M. Cartailhac, the very eminent French archaeologist, found not in
Portugal, but in the Cevennes, "plaques of slate, sometimes pierced with
a hole for suspension, usually smaller than those of the Casa da Moura,
not ornamented, _yet certainly analogous with these_." {102a} These are
also analogous with "engraved plaques of schist found in prehistoric
sites of the Rio Negro," "some resembling, others identical with those
shewn at Lisbon by Carlos Ribeiro." But the Rio Negro objects appear
doubtful. {102b}
Portugal has many such plaques, some adorned with designs, and some
plain. {102c} The late Don Estacio da Veiga devotes a chapter to them,
as if they were things peculiar to Portugal, in Europe. {103a} When they
are decorated the ornament is usually linear; in two cases {103b} lines
incised lead to "cups." One plaque is certainly meant to represent the
human form. M. Cartailhac holds that all the plaques with a "vandyked"
pattern in triangles, without faces, "are, none the less, _des
representations stylisees de silhouette humaine_." {103c}
Illustrations give an idea of them (figs. 14, 15, 16); they are more
elaborate than the perforated inscribed plaques of shale or schist from
Dumbuck. Two perforated stone plaques from Volosova, figured by Dr.
Munro (pp. 78, 79), fall into line with other inscribed plaques from
Portugal. Of these Russian objects referred to by Dr. Munro, one is (his
fig. 25) a roughly pear-shaped thing in flint, perforated at the thin
end; the other is a formless stone plaque, inscribed with a cross, three
circles, not concentric, and other now meaningless scratches. It is not
perforated. Dr. Munro does not dispute the genuine character of many
strange figurines in flint, from Volosova, though the redoubtable M. de
Mortillet denounced them as forgeries; they had the misfortune to
corroborate other Italian finds against which M. de Mortillet had a
grudge. But Dr. Munro thinks that the two plaques of Volosova may have
been made for sale by knavish boys. In that case the boys fortuitously
coincided, in their fake, with similar plaques, of undoubted antiquity,
and, in some prehistoric Egyptian stones, occasionally inscribed with
mere wayward scratches.
For these reasons I think the Volosova plaques as genuine as any other
objects from that site, and corroborative, so far, of similar things from
Clyde.
{ Figs. 14, 15: p104.jpg}
To return to Portugal, M. Cartailhac recognises that the _plain_ plaques
of slate from sites in the Cevennes "are certainly analogous" with the
plaques from the Casa da Moura, even when these are elaborately
ornamented with vandyked and other patterns. I find one published case
of a Portuguese plaque with cups and ducts, as at Dumbuck (fig. 16).
Another example is in _Antiguedades Prehistoricas de Andalucia_, p. 109.
{104} However, Dr. Munro leaves the Cevennes Andalusian, and Portuguese
plaques out of his argument.
M. Cartailhac, then, found inscribed and perforated slate tablets "very
common in Portugues neolithic sepulchres." The perforated holes showed
signs of long wear from attachment to something or somebody. One, from
New Jersey, with two holes, exactly as in the Dunbuie example, was much
akin in ornament to the Portuguese plaques. One, of slate, was plain, as
plain as "a bit of gas coal with a round hole bored through it," recorded
by Dr. Munro from Ashgrove Loch crannog. A perforated shale, or slate,
or schist or gas coal plaque, as at Ashgrove Loch, ornamented or plain,
is certainly like another shale schist or slate plaque, plain or
inscribed. We have shown that these occur in France, Portugal, Russia,
America, and Scotland, not to speak of Central Australia.
My suggestion is that, if the Clyde objects are forged, the forger knew a
good deal of archaeology--knew that perforated inscribed plaques of soft
mineral occurred in many countries--but he did not slavishly imitate the
patterns.
By a pleasant coincidence, at the moment of writing, comes to me the
_Annual Archaeological Report_, 1904, of the Canadian Bureau of
Education, kindly sent by Mr. David Boyle. He remarks, as to stone
pendants found in Canadian soil, "The forms of what we call pendants
varied greatly, and were probably made to adapt themselves to _the
natural shapes of water-worn stones_. . . ." This is exactly what Dr.
Munro says about the small stone objects from the three Clyde stations.
"The pendants, amulets, and idols _appear to have been water-worn pieces
of shale or slate_, before they were perforated, decorated, and polished"
(Munro, p. 254). The forger may have been guided by the ancient Canadian
pendants; that man knows everything!
Mr. Boyle goes on, speaking of the superstitious still surviving instinct
of treasuring such stones, "For some unknown reason, many of us exhibit a
desire to pick up pebbles so marked, and examples of the kind are often
carried as pocket pieces," obviously "for luck." He gives one case of
such a stone being worn for fifty years as a "watch pendant." Perforated
stones have always had a "fetishness" attached to them, adds Mr. Boyle.
He then publishes several figures of such stones. Two of these, with
archaic markings like many in Portugal, and one with an undisputed
analogue from a Scottish site, are reproduced (figs. 12, 13).
It is vain to tell us that the uses of such fetishistic stones are out of
harmony with any civilisation. The civilisation of the dwellers in the
Clyde sites was not so highly advanced as to reject a superstition which
still survives. Nor is there any reason why these people should not have
scratched archaic markings on the pebbles as they certainly cut them on
stones in a Scottish crannog of the Iron age.
Dr. Munro agrees with me that rude scribings on shale or slate are found,
of a post-Christian date, at St. Blane's, in Bute. {107} The art, if art
it can be called, is totally different, of course, from the archaic types
of decoration, but all the things have _this_ in common, that they are
rudely incised on shale or slate.