving-comb of wood from the tombs at Thebes is in the
Museum. Its teeth are differently formed, but the principle of its use
is evidently the same. Rich figures a long-handled weaving-comb from a
tomb in Thebes, which is now in the British Museum.
Footnote 90:
Ovid (_Met._ vi. 55) gives a minute description of the process of
weaving as follows—
“Tela jugo vincta est; stamen secernit arundo
Inseritur medium radiis subtemen acutis
Quod digiti expediunt, atque inter stamina ductum
Percusso feriunt insecti pectine dentes.”
Also (_Fasti_, iii. 820) he says that Pallas was the inventress of
weaving, and adds—
“Illa etiam stantes radio percurrere telas
Erudit; et rarum pectine denset opus.”
Juvenal (_Sat._ ix. 30) makes Nævolus complain that he gets cloth from
a Gaulish weaver greasy and badly woven—“Et male percussas textoris
pectine Galli;” while Virgil (_Æn._ vii. 14) represents Circe as—
“Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas;”
and again in the _Georgicon_ says—
“Interea longum cantu solata laborem
Arguto conjunx percurrit pectine telas.”
These descriptions specify the precise operations necessary for
closing or driving home the weft, if the instrument employed were a
comb held in the weaver’s hand. Alexander Neckham, in his work _De
Naturis Rerum_ (written in the twelfth century, and recently printed
in the series of Chronicles by the Master of the Rolls), has a chapter
(cap. clxxi., De Textore) on weaving, in which, after describing the
insertion of the weft by means of the shuttle, he says—
“Inde textrix telam stantem percurret pectine,”
thus using the same words to describe the same operation.
Footnote 91:
Dr. Malcolm Monro Mackenzie, Civil Surgeon, Dharwar, Bombay, states
that in the jails in Bombay, where the work of the convicts is chiefly
weaving, the implement used for beating in the weft is a hand-comb
generally of wood, with iron teeth like that represented above in Fig.
<span class='htmlonly'>241</span><span class='epubonly'>241</span>.
The late Mr. Whytock, carpet manufacturer, when applied to for
information as to the nature of the implement used in carpet-weaving,
stated that “In the manufacture of the Persian or Axminster carpet,
made in one piece and worked in an upright loom, the instrument used
for beating down the weft or pile was about 4 inches broad, with iron
teeth resembling those of a horse-comb, fastened into a short handle.”
He was kind enough to supply a sketch from memory of the instrument as
formerly used in the factory at Lasswade. The sketch showed an
implement in shape somewhat like the short flat hand-brush used by
painters in whitewashing, or a good deal like the Indian loom comb
(figured above), only a little broader in proportion to its length.
The nature and use of these long-handled combs formed the subject of
two papers in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland_, vol. ix. pp. 118, 548.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 242.—Stone with Incised Figures of Crossed
Triangles, from Broch of Burrian (6 inches in length).]
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Metatarsal Bone of Ox (front and back views),
with incised symbols, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).]
The collection of relics from this Broch contains a greater number of
objects than has been found in any other, and it is also remarkable as
presenting some varieties of objects which have not been found in any
other. These are—(1) an oblong pebble of sandstone (Fig. 242), with an
incised figure on each of its flatter sides resembling the talismanic
device of the Middle Ages known as Solomon’s seal; (2) the metatarsal
bone of a small ox, bearing on one side the peculiar symbol of the
sculptured monuments resembling a crescent, crossed by a V-shaped rod or
sceptre (as shown in Fig. 243); (3) a small iron bell; and (4) a slab of
sandstone with a cross of Celtic form, a fish, and an Ogham inscription.
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Metatarsal Bone of Ox (front and back views),
with incised symbols, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] The bell and
the monumental slab have been already described, and need not be further
alluded to.[92] The stone with the geometric figure of Solomon’s seal
lay within a cist-like construction half filled with red ashes, which
was in a paved floor that overlay the original floor, and was separated
from it by a layer of from 1 to 2 feet of ashes and rubbish. The
cross-bearing slab was found at a point near the side of the Broch,
where the wall was so low that though the slab lay not much above the
floor of the tower it was also not far below the surface of the mound.
It cannot therefore be said of any of these objects that they were
certainly associated with the earlier occupation of the Broch, and as
they differ in character from all the objects usually found in such
structures, their exceptional occurrence here can have no bearing on the
discussion of the general questions of the character and relations of
the group of relics usually found in Brochs.
-----
Footnote 92:
_Scotland in Early Christian Times; The Rhind Lectures_ for 1879, p.
