Chapter I · ​—INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

Both the long and the short horned cairns of Caithness differ widely from those of the Bronze Age, and from those of all later periods. Their structural type is distinguished by two characteristics, namely: 1, by having an internal chamber accessible by a passage; 2, by having a regular external outline on the ground-plan, structurally defined by a double or single retaining wall. During the last thirty years a considerable number of them have been excavated and carefully explored; and I cannot do better than reproduce briefly a description of a few typical examples, and then present some details of their internal contents.

The external dimensions of some of the horned cairns are very great. On the crest of a hill overlooking the south end of the loch of Yarhouse, in Caithness, there are two cairns of great magnitude not far from each other. They lie across the hill from east to west, and have at both their ends curved horn-like projections, falling gradually to the level of the ground. The length of the longest one was two hundred and forty feet, the breadth at its eastern end was sixty-six feet, and at its western end thirty-six feet; but the curved horns expanded so that the line across their tips at the eastern end was ninety-two feet, and at the western end fifty-three feet. The height of the cairn at the east end was twelve feet, sloping gradually to below five feet at the west end. When the loose stones were removed from the upper part of the highest end, a chamber with a passage leading into it was disclosed. The outer opening of the passage was in the middle between the projecting horns; and two flat stones placed on end, 2½ feet high, formed the door jambs on the outside of the entrance. A well built passage two feet wide runs inward for ten feet, and where it opens into the chamber, two stones similar to those at the outside entrance, but higher, are set on end, and form a doorway of eighteen inches wide. The chamber itself is small compared with the external magnitude of the cairn; and it only measured twelve feet in length from front to back, and six feet from side to side. The side walls were entire to a height of seven feet, and at this height they began to converge to form a rudely vaulted roof, like the roofs of other erections of dry-built stone. The chamber is divided into three parts by two pairs of divisional stones projecting from the side walls opposite to each other; these stones are undressed flags sunk on end into the floor, and leaving about two feet between their edges. When the explorers had cleared the three compartments of the chamber and ascertained its construction, seeing that the chamber did not occupy more than a twentieth part of the length of the cairn, they thought that other chambers would be found within it. The centre was then tried, and trials were made all round the cairn, but no other chamber was found in it. The floor of the chamber itself was formed of a dark clay five inches thick, intermixed with ashes and calcined bones, in a state of extreme comminution; this layer was easily detached from the natural subsoil below, and was raised in large cake like masses, each of which was carried outside to be crumbled and searched. No single fragment of bone was discovered exceeding an inch in length; and the few bits which afforded any clear indications, such as portions of teeth and jawbones, were unmistakably human. A number of small flint chips, and two fragments of pottery, were the only manufactured articles found.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 230‒236.

The other cairn closely resembled the first one, and stood about three hundred yards from it. But on the floor of the first compartment of its chamber a cist was placed to the left of the entrance. The cist was formed of slabs; and it was four feet four inches long, twenty inches wide, and nine inches deep to the level of the floor; and in the dark earthy clay inside of it, there was a whitish layer of softened bones in a condition of extreme decay. In the east end of the cist, fragments of an urn were found, and a necklace of small beads of lignite. The floor of the chamber consisted of a layer of clay and ashes over six inches thick, intermixed with burnt human bones, and animal bones; and in the corners of the chamber there were numbers of human teeth, of which the osseous parts had perished, and the enamel of the crowns only remained. About three miles from this cairn, another of the same character lies on the ridge of a height in the Moor of Camster. Its contents presented phenomena similar to the preceding ones. In the loose layer on the surface of the floor of the chamber, a few fragments of skulls and other unburnt bones of the human skeleton were found, mingled with the splintered bones of the horse, ox, deer, and swine. No fragments of pottery, flint-chips, or tools of any kind were found in it.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 237‒243.

In a short cairn of the horned class which lies on a small height at Ormiegill, near Ulbster, there were found in its chamber a polished hammer of gray granite, an oval flint knife, and an arrow head, several flint flakes serrated on one side, and a number of well made scrapers. Another of the same class, locally called the Cairn of Get, lies in a hollow among the hills at Garrywhin, near Bruan. Its extreme length is eighty feet, and its greatest breadth sixty feet; the horns project about twenty feet in front, and about fifteen feet behind. On the surface of the floor of the first compartment of the chamber there were four unburnt human skeletons, and the skulls lying close to the wall on the right of the entrance. The skulls appeared to Dr. Anderson “to be fully as well formed as many of the heads to be seen on living men of the present day.” In the compacted mass of the floor of the chamber, there were an enormous quantity of human and animal bones, mostly more or less burnt; and with these were intermixed many chips and flakes of flint and fragments of pottery.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 244‒249.

There are many chambered cairns in Caithness without the external peculiarity of horns, oval shaped or roundish ones, some of which have been excavated, and the internal characteristics of their structure are similar to that of the preceding ones. On the crests of the hills of Yarhouse, there were four chambered cairns which the late Mr. A. H. Rhind explored. On the surface of the floors of the chambers he found unburnt bones and pottery, and in the layers burnt bones and pottery, but no flints or tools of any description. Dr. Anderson excavated another cairn on the hill above Bruan, the characteristics of which he considered as forming a connecting link between the Caithness and the Orkney forms of chambered cairns. This cairn was forty feet in diameter and fourteen feet in height, and the passage was ten feet long and two feet nine inches wide at the entrance, where it was three feet high, increasing in width and height inwards to the chamber. The interior differed from that of the preceding ones, inasmuch as it consisted of a principal chamber of two compartments, and also presented the peculiarity of a small side chamber opening off the principal one. The divisional slabs did not rise to the roof, which formed one vault over both the compartments of the chamber. The walls sloped outwards from the base to near the middle of their height, and were then brought inward above the middle by the overlapping of the stones to form a dome-shaped roof. The small side chamber off the principal one, measured four feet by three, and three feet six inches in height. Its floor was formed of a single flag, and on raising it, another flag was found underneath, and under both a layer of clay four inches deep, intermingled with charcoal, ashes, and burnt bones; and under this layer there was a third flag which lay upon the subsoil of the hill. The entire floor of the principal chamber and the inner part of the entrance passage was a mass twelve inches thick of broken and burnt bones mixed with ashes; the human bones were numerous, but so much broken that it was impossible to determine how many skeletons they represented. Amongst the animal bones, those of the horse, ox, red-deer, sheep or goat, and a large-sized dog, were distinguishable. A number of flint chips, a great quantity of broken pottery, amounting to several hundreds of fragments, and an oblong pebble with smoothed ends and sides, and a flat piece of bone three inches long, with a smoothed chisel-like edge, were found.¹

¹ Anderson’s Stone and Bronze Ages, pages 253‒260. A group of three cairns at Rhinavie, near Skelpick, in Strathnaver, Sutherlandshire, were examined by the late Mr. MacKay of Skelpick at the instance of the late Dr. John Stuart; and more recently, they have been described by the Rev. Robert Munro, in the Proceedings of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume XVIII., page 228, et seq.

As mentioned in a preceding page, the long cairns have been found in many parts of England, in some of the south-western counties, also in Yorkshire, and they are numerous in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Dorsetshire. The long cairns of Caithness “agree with those of England in being, as a rule, placed approximately east and west, also in having one end, and that the east, broader and higher than the other, as well as in other particulars. They are also frequently provided with walls, which enclose and support them, and have sometimes the peculiarity of having what have been termed ‘horns.’ These are formed by the enclosing walls inclining outwards at the ends and then returning with a curve inwards, making at the point in question a figure something like the conventional representation of the human heart. This curve usually constitutes the mode of approach into the burial chamber when it is placed at the end of the mound. The same remarkable feature is found in some of the long barrows of the south-west of England. The barrow, then (a long one at Upper Swell, in Gloucestershire,) may be taken as a fairly illustrative specimen of the horned variety of Long Barrow​—a variety of the tumulus of the non-metallic period which is represented in Caithness, as described by Dr. Joseph Anderson, as well as in the south-west of England, and found to contain there interments similarly arranged, and pottery and implements of similar type and rudeness to those we have found here.... This Upper Swell barrow, however, differs from the other horned cairns in Caithness, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire, in having its grave sunk below the natural surface of the ground, instead of being represented by a chamber with upright slabs for its walls, and placed on the surface and defined by the piling of stones round it.”¹ On the other hand, the English specimens of Long Barrows with horns, have the horns at one end only, usually at the widest end; while the Caithness cairns have horns at both ends, and externally this is the chief difference between them. But in the internal arrangements of the chambers there are also, as might be expected, several varying features. The character of the internal deposits in those of England and the North are remarkably similar; the bones of animals of the same species are found in both, and the tools and pottery, though not usually numerous in either of their contents, are also similar; but in the south of England the interments in them are mostly unburnt, while in the north of Scotland cremation seems to have been more common.²

¹ British Barrows, by Wm. Greenwell, M.A., pages 480, 481, 535‒536.

² “The similarity of this pottery, whether found in Caithness, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire, is a fact of less doubtful interpretation and greater significance; especially when we couple with it a consideration of the similarity of the weapons and implements, of the similarity of the ground plans of the Scottish horned cairns and of so many of the Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire long barrows, and finally of the similarity of the skulls from the neolithic tumuli of all these localities. These similarities are the more surprising when we recollect how difficult intercommunication must have been at the period when they existed.” British Barrows, page 537. “The occurrence of animal bones is another frequent incident. It is rare indeed to meet with a barrow (where the material is such as to favour the preservation of bone) without a considerable number of them being scattered indiscriminately throughout the mound.... For instance, in one at Rudstone, they were literally in hundreds, placed with flint-chippings and shreds of pottery, in a dark-coloured, unctuous layer, which extended throughout the whole area of the mound, on the natural surface of the ground.... They may be the remains of food offered to the dead, an observance which has extensively prevailed in many countries and in various ages. They would in this case form part of the practice of the worship of our ancestors, which has been a feature almost universal in the growth of the religions of the human race, and allied always with fear.” Ibid., pages 9, 10.

Having indicated at some length one characteristic type of sepulchral constructions, which prevailed in both divisions of the island, which seems to show that one ♦homogeneous race had spread over Britain at a very remote period. The other varieties of chambered cairns can be noticed only in the briefest terms. Farther north than Caithness, in the Orkney Isles, there is a remarkable group of cairns of an exceedingly interesting character; the most notable of these is the chambered mound of Maeshowe. It lies about a mile to the east of the great stone circle of Stennis, and externally it presents the appearance of a mound thirty-six feet in height, ninety-two feet in diameter, and surrounded by a trench forty feet wide, and still in some parts eight feet deep. When it was opened from the top a central chamber was discovered, which measured about fifteen feet square on the level of the floor, and thirteen feet in height to the top of the walls; but the upper part of the wall had fallen in, and its original height may have been about twenty feet. In the east, north, and south sides of the chamber there are three small openings, at a height of three feet above the floor, which gives access to cells measuring about four feet six inches wide, from seven feet to five feet six inches long, and three feet high. In the middle of the west side of the chamber, the passage leading to the outside of the mound opens; the doorway is four feet eight inches high, and three feet four inches wide, decreasing in height and width as it proceeds outward, and at the external entrance it is only two feet four inches wide. At thirty feet outward from the chamber there are checks for a door, and behind them a recess in one side of the passage, in front of which there was a slab, which might have been used as a door; and from this point inward the passage is four feet four inches high, and three feet three inches wide, continuing thus for twenty-six feet, when it becomes narrowed to two feet five inches by two slabs placed upright to form checks for the inmost door.²

² Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume V., pages 247‒252; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., page 67. I was deeply indebted to the late Mr. Andrew Gibb, F.S.A. Scotland, of Aberdeen, for particulars about Maeshowe, and suggestions on many other points of our prehistoric annals.

The chamber is built of undressed slabs and blocks of the close-grained claystone of the locality, and, although the walls are built without any lime or mortar, the masonry is very neat. “Whoever built it, the chamber of Maeshowe is the most perfect and elegant known to exist in any sepulchre of its class, on this side of the Alps.”¹ Dr. Anderson remarks that the indications of its original purpose, and the evidence of its earlier history, probably lay hidden in its floor, “and have not been placed on record either by its earlier or later explorers.” From the character of the structure itself, however, he rightly classes it with the Caithness chambered cairns.²

¹ The Brochs and the Rude Stone Monuments of the Orkney Islands and the North of Scotland, by J. Fergusson, D.C.L., page 28, 1877.

² Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, page 280. It is believed on pretty good evidence that the chamber of Maeshowe was broken open by the Norsemen, in the hope of finding treasure, about the middle of the twelfth century. The walls of the chamber are covered with Runic inscriptions slightly scratched on the stones, comprising, it is said, nearly one thousand letters, and there is no doubt that the inscriptions were made after the breaking open of the mound. See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume V., pages 247‒252, 262‒278; and Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 277‒279.

At Quoyness, in Elsness, in the Island of Sanday, Orkney, a large chambered cairn was explored in 1867. It lies close to the sea, only a few feet above high water mark; and its size had been reduced by the removal of stones for various purposes before it was examined. It was circular in form, with the entrance to the passage on the south-east side, and the passage was twenty-four feet long, three feet high, and twenty inches wide, covered by flat stones laid across, and slightly widening and increasing in height towards the chamber. The chamber was oblong, and measured twelve feet six inches in length, and five feet six inches wide; the walls still stood to a height of twelve feet, but the roof was gone. Opening off the chamber there were six entrances to six small oval cells, two of which were placed on each of the long sides of the central chamber, and one at each of its ends. The walls of the cells rose with an inward curve to a height of from five to six feet, and then their roofs were closed with flat stones; the largest of these cells was seven feet two inches long, and four feet eight inches wide, and the others somewhat smaller. “At the distance of twelve feet within the external wall there was a retaining wall, within the mass of the cairn surrounding the chamber, similar to that in the cairn at Ormiegill, near Ulbster, in Caithness. The structural characteristics of this cairn thus combine the peculiarities of two local groups: the double external walling defining its circular outlines, and the retaining wall surrounding the chamber, are features of the Caithness group, and the oblong rectangular chamber, with smaller cells opening from its sides, are features of the Orkney group.” In the central chamber, and in three of the smaller cells, quantities of unburnt human bones were found; and Dr. Thurnam said of them:​—“There are fragments of twelve or fifteen skulls, some male and some female, some of them children or quite young persons; one or two of them have the appearance of being cleft prior to being interred, and the teeth in the lower jaws are much corroded.” Two implements of polished stone were found in one of the side cells, and a bone tool seven inches long.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 283‒287.