175; and Second Series for 1880, p. 211.
-----
That character and these relations are now distinctly established. The
general character of the relics obtained by the systematic excavation of
these northern Brochs is not that of a primitive group, but of a group
which is the product of an advanced stage of culture, civilisation, and
social organisation. The inference deducible from the character of the
relics is the same as that which has been deduced from the type of the
structure, and when the whole of the facts are thus marshalled and their
significance is calmly considered, it becomes plain that there is even
less ground for ascribing a low condition of culture, of civilisation,
or of social organisation to the people who constructed and occupied
these massive towers, than there is for ascribing such a condition to
the builders of the beehive huts and dry-built churches of Christian
times. Reviewing the various aspects of the life of the occupants of
Brochs, as these have been successively disclosed, we see them planting
their defensive habitations thickly over the area of the best arable
land, fringing the coasts, and studding the straths with a form of
structure perfectly unique in character and conception, and for purposes
of defence and passive resistance as admirably devised as anything yet
invented. We see that this system of gigantic and laboriously
constructed strongholds has been devised and universally adopted with
the plain intention of providing for the security of the tillers and the
produce of the soil. We find their occupants cultivating grain, keeping
flocks and herds, and hunting the forests and fishing the sea for their
sustenance. We find them practising arts and industries implying
intelligence and technical skill, and apparently also involving
commercial relations with distant sources of the raw materials. The
probability is that they manufactured all the weapons and implements
they used, and we find them using swords, spears, knives, axes, and
chisels of iron, and pincers, rings, bracelets, pins, and other articles
of bronze or brass. We know that they made their own ornaments in these
metals, because the clay moulds, the crucibles, and the cakes of rough
metal have been found in different Brochs. Gold has not been found in
any well-authenticated instance, but silver and lead are not wanting.
They utilised the bones and horns of animals in the fabrication of such
things as pins, needles, and bodkins, buttons, combs, spindle-whorls,
and various other implements, ornaments, and furnishings of everyday
life and industry. They also used stone when it suited their purpose.
They made beads and bracelets of jet or lignite, and they had other
beads of variously-coloured vitreous pastes, enamelled on the surface
with spiral lines and other devices. They also made beads and discs of
highly-polished stone, such as serpentine, marble, and mica schist, with
imbedded garnets. From the commoner varieties of stone they made
millstones or querns, mortars, pestles, pounders and hammer-stones,
whetstones and point-sharpeners, bowls, cups with and without handles,
lamps, and culinary vessels of various kinds, net-weights, sinkers, and
spindle-whorls. They made pottery, plain and ornamented of various,
kinds, chiefly round-bottomed globular vessels with bulging sides and
everted rims. The women practised the arts of spinning and weaving, and
probably also made the pottery and ground the grain, while the men made
the weapons and tools of metal, and the ornaments and implements of bone
and stone, did the hunting and fishing, and the warfare when needful,
and erected the great structures which made the industrious quietude of
domestic life possible to them.
That the people thus occupying these peculiar strongholds were the
people of the soil, and not strangers effecting a lodgement in a hostile
territory, is obviously suggested both by the character and relations of
the typical structure, and by the character and relations of the relics
of their domestic life. It has been demonstrated in the previous Lecture
that while the typical structure, taken in the totality of its
characteristics, stands absolutely alone and quite apart from all other
types of construction, ancient or modern, its essential features are
those which are characteristic of early Celtic constructions. It is
circular, it is dry-built, its doorways have inclined instead of
perpendicular sides, the roofs of its chambers are formed of beehive
vaulting of overlapping stones, and its galleries are comparable to a
series of earth-houses placed one over the other. It has now been shown
that the relics of the life of the occupants of the Brochs constitute a
group of objects differing widely from those which characterise the
Scandinavian occupancy of the north and west of Scotland. No group of
objects in its general _facies_, entirely comparable to the group which
is characteristic of the Brochs, exists on the continent of Europe or
anywhere out of Scotland. But when the typical forms of the Broch group
of relics are compared with those of other groups existing in Scotland,
it becomes at once apparent that they are forms which are characteristic
of the Celtic area and of post-Roman times. This unique series of
objects from a unique type of structure illustrates a peculiar phase of
the early Celtic or Iron Age culture and civilisation of our country
which until recently was absolutely unknown. And as we find the
investigation on which we have embarked continuously disclosing series
after series of similarly unique types, it becomes increasingly apparent
that its final result can be nothing less than the establishment of the
fact that Scotland has an archæology—in other words, that the unwritten
story of her early systems of culture and civilisation is dispersed
among the _disjecta membra_ of her scattered remains, and is only to be
disclosed by the systematic collection and study of all existing
materials illustrative of her native industry and native art, with their
associated indications of social organisation and potential culture.