There are other cairns in Orkney of a similar structure. At Quanterness, near Kirkwall, on the north side of the Wideford Hill, there was one a hundred and twenty-eight feet in circumference at the base, and fourteen feet in height. On the western slope of the same hill, overlooking the Bay of Firth, there is another of a similar class, which was explored by Mr. George Petrie in 1849. In its chamber and side cells quantities of the bones of the horse, ox, sheep, and swine, were found, but no human remains were noticed. There are other sepulchral cairns in Orkney which show features more closely resembling the Caithness group. On the Holm of Papa Westray, there is a cairn which presented the threefold division of the chamber, so characteristic of the Caithness cairns; and another in the Island of Burray, which was sixty feet in length. On the floor of the chamber of the Burray cairn, the remains of a large number of unburnt human skeletons were found; and ten human skulls were lying in the first compartment of the chamber, near the opening of the entrance passage. Large quantities of the bones of the common domestic animals were identified, amongst which were the skulls of seven dogs. At Ustan, near the Bridge of Waith, Stennis, a chambered cairn which lies on a little promontory projecting into the lake, was recently excavated by Mr. R. S. Clouston. It is round, but it presented the constructive characteristics of the Caithness cairns, except a slight variation in the internal arrangement. A passage two feet wide and fourteen feet in length, led into an oblong chamber of twenty-one feet long, and six feet six inches at its widest part. The chamber was divided into five compartments, by slabs placed on edge similar to the Caithness cairns. The sepulchral deposits in this cairn were almost similar to those found in the chambered cairns of Caithness and Argyle. In the floor of the chamber and the inner part of the passage, a large quantity of unburnt human bones and animal bones were found; and numerous fragments of pottery, supposed to represent about thirty urns, and also charcoal and burnt bones were found. The implements and weapons found in the chamber, consisted of four leaf-shaped arrow-heads of large size, and well formed, and one with barbs and stem of smaller size, a finely made flint scraper, and a flint knife with the edge ground smooth, and a flint flaking tool.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 287‒298. “Taking the Orkney group of chambered cairns as a whole, we find it presenting the same essential characteristics as are exhibited by the groups which have been described on the mainland of Scotland. There is a considerable variation in the arrangement of the chambers, and a strongly marked tendency to a grouping of smaller cells round the main chamber, which may be regarded as a local characteristic peculiar to the Orkney Islands. But with this local peculiarity there are associated instances of the tripartite chamber so characteristic of the northern mainland area, and in several cases the still more characteristic features of the bounding wall and the curved extremities are presented.” Ibid., page 299.

A group of cairns once existed in the plain of Clava, in ♦Strathnairn, a few miles from Inverness. There seems to have been seven or eight cairns, of these, only two now remain in a condition to show the characteristics of their structure. Complete and accurate ground plans of these have recently been published.²

² By Mr. J. Fraser, C.E.; see also Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume XVIII., page 328, et seq.

Perhaps it may be thought, that I should offer some explanation of the occurrence of such large quantities of animal bones found intermingled with the human remains in the series of cairn interments, which have been briefly described. This, however, can hardly, as yet, be presented in a satisfactory manner; but some customs and incidents, supposed to have been associated with the funerals of the departed in prehistoric times, may be mentioned. It has been repeatedly asserted that our early ancestors of the stone period were addicted to cannibalism; that at their tombs many human victims, mothers and infants, were sacrificed; and that at their great funeral feasts there was always a general holocaust of human and animal sacrifice. But the evidence adduced to prove the prevalence of these practices among the prehistoric inhabitants of this Island is utterly insufficient. Indeed, much of what has been advanced as evidence of such customs amongst the people of the Neolithic period in Britain, rests upon an unwarranted assumption which assumes this form:​—Seeing that in such and such quarters of the globe certain existing savage tribes are addicted to cannibalism, and certain other savage tribes in some other part of the earth practice the custom of human sacrifice; these tribes are in a certain social stage, the stone age people of Britain were in a similar stage; therefore, the stone age people of Britain must have been addicted to cannibalism, and human sacrifice. Funeral feasts were, no doubt common, at which many animals were killed, but that human beings were sacrificed at these feasts in Britain, there is no reliable evidence to prove.¹

¹ Sir J. Lubbock, Mr. Bateman, and Dr. Thurnam, have asserted that human sacrifice prevailed in Britain in prehistoric times, and the latter especially, implicitly averred that the stone age people were cannibals, and that even the bronze age people practised human sacrifice. In a paper published in the third volume of the Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London, in 1870, Dr. Thurnam maintained that the people who constructed the Long Barrows of England were addicted to many extremely barbarous customs, and that, “if not addicted to cannibalism, they, without doubt, sacrificed many human victims, whose cleft skulls and half-charred bones are found in their tombs,” page 76. In the first edition of this volume, published in 1877, I canvassed his evidence for the above assertions, and found it altogether insufficient to sustain his conclusions. I also carefully examined the evidence advanced by Sir J. Lubbock in reference to the prevalence of these inhuman practices among the prehistoric people of Britain, and found it not only quite insufficient, but in many points clearly irrelevant and inapplicable, while some of his far-fetched analogies and inferences based thereon, were manifestly delusive. I am, therefore, glad to find that Mr. Wm. Greenwell, and the late Professor Rolleston, have contested Dr. Thurnam’s conclusions. They have given more reasonable and probable explanations of the contents and the phenomena of the barrows. See especially pages 544‒548, of that great and invaluable work​—British Barrows, by Wm. Greenwell, M.A., F.S.A., 1879. In the very able and exhaustive remarks which Professor Rolleston made upon the series of prehistoric Crania, discovered in the barrows which Mr. Greenwell had so carefully explored, he completely overthrows Dr. Thurnam’s conclusions on the points in question. I can only give a short quotation:​—“I have to say that the bones found in the Long Barrows of England do not seem to me to bear the interpretation which Dr. Thurnam has put upon them.” He proceeds to show at length the grounds and the reasons why Dr. Thurnam’s conclusions are untenable, pages 684‒692. Rolleston then remarks, the question arises, “how is it that in the very large number of interments recorded in this book we have never come upon any bony remains bearing their evidence to the existence of a practice which is spoken of by such a very large number of literary authorities? In answer to this, I have to say that the literary evidence, when duly considered, proves simply that slaves and captives were slaughtered at the funeral of their lords, without proving that they were allowed to lie beside them afterwards.... We have a large mass of literary evidence in favour of the continuation of this practice into historical times amongst the Gauls, and other foreign races with whom the Romans and Greeks came into contact.” Ibid., pages 684, 692.

In so far as the early inhabitants of Britain are concerned, I attach very little importance to this mass of literary evidence; when closely examined, it yields no definite or conclusive evidence on the points in question.

As already indicated, the bones of animals found in the chambered cairns may be the remains of food offered to the dead; and thus would have formed a part of the worship of their ancestors, so that feasts might not only have been celebrated at the actual funerals, but also long afterwards at certain times in commemoration of the departed ancestors. There also may have been a form of animal worship among our ancestors of the Stone Age, which may have assumed practical expression in association with the interment of the dead. Reasoning by analogy, they may have imagined that seeing animals were exceedingly useful to the living, therefore they must be useful to the dead. On the same ground of imagined use to the dead, we may account for the occurrence of weapons, tools, and ornaments in the closest association with human remains.