LECTURE VI.
(NOVEMBER 2, 1881.)
LAKE-DWELLINGS, HILL-FORTS, AND EARTH-HOUSES.
A Broch like that of Clickamin (see the Frontispiece), situated upon an
island in a loch, accessible by a causeway from the island to the shore
is practically a lake-dwelling. But there are many defensive structures
occupying similar positions which are not Brochs, although they are
often constructed of stone. Most of them are now in such a ruinous
condition that it is impossible to say what may have been the precise
nature of their form and architectural construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.—Defensive structure on an island in the Loch of
Hogsetter, Whalsay, Shetland. (From a Sketch Plan by Dr. Arthur
Mitchell.)]
In the Loch of Hogsetter, in the island of Whalsay, in Shetland, there
is a small island containing a defensive structure of dry-built masonry
(Fig. 244) which is plainly not a Broch.[93] The structure occupies the
greater part of the available surface of the island, and its form has
evidently been determined by the form of the island. It consists of a
dry-built wall of stones with a minimum thickness of 3 to 4 feet,
enclosing an oblong oval of about 70 feet by 75 feet. A causeway, 33
yards in length, has been constructed to give access to the island from
the shore, and on the side next the causeway the enclosing wall is
amplified so as to admit of the construction of a doorway, flanked on
each side by a chamber, as seen in the detached work protecting the
entrance to the island of Clickamin. This part of the construction is
solidly built, and the chambers, which are placed to right and left of
the entrance passage, occupy the interior of a somewhat rectangular
expansion of the wall, measuring about 20 feet by 12 feet, and now only
about 8 feet high. When Low visited Whalsay in 1774, this part of the
construction was 15 feet high, and the chambers and their entrances were
quite entire. They were beehive roofed, the entrances going straight
through the back wall from the enclosed area. The main entrance, which
was 2½ feet wide and 4½ feet high, was covered by the masonry which
joined the two sides of the construction over its lintels, and at about
two-thirds of its length inwards there were checks for a door and the
usual bar-holes on either side. Dr. Mitchell states that above the two
lower chambers there appear to have been other two forming a second
tier, but as Low did not observe them, and no trace of a stair or other
access to the upper level now remains, it seems possible that they may
have been chambers of construction, or merely vacancies left to lighten
the weight on the roofs of the chambers below. Apart from the
peculiarity of its chambers, which are unlike the guard-chambers of the
Brochs in having their entrances opening to the enclosed space and not
directly opening into the passage, this structure has more affinities
with the stone cashels than with the Brochs. Like them it adapts its
form to the space in which it is situated, and like them it consists of
a simple rampart with cells in the thickness of the wall. The wall is
low, and of no great strength, and like the wall of a cashel is merely
meant to add to the defensibility of a naturally defensive position. The
special peculiarities of this defensive construction are, that it is a
dry-built structure which is not a Broch but a cashel, and that it is
situated on an island in a loch and rendered accessible by a causeway.
The island is of natural formation, and has been thus utilised, because
of its suitability for defensive purposes.
-----
Footnote 93:
Described in Low’s _Tour in Orkney and Shetland_, 1774 (Kirkwall,
1879), p. 177; and by Dr. Arthur Mitchell in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. xv. p. 304.
-----
Such instances of the adaptation of natural islands in lochs as places
of strength by constructing defensive buildings of stone upon them are
not uncommon, although it rarely happens that the form and
characteristics of the buildings themselves are so clearly traceable.
But there is another variety of defensive construction which is more
frequently found in similar positions. It possesses the additional
peculiarity of being either wholly or partially constructed of wood.
The Lake-Dwellings in Scotland, which are either wholly or partially
constructed of wood, and which on that account are known as Crannogs,
are very numerous, but so few of them have yet been systematically
explored that it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty
the special characteristics of their typical form and structural
arrangements. Indeed, it is questionable whether this knowledge may be
in any measure attainable by investigation of their existing remains.