Regarding the extreme comminution of the human remains in the chambered cairns of Scotland, several causes may reasonably be assigned. First, the process of cremation which seems to have been the prevailing mode of burial in these cairns, though not exclusively so, as unburnt remains also occur in them. This taken in connection with the great antiquity of the interments, the thousands of years which have elapsed since they took place, and the action of the natural agencies around them during that long period. Second, it seems obvious that in many of these cairns numerous interments have been made at longer or shorter intervals; and this might partly account for the bones being so much broken and mixed as they appear in the compacted layers of the floors in the internal chambers. But owing to the very limited dimensions of the entrance passages leading into the internal chambers of these cairns, it is hardly conceivable that interments could have often taken place after the cairns were externally and internally finished. It is possible that there may have been some interments after the completion of a cairn, as a person might have crept through the low narrow passage with an urn, and placed it on the floor of the chamber; but it is in the highest degree improbable that this mode of depositing the remains took place. Such being the real state of the matter, I offer the following view as to how the interments were originally made:​—1, When a site for a cairn was fixed on, the first thing done was to mark off the ground plan of the cairn and to erect the external retaining wall; 2, Then the space where the internal chamber of the cairn was to be erected, was definitely marked off; 3, Interments might then be made in the space where the chamber was designed to be. Now it is not only conceivable, but also highly probable, that the structure may have remained in this incomplete state for an indefinite period; and thus a number of successive interments on the same spot could have been made through one or more generations, or until the head of the family or tribe resolved that the structure should be completed. The great funeral feasts would be held in and around the outline of the cairn at each successive interment; and also the feasts held in commemoration of their departed ancestors. On which occasions the actions and proceedings of the people in giving expression to their worship and rejoicing, were all performed on and around the same spot. We may imagine the scene: the slaughter and roasting of horses, oxen, sheep, and dogs; and the people moving to and fro in a state of intense excitement, when the remains of another ancestor was consigned to its last resting place. This view of successive interments before the cairn was closed up and completed, would in some measure at least account for the layers on the floors of the chambers, and the state of the human remains as we now find them.

It has been said that, “there is not a vestige of a dwelling or a defensive construction in Scotland which can be proved by evidence to be the work of the men of the Stone Age.”¹ This may be the case; and yet we may be certain that the people who erected the chambered cairns of Scotland, would have contrived to construct dwellings to protect themselves from the cold and frost, incident to a rather severe climate. Although they have left much clear evidence of their skill and industry in relation to the dead, still we cannot assume that the dead were more cared for than the living. If no trace of the dwellings in which they lived can be found, then they must have been a very peculiar people. We have seen evidence that they had horses, cattle, swine, and dogs; and that they were skilful in making tools and weapons in such materials as were available to them. Let us therefore carefully look over the many prehistoric structures of Scotland, and try to find if any of them can be assigned to the men of the Stone Age.

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, page 305; 1886.

There is only one type of structures which could on any reasonable grounds be assigned to this period, and that is the “earth houses.” The period of this class has been recently fixed as lying between “the general establishment of Christianity and the departure of the Romans from Scotland.” The grounds on which this conclusion rests are these:​—1, That in two of the earth-houses some of the stones in their walls had distinctively Roman mouldings on them; and consequently they must have been built after the Roman occupation. One of these was discovered near the village of Newstead, Roxburghshire, and the other at Crichton Mains, in Mid Lothian. A Roman type of pottery and traces of Samian ware have also been found in some of the earth-houses. 2, “The presence in most of them of querns and implements of the Iron Age, and the entire absence of such implements as are characteristic of the ages of stone and bronze.”¹

¹ Ibid., pages 300‒304.

The first point is conclusive evidence so far as it goes; but it does not follow that these two earth-houses were the first structures of this type built in Scotland. For anything that we know their construction might have been the result of special circumstances of an individual character. So far as known, the earth-houses are not numerous in that quarter of the country. Let it then be clearly understood, that merely to show the limit of the age of one or two in a certain locality, is not conclusive evidence of the origin and the possible age of a type of so peculiarly characteristic structures, spread over a wide area, unless where other evidence in harmony with the natural and known surroundings of the people is adduced. Thus the strongest point is inconclusive touching the origin and possible age of this special class of structures.

The second point is not quite accurate. For it is recorded that some of the earth houses have been found empty; that in others cinders and charred wood, the bones of the ox, deer, and other animals, shells and remains of fish, a few objects of flint, bone, and bronze, as well as querns and iron implements, have been discovered in them.¹ Although there had been nothing but querns and iron implements found in them, that would not afford conclusive evidence as to their origin and possible age, but only evidence of their latest frequenters or temporary occupiers.

¹ Chalmers’ Caledonia, Volume I., page 97; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., pages 108‒110; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume I., pages 260‒263; Volume III., pages 465‒471; Volume IV., pages 64, 492‒499; Volume VI., pages 249‒250; Volume VII., pages 276, 532‒534; Volume VIII., page 24; Volume X. page 287.

1, Now it can hardly be questioned that the men who erected the horned and chambered cairns were capable in point of skill, power, and persistency of will, to construct the earth-houses. This much will be admitted. 2, Taking into account the climate and the circumstances under which our ancestors of the Stone Age lived and moved; and also having regard to their imperfect means of protecting themselves from the biting cold and frost, if we duly consider these things, it will at once be perceived that the earth-houses were the most suitable dwellings for their condition and circumstances. 3, Let us carefully examine the entrances and passages of the chambered cairns, the internal structure and characteristics of the chambers; and then compare these with the entrances and the galleries and chambers of the earth-houses, not fanciful but striking resemblances will be perceived between the two classes of structures. Indeed this resemblance is so marked that it is difficult to imagine that they were not both constructed by the same people. 4, So far as I know, the people of the Stone Age were a quiet race; and seeing that they found leisure to erect such great memorials to the dead, it may be reasonably assumed that they also found time to erect the earth-houses, which were in harmony with their genius and conditions of life, excepting of course the two with the Roman stones, which were no doubt the product of some eccentric and timid individual, born out of due time. 5, It is well known that the different races and tribes in Scotland, after the departure of the Romans, were so much engaged in conflicts with one another that they could scarcely have found time to construct the earth-houses, which could not have been built in a day or perhaps in a year. Besides, is there any direct evidence that the Celtic people of Scotland constructed underground galleries for any purpose after the departure of the Romans? There was but one people whose genius, condition, and circumstances, harmonised with the earth-houses, and that was the race who erected the chambered cairns.

The area of the earth-houses extends from Berwickshire to the Orkney Islands, embracing all the eastern region of Scotland; but not many of them have been discovered on the south side of the Forth. These curious structures are sometimes found singly, and sometimes in groups of from five up to forty. Many of them lie in cultivated lands, and have often been discovered by the plough striking on the stones of their roofs. I will first give a general description of their structure, and then point out the features which bear a resemblance to some of the characteristics of the chambered cairns.