Constructed of perishable material, which, as long as it survived the
ravages of time, was capable of being adapted to many and various
purposes of general utility, the parts of the Crannogs that stood above
the water were almost certain to be gradually destroyed. But whatever
may have been the special form of the superstructure of the
Lake-Dwelling when it was built of timber instead of stone, the typical
Crannog, taken as a whole, differs from the stone-built strengths that
are placed in lakes not only in the substitution of timber in place of
stone as the material of its construction, but also in being constructed
usually on an island that is itself an artificial construction. The
Crannog is therefore a Lake-Dwelling, actually built up from the
lake-bottom. Of the structure which stood above the water, and gave
shelter and habitable houseroom to the inmates, there is usually no
trace whatever. Occasionally the remains of a pavement of timber or of
flagstones, or the site of a hearth with its accumulations of ashes and
food refuse marks the level of the floor, and sometimes a succession of
such indications at different levels may betoken successive occupations.
But the story of the Crannog as told by the casual relics imbedded in
and around its submerged foundations is clearly intelligible, although
it reveals nothing of the precise form and arrangements of the habitable
part of the structure.
In the Loch of Dowalton, situated in the centre of the peninsula,
bounded on the west by the Bay of Luce, and on the east by the Bay of
Wigton, in Wigtonshire, a group of Crannogs was investigated by Earl
Percy (then Lord Lovaine) in 1863, and subsequently examined by Sir
William Maxwell of Monreith, and the late Dr. John Stuart, then
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. One of these,
situated on the south side of the loch and near the west end, presented
the appearance of a mass of stones and soil surrounded by numerous rows
of piles formed of young oak-trees. On the north-east side of the island
a number of beams of oak mortised together like hurdles were visible,
and below them layers of round logs laid horizontally. A few vertical
piles were observed, which, in some cases, had cross-beams mortised into
them. Below the layers of logs were masses of brushwood and fern. The
only sign of occupation noticed was the site of a hearth, with an
accumulation of ashes, burnt wood, and bones of animals. In the adjacent
refuse-heap a small fragment of bronze was discovered, and close by the
island a bronze basin was found. Near the eastern margin of the loch was
a group of three Crannogs. The largest of these was about 23 yards in
diameter. It was surrounded by many rows of piles, some of which had
their ends cut square across with a hatchet. The surface of the Crannog
was covered with stones resting on a mass of brushwood, fern, and
heather, intermingled with stones and earth. The whole mass was
penetrated and kept together by piles driven through it into the bottom
of the loch. On the south side were the remains of a massive
construction of planks of roughly-squared oak, 5 feet long, 2 feet wide,
and 2 inches thick, laid side by side in layers crossing each other
transversely, and pinned together. The general framework of this
platform-like structure was of massive beams mortised together, the
mortises measuring about 10 inches by 8 inches. On the north-east side,
and underneath part of the timber construction, a canoe was found, 21
feet in length and 3 feet 10 inches wide at the stern. The canoe was of
oak, hollowed out of a single tree, and the stern was closed by a board
sliding in a groove cut in both sides, and secured by a thicker piece 3
inches in height pegged down over it. A washboard projecting slightly
over the edge and pegged into the upper margin of the canoe, ran all
round the sides. [Illustration: Fig. 245.—Portion of a Shoe of stamped
leather (length, 7 inches).] There were two thole-pins inserted in
square holes on each side, and one of the thwarts remained in position.
A portion of a shoe formed of stamped leather (Fig. 245) was discovered
among the mass of material thrown out in excavating the canoe. One
hearth was discovered. It was simply a paved space, showing marks of
fire and an accumulation of ashes and food refuse. The bones were those
of the common domestic animals, the ox, the pig, and sheep. Among the
relies found on the Crannog were a bronze penannular brooch with knobbed
ends, the knobs somewhat quadrangular in form, two iron hammers, and
four whetstones.
[Illustration: Fig. 245.—Portion of a Shoe of stamped leather (length, 7
inches).]
[Illustration: Fig. 246. Saucepan of Roman form found in Dowalton Loch
(height, 5½ inches).]
Another Crannog, nearly circular, and 13 yards in diameter, lay a little
to the southward. Its construction was in every respect similar to that
last described, and it was surrounded by an immense number of piles,
extending in rows for 20 yards outside the circumference of a solid
construction of brushwood and logs, covered by earth and stones. One
canoe was found on its margin, 24 feet long and 4 feet 2 inches wide in
the middle; and another was found between it and the shore of the loch,
18½ feet long and 2 feet 7 inches wide. Among the refuse of the
occupancy of the Crannog, consisting chiefly of bones of domestic
animals, were found a broken bead of glass, and portions of two armlets
of glass, one ornamented with a yellow streak and the other with streaks
of blue and white.