Their chief features are:​—1, They are under the natural level of the ground; 2, A narrow and low entrance, apt to escape notice, and a narrow passage; 3, A more or less curved chamber, gradually widening inwards and usually terminating with a rounded end; 4, The internal characteristics of the chamber, which is sometimes single, in others small chambers run off the main one, to the right and left; 5, Converging side walls which support a lintelled roof. They vary greatly in size, but their features are pretty similar.

At Airlie, in Forfarshire, there is a group of five, one of which was sixty-seven feet long, and about seven feet wide. The entrance was under two feet in height, and the floor gradually slopes down for twenty feet till it reaches a height of six feet. The walls are pretty regularly built of undressed boulders, and they converge inward to four feet at the roof, which is formed of large stones, many of them over seven feet long and four feet wide. Its contents consisted of an accumulation of ashes, and bones of animals, fragments of querns, a stone vessel, and a brass pin.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Iron Ages, page 292.

In 1816, Professor John Stuart of Aberdeen, discovered a group spread over a space of about a mile in diameter, on what was then a dry moor,¹ in the parishes of Auchindoir and Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire. He estimated the number then discovered in this locality at upwards of forty; and he states that the ground where they lay had originally been a forest, as the trunks of large trees were still dug up there. There was no indication of them on the surface of the ground. The only entrance was a small opening of about eighteen inches wide between two projecting stones, through which a man might enter, and then descending a sloping passage of five or six feet, he comes to a vaulted chamber. The chambers of this group are from six to eight feet in height, from six to nine feet wide, and thirty feet long and upwards. They are built of rough blocks of granite, many of which are five to six feet long and more than a ton in weight; the side walls converge inward by overlapping to form a rude arch, and are covered with large stones. On the surface of the ground close to these structures, Professor Stuart found a number of spaces from ten to fifteen yards square, and about two feet deep, with the earth thrown outward; and these excavated spaces he conjectured to have been the sites of the summer huts of the people, who retired to the underground places in winter, and stored their provisions in them all the year round. He added that no articles of furniture or instruments either of stone or metal had been found in them, so far as could be ascertained, but only wood, ashes, and charcoal​—mostly at the inmost end, where in some of them a small opening appeared at the top, supposed to be an outlet for the smoke.² Foundations of huts on the surface of the ground have been observed in association with a few other earth-houses, one example was found near Arbroath, in Forfarshire.³

¹ This moor is now under cultivation.

² Archæologia Scotica, Volume II., pages 56‒58.

³ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume IV., pages 492‒499.

In other localities the earth-houses vary much in length, some examples reaching to sixty feet long; and as already observed, some of them have smaller chambers branching off the main chamber. But on the whole they are remarkably similar in structure.

Some resemblances between those underground houses and the chambered cairns may now be noticed. 1, The hidden nature of the entrance, and its lowness and narrowness, are features peculiar to both classes of structures. From a comparison of a considerable number of recorded measurements of the height and width of both classes of structures at their entrances, I have found that the highest entrance in an earth-house is 3 feet, and the lowest 18 inches, the average being about 2 feet. Now the highest entrance of a chambered cairn is 3 feet 6 inches, and its width 2 feet, while the lowest is 21 inches in height, and the same in breadth. The average height and width of the entrances to the passages of the cairns and those of the earth-houses are almost identical; and it is difficult to believe that this coincidence could have been the result of chance. 2, In some of the earth-houses there are small chambers opening off the main chamber, a feature which occurs in some of the chambered cairns. 3, The mode of forming the roof or the device for closing in the walls at the top is similar in both classes of these structures. 4, These coincidences and similarities are difficult to explain, except upon the ground that both classes of these structures were originated by one race of people, and belong to the same period. Moreover the bones of the same animals have been found in both classes of structures; while the mere absence of stone weapons and implements is not of much historic significance, seeing that these rarely occur even in the chambered cairns themselves.

The most probable conclusion seems to be that the people of the Stone Age, who erected the chambered cairns, also originated the underground structures which we call earth-houses; and that they constructed a considerable number of those specimens which are still known to exist, though not necessarily the whole of them. In succeeding centuries such structures may have been constructed in localities where the exigences and circumstances of the people suggested their utility, down even to the time of the departure of the Romans. I take the view suggested by Professor Stuart, that from the first these underground structures have never been continuously occupied as common dwellings, but only at the seasons of extreme cold and frost, when the people resorted to them in order to protect themselves in some measure from the inclemency of the weather. Recently distinct traces of overground huts have been discovered, so closely associated with earth-houses as to leave no doubt that both belonged to the same family. Still it seems that some at least of the earth-houses were occasionally frequented by certain people even late into the Iron Age; but that circumstance affords no evidence to invalidate the conclusion that they were originated by and belonged to the Stone Age people.¹

¹ There is a group of underground structures in Ireland, but they differ considerably from the Scottish class. The Irish specimens are mostly associated with forts or raths, excavated in the ground and enclosed by the rampart of a fort; and they consist of various forms of chambers which are connected by low narrow passages. There is also a group of underground structures in Cornwall, which in some of their features resemble those of Scotland; but they appear to have been usually associated with overground dwellings.

From the natural features of the country, and the very varied intersection of the land and water, it might be expected that boats would have come into use at an early period, and this appears to have been the case. The primitive boats of the early inhabitants were made by simply hollowing out the middle of a single oak tree with such tools as have been described, or some have supposed that this was effected by the application of fire. They are sometimes called canoes, and have been often found in lakes associated with the Crannogs. But they have been discovered in every quarter of the country, in lochs and mosses, on the banks and in the beds of rivers; and many of them have been found imbedded at a depth of from thirteen to thirty feet below the surface of the ground. In Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, a track bordering on the Solway Firth, a number of canoes have from time to time been dug up, one of which measured 8 feet 8 inches in length, 2 feet in breadth, and 11 inches in depth. The Valley of the Clyde has yielded the greatest number of these single tree boats. Under the streets of Glasgow, and in its vicinity, when digging the foundation of houses, cutting drains, and in operations connected with the harbour work, and the dredging of the channel of the Clyde, nearly thirty have been discovered.¹ These vary considerably in length and depth, but they all belong to the first stage of shipbuilding; which here, and from this primitive starting-point, has at last attained a development as yet unsurpassed in any quarter of the globe.

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume I., pages 44, 211‒213; Volume VI., pages 119, 121, 146, 148, 458; J. Geikie’s Great Ice Age, page 212; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., pages 52‒55.

From what has been presented in the preceding pages, we may imagine our early ancestors of the Stone Age as living and moving in a state of comparative safety and comfort. They possessed the greater number of the domesticated animals which are still common in this country; they built such structures for habitations as were suited to their condition and the surrounding circumstances, and the means within their reach. They manifested much intelligence, skill, and industry in the manufacture of their weapons, tools, and implements​—using the only available means and materials at their command with admirable ingenuity and striking effect. We can discern and trace the evidence of mind and of thought even in the fragments of their works; and the memorials which they erected to the memory of the dead, have long survived the wreck of proud empires, dynasties, and thrones.

Section V.

The Bronze Age.

This section will deal with the introduction of metals, and touch on the transition from the stone to the bronze period. A description of the various bronze objects, weapons, tools, and gold ornaments will be presented. The defensive works, habitations, and other matters associated with the daily life of the people will be treated. The modes of burial of the bronze period, and the phenomena associated with interments. Finally, an expository statement and summary touching the religion, social state, and culture of the prehistoric people will be offered.

The question of the introduction of the use of metals or bronze is easily understood, but the question of the origin of bronze, or the original centre where it was discovered, is a more difficult matter, and has caused much inquiry and discussion. It is the first only of these questions which comes within the scope of my work, and the second will be very briefly touched. As to the original centre where bronze was discovered, this is a problem still under discussion; and, like the origin of the Aryans, it is not likely to be soon solved. Some writers have pointed to Western Asia, the supposed cradle and original source of early civilisation; but, in truth, when or where the alloy called bronze was first discovered and manufactured for use no one really knows.¹ It is, however, well ascertained that bronze weapons and tools were used much earlier in some quarters of the globe than in others, for instance in Egypt, and the regions around the Mediterranean, long before it was used in Britain or other Northern European countries.²

¹ Touching the early sources of copper and tin in Europe, it may be observed that native copper occurs in Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Saxony and Cornwall; and copper and its ores are abundant in Ireland. Copper pyrites is very general in most countries of the world, in more or less abundance. In early times tin seems to have been found in large quantities in some parts of Spain; and we know that the tin mines of Cornwall, in Britain, were worked at an early period. In the East, Malacca was a source from which tin may have been obtained in early times. Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, pages 419, 424.

² Bronze was extensively used in Egypt for weapons and tools as early as 3000 B.C.; but the use of iron seems to have been restricted, owing probably to some religious motive. Ibid., pages 6, 7, 8. Among the Aryans iron seems to have been used at an early period.

Concerning the means through which the use of bronze was introduced to Britain different views have been held. Some authorities have maintained that the use of bronze was spread from a common centre by an intruding and conquering race, or the migration of tribes; others hold that the people of each separate country, where bronze is known to have been used, discovered the art independently and manufactured their own implements; some again maintain that the art was discovered and the articles manufactured on one spot, and thence disseminated by means of commerce; and finally, others aver that the art of making bronze was spread from a common centre, but that the implements were usually made in the countries in which they have been found.¹ A discussion of these views would require a separate volume, and I can only indicate the region whence Britain, or rather Scotland, probably received the first instruction in the use of bronze.

¹ Ibid., page 475. “The familiarity of the ancient Britons with tin, though this metal does not occur in a native state, may be readily accounted for from the one being frequently found near the surface, and requiring only the use of charcoal and a very moderate degree of heat to reduce it to the state of metal.” Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., page 304. 1863.

It has frequently been stated that the use of bronze was introduced into Britain by invasion and conquest. Professor Dawkins advances the idea that the Celts arrived on the southern shores of Britain with bronze swords in their hands, and thus introduced the use of bronze into this country.¹ But this mode of explanation is seldom satisfactory, unless well supported by other circumstances and evidence; and, although it is highly probable that the people of Britain did receive the knowledge of the use of bronze from France, it was by means of barter and not by warfare; seeing that the first arrival of Celtic tribes in the south of Britain was probably long anterior to the general use of bronze in France itself or the Continent. It appears to me that the Celts had overrun the whole of England, and penetrated into Scotland, as far at least as Glenmore, before bronze began to be introduced in the south of Britain. The view which supposes that the art of making bronze was discovered at a single centre, where implements were manufactured and afterwards spread by commerce, is probably in a limited sense true. For wheresoever the discovery of bronze may have originated, there is evidence of its use having spread over the greater part of Europe, and probably at first bronze tools and implements were widely diffused by barter. The view, however, which comes nearest to the requisite conditions of the known facts everywhere associated with the subject, assumes that the art of making bronze was spread from a common centre, though the weapons and tools were manufactured in greater or less numbers in each country where the use of bronze prevailed. This does not imply that in any given district all the weapons and tools found in it were of home manufacture, and none of them imported, for there is evidence in most countries that some of the bronze articles found there are of foreign manufacture, and had been introduced by commerce or other means of intercourse.²

¹ Early Man in Britain, pages 321, 322, 343. 1880. This writer is perhaps wrong in his statement of facts and in the inferences which he draws. The Silures, whom he supposes to have been Iberians, were in all probability mixed Celtic tribes. And this much is certain, that the tribes called Silures, made a desperate and prolonged resistance to the advance of the Roman legions​—a resistance quite inconsistent with the feeble characteristics of the Iberians.

² Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, pages 420, 475‒477.

There is ample evidence that in Britain, in course of time, the manufacture of bronze weapons and tools was extensively and widely carried on. The moulds for casting various tools and weapons have been found both in England and in Scotland, and they are numerous in Ireland; and founders hoards have been found in many places in Britain. There were also travelling founders, who practised their art at any place where their work was required. In these and in other ways, many of the bronze weapons and tools found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, were manufactured. Amongst the hoards of bronze articles which have from time to time been found, some are considered to represent the stock-in-trade of the ancient bronze founders; and other hoards, from their characteristics, are considered to have belonged to dealers in bronze articles.¹ Some of the moulds found in Scotland will be noticed in connection with the description of the weapons and implements.

¹ Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, pages 422, 428, 438‒453. “Judging from the unfinished condition of the tools and weapons in some of the old bronze founders hoards, and from the large deposits of socketed celts having been found with the clay cores still in them, it seems not improbable that the founders often bartered away their castings nearly in the state in which they came from the moulds, with only the runners broken off, and that those who acquired them finished the manufacture themselves.” Ibid., page 451.

From a concurrence of circumstances and ascertained facts, it is evident that the transitional stage from stone weapons and tools to the use of metal ones extended over a long period. The one class of articles and tools did not supersede the other suddenly; for there is much evidence that stone, bone, and horn weapons and tools continued to be used long after bronze, and even iron, was introduced. For such work as stone and bone tools were naturally suitable, they continued to be used, as they were much easier obtained than bronze ones; and in some instances stone implements were used down to a comparatively recent period. In the case of certain ornaments which belong to a somewhat later period, bronze and brass were used.

In Scotland bronze weapons, tools, and articles have been found under various circumstances. A few have been found associated with interments; a greater number have been discovered in hoards from time to time; some casually found in the soil; and others when carefully sought in excavating the early sites of human habitation. I will first touch on a few of the hoards, and then proceed to describe the different kinds of weapons, implements, and ornaments of the bronze period, as it is represented in Scotland.

In the process of marl dredging in the Loch of Duddingston, near Edinburgh, in 1775, the workmen dragged up a heap of swords, spear-heads, and other lumps of bronze. They seem to have been mostly broken; and the hoard as presented to the National Museum, consisted of twenty-nine pieces of broken swords; twenty-three portions of spear heads; and a ring and staple of large size. The fragments of the swords were mostly under six inches in length, and show that the weapons were of the leaf-shaped type; the spear-heads were pieces of large weapons with sockets and leaf-shaped blades.¹ In 1849, a hoard of bronze weapons was discovered in a moss on the north side of the point of Sleat, in the Isle of Skye, which consisted of one sword of the leaf-shaped form, with a flat handle-plate pierced for rivet holes; two spear-heads; and a long thin pin with a cup-shaped head; and also a curious socketed tool of a bent leaf-shaped form, four inches long. A hoard of bronze weapons and objects was found at Tarves, Aberdeenshire, which mostly consisted of swords; and in 1853, at Cauldhame, near Brechin, a hoard was found, consisting of four leaf-shaped swords, and a large spear-head. One of the swords was twenty-four inches long. In 1868, at Achtertyre, near Elgin, a hoard of bronze articles was discovered in ploughing a mossy field, which consisted of one axe-head; two spear-heads; two penannular rings, some fragments of broken rings; and portions of a ring, which on analysis yielded only tin and lead, no copper. When a gravel hillock was being trenched at Monadhmor, Killin, Perthshire, in 1868, the workmen discovered a hoard of bronze objects, consisting of two socketed axe-heads; a leaf-shaped spear-head; a socketed gouge of rare occurrence in Scotland; a portion of a leaf-shaped sword; a hollow circular ring, a ♦penannular ring, and nine plain annular rings. In 1869, when the foundation of a house in Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh, was being dug, a hoard of bronze weapons was found, said to have consisted of some fourteen or fifteen swords, but only four of these are now known; and with them were found a bronze ring and a broken pin.²

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume I., pages 132‒133. The proprietor of the estate on the side of the Loch, Sir Alexander Dick, who commenced the dredging operations, said​—“Some of the lumps of brass seemed as if half melted; and my conjecture is, that there had been upon the side of the hill, near the lake, some manufacture for brass arms of the several kinds for which there was a demand.”

² Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume I., pages 181, 224; Volume III., page 182; Volume IX., page 435; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 142‒153.

All the bronze articles found in Scotland and reasonably assigned to this period, may be classified as weapons, useful tools, and ornaments. The first class includes swords, daggers, spear-heads, and shields. The sword of the bronze period is amongst the finest of the ancient weapons. The small and short leaf-shaped blade, and its hilt without a guard, is a form greatly admired. Different specimens in the Scottish collection vary in size; a fine example was dredged up from the bottom of the Tay near Perth, it measures 28½ inches in length, and is the largest one known in Scotland. Another from the Isle of South Uist, measures 27 inches; and one found in the parish of Latheron, Caithness, is 25 inches long. In rare specimens, such as one of the swords found in the hoard at Edinburgh, the hilt is formed and cast in the same mould with the blade. Another form of sword, of rare occurrence in Scotland, is characterised by a narrow rapier-shaped blade, without a handle-plate, the hilt being made of bone or wood and attached to the flattened base of the blade by rivets. The leaf-shaped swords are numerous in Scotland, and have been found in almost every quarter of the country.¹

¹ “Among ancient weapons of bronze, perhaps the most remarkable, both for elegance of form and for the skill displayed in their casting, are the leaf-shaped swords, of which a considerable number have come down to our time. The only other forms that can vie with them in these points are the spear-heads, of which many are gracefully proportioned, while the coring of their sockets for the reception of the shafts would do credit to the most skillful modern founder. Neither the one nor the other belong to the earliest period when bronze first came into general use for weapons and tools, the flat celts and the knife-daggers characteristic of that period being as a rule absent from the hoards in which fragments of swords and spear-heads are present.” Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, page 273.

Apparently both these classes of sword-blades were cast in stone moulds; but no sword moulds have as yet been discovered in Scotland. Two stone moulds were found in the parish of Hennock, in Devonshire, which were both for the production of rapier-shaped blades.¹

¹ Ibid., page 434.

The dagger blades are usually thick and heavy in proportion to their length. They differ from the thin flat blades of smaller size occasionally found in the graves of the period. The thick daggers vary much in size, from six inches in length to over thirteen, and in breadth some of the larger ones are from three inches to over four. Some of them have two and others four rivet-holes for attaching their handles. A few of them are slightly ornamented, and many of them are finely shaped.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume X., pages 84, 459; Volume XII., pages 439, 440, 449, 456; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., page 392.

The spear-head of the bronze period is usually a socketed weapon, without barbs, and often leaf-shaped; and the variation in their length and the taper of the blades is extreme. The largest specimen in the National Museum is nineteen inches long, and exceedingly well formed. The larger ones are often pierced with segmental openings in the sides, formed in the casting, which diminish their weight and add to the beauty of the finished weapons. Another class, with the base of the blade pierced by loop-like holes, have been found exceeding fifteen inches long, but other specimens of the same class are only eight inches long, and some not over six inches. The looped variety of spear-heads have also been found in Scotland, some specimens of which have the loops low down on the socket. These are very common in Ireland, and are more elaborately ornamented than the Scotch examples.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume V., page 214; Volume XXIII., pages 9, 150, 224; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 184, 185.

The spear-heads, like the sword and dagger blades, were cast in moulds of stone. Two stone moulds for looped spear-heads were found together under the surface of the ground near Campbeltown, in Argyleshire. Similar moulds have been found in England, Ireland, and in other countries.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VI., page 48; Volume XVI., page 103; Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, pages 435‒438.

Bronze shields are not numerous in Scotland, but a few specimens have been found. In 1779 a fine example was discovered in a peat moss in the parish of Beith, Ayrshire, which was afterwards presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London. This shield is formed of thin beaten bronze, circular in form, and 26½ inches in diameter. Its surface is ornamented with concentric circles of ridges, and also hammered up from the back between the circular rows of studs; the handle is fixed across the inner side of the boss, and the grip rounded by turning the edges inwards. In 1837 a shield of a similar character was found in digging a drain in a marshy piece of ground at Yetholm, in Roxburghshire; and in 1870 another shield was ploughed up in the same piece of ground. They are beautiful and finely finished. They were not intended for use on the arm, like the shields of later times, but held in the left hand by a single handle riveted across the hollow of the central boss.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 155‒159; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume V., page 165; Volume VIII., page 393.

Only one specimen of a bronze battle-axe is known in Scotland, which was found in a morass at Bannockburn. It is a very peculiar weapon, four pounds in weight, and has been figured by Dr. Anderson.

A fine specimen of a cast bronze war trumpet was found in the parish of Tarbolton, Ayrshire, about the year 1653, and since preserved in Coilsfield House. It is the only one of the class known in Scotland. A portion of a bronze side-blast trumpet was found at Innermessan in the parish of Inch, Wigtonshire. These bronze war trumpets are more common in Ireland and in Denmark than in Scotland.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume XII., page 565; Volume XXIII., pages 151, 224.

Having noticed the warlike weapons, I turn to the tools and implements which appear to have been used for the purposes of every-day life, beginning with those which seem to have come earliest into use. The flat, bronze axe-heads are broad at the cutting end, and vary greatly in size. Some of them are five inches in length and three inches across the cutting face, which is always their broadest part. The largest specimen known in Scotland is 13⅜ inches in length and 9 inches across the cutting face; it was found in digging a drain on the farm of Loanhead, on the south side of the Pentland Hills. Amongst a number found on the farm of Colleonard, in Banffshire, there were two with a series of short lines incised upon their flat sides, and another one had raised ribs lengthwise. Others have been found over the whole area of Scotland. It has been supposed that this class of axe-heads were cast in open moulds of stone.¹

¹ Ibid., Volume IV., pages 187, 380; Volume IX., pages 182, 430, 431; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., page 344; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 190‒194.

There are several other varieties of axe-heads which have been termed fanged and socketed. Some of these are very finely formed, and more or less ornamented. The two halfs of a stone mould for casting socketed axe-heads of bronze were found at Rooskeen, in Ross-shire, and have been figured by Wilson and Dr. Anderson.

The difference between the axes and the chisels of the bronze period appears more in the mode of hafting and of use than in the form of the tool itself. Tools of the chisel form are not very numerous in Scotland, they are much more common in Ireland. Some good specimens, however, have been found in the southern and northern counties of Scotland.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume XII., pages 6, 13; Volume XVII., page 338; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, page 201.

Awls, needles, and fish-hooks of bronze have occasionally been found in Scotland. Bronze awls have frequently been found in England, and sometimes in association with interments.¹ Only three specimens of bronze sickles are known in Scotland. One was found at Edengerach, in the parish of Premnay, Aberdeenshire, which is a curved, tapering blade set at right angles to the end of an oval socket; the blade is imperfect, but seems to have been over four inches in length. Another sickle was dredged from the bed of the Tay, near Errol, in 1840, and it is preserved in the Museum of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth. The blade is a little over six inches in length, and over an inch in breadth at its junction with the socket. The third sickle is in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, and its blade is five inches in length. These are the only agricultural implements of the bronze period as yet discovered in the kingdom, though it was stated in the Old Statistical Account of Scotland that an implement of this class was found at Ledberg, in Sutherlandshire.²

¹ Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements, pages 188‒191.

² Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VII., page 376; Volume XXII., pages 339, 350.

No bronze hammers have been found in Scotland, and only one example of the Bronze Age anvil has yet been discovered. The anvil was found near Kyle of Oykel, in Sutherlandshire, and is preserved in the museum of Dunrobin Castle. Several good specimens of large cauldrons, formed of thin bronze plates riveted together, have been found associated with the leaf-shaped swords and the socketed axe-heads, as in the loch of Duddingston, Kilkerran in Ayrshire, and Poolewe; some of them are beautifully formed and finely made.¹

¹ Ibid., Volume XXII., pages 36‒42; Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 205‒207.

The people of the Bronze Age seem to have adorned themselves profusely with fine ornaments, for gold ornaments assigned to this period have been found in every quarter of the kingdom. They are suggestive of a magnificence of attire and a life which ill accords with the view that I have often seen stated, namely, that our prehistoric ancestors were simply untutored savages! Men, indeed, who assumed the upright attitude, but savages nevertheless. Two beautiful golden diadems were found on the farm of Southside, near Coulter, Lanarkshire, in 1860. Their form is a broad lunette of beaten gold, terminating in disc-shaped ends; and the central opening is wide enough to admit of the ornament being worn on the head as a diadem or on the neck as a gorget. Another beautiful gold diadem of a similar form was found at Auchentaggart, in the parish of Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, which, when turned up by the plough, was folded and rolled up almost into a ball. A magnificent specimen of a large and massive armlet, formed of intertwisted rods of gold, was found at Slateford, near Edinburgh, in 1864. It consisted of three gold rods twisted together round a common centre, and uniting at the ends in a single rod, which recurves and forms a terminal hook; and it was so coiled as to encircle the arm in four complete coils, which, when extended, measured 4½ feet long. This armlet “was by far the finest specimen of goldsmith’s work from the bronze age that had ever been seen in this country, and the only one of its kind then or now known to exist; yet it was clipped to pieces and consigned to the melting-pot by a jeweller in Edinburgh. A cast of it, however, is preserved in the National Museum.”¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 220‒223.

Another exceedingly beautiful gold armlet is formed of a flat band, tapering slightly from the middle to the end, and twisted like the thread of a screw, passing at the ends into slender hook-like terminations, with conical knobs which interlock and serve to fasten the armlet when worn. In 1848 a hoard of four of these armlets was discovered on the top of a steep bank at the village of Lower Largo, in Fifeshire. They are most beautifully formed, and all nearly of the same size. Another hoard of gold armlets of a similar type was turned up by the plough on the farm of Law, in the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire, in 1857; the number found amounted to thirty-six, and they were all nearly of the same style and pattern. A gold armlet of a similar pattern was found at Belhelvie, in Aberdeenshire; another near the border of the parish of Coulter, Lanarkshire; one at the head of Little Lochbroom, in Ross-shire; and a very massive one on the Moor of Rannoch.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 214, 219.

In 1856 a hoard of gold ornaments was discovered in a moss in the West Highlands, amongst which were two penannular armlets. These are formed of solid rods of gold, bent to a slightly elliptical form, and terminating in slightly expanded ends. The heaviest one weighed 19 dwts. 6 grs. In 1852 a massive gold armlet, formed of solid rods, was found at Bonnyside, in Stirlingshire, and it weighed 6 ozs. 10 dwts. 6 grs. Four armlets, formed of solid rods of gold, of a similar pattern, were found in digging a drain at Ormidale, near Brodick, in the Island of Arran, in 1864. In 1845 five similar armlets were found in digging a drain in the vicinity of the Gallow Hill, in the parish of St. Vigeans, Forfarshire, and these were sold to a pedlar “as old drawer handles.” In 1834 three penannular gold armlets were found in Stonehill Wood, in the parish of Carmichael, Lanarkshire, and the largest one weighed 4 ozs. 212 grs. A hoard of thirty-six gold armlets was ploughed up on the farm of Coul, in the Isle of Islay, in 1780; and about 1784 a gold armlet, weighing over 5 ozs., was found by a labourer in Galloway. In 1871 two gold armlets were found in the vicinity of Killmailie, Inverness-shire; other two found in Argyleshire are preserved in Inveraray Castle. About 1827 five penannular gold rings were discovered on the estate of the Duke of Fife, near Duff House, Banffshire, and these rings were associated with a bronze age interment. From the associated circumstances in which several of these gold ornaments have been found, there is no question that they belong to the bronze period. Besides the gold ornaments mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, and many others of gold which I have not mentioned, there were bronze rings, armlets, pins, and jet necklaces, which have been found in many parts of the country. Some of the jet necklaces and the bronze armlets are very pretty.¹

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, pages 58, 59, 60, 61‒63, 144, 208‒214; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VI., page 311; Volume VII., pages 351, 352; Volume VIII., pages 28‒32, 407, 408; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., pages 434‒475.

The curious phenomena of the prevalence of the use of gold in the form of ornaments amongst the Bronze Age people, at a time when silver and iron were unknown, and bronze the only metal used in their manufactured products, seems to indicate a taste and culture which could scarcely have been expected. This will be again touched on after the available evidence in other directions has been gone over, to which attention must be directed.

It may be “that not a trace of a dwelling or site of a settlement of the Bronze Age has been discovered in Scotland.”¹ Still, when the historian finds that the people lived, and moved, and died, and were interred in various forms in the Bronze Age, he must endeavour to find traces of their dwellings and sites. Seeing that their tombs have been discovered, it is more than probable that their sites and dwellings were at no great distance from their tombs. We have already seen evidence that there must have been considerable organisation and united action among our ancestors of the Stone and Bronze Ages, and therefore, in consistency, we should try to find traces of their dwellings; although possibly we cannot obtain positive information about them.

¹ Anderson’s Bronze and Stone Ages, page 227.

Traces of what may reasonably be supposed to have been the foundations of prehistoric dwellings, have been observed in many quarters of Scotland, in short from Mid Lothian to Caithness. The rudest of these hut foundations are simply shallow excavations in the ground, usually circular in form and from seven to eight feet in diameter, and generally occur in groups. But the foundations of many groups of circular huts of larger dimensions have been observed in Scotland. The structure of those hut circles consists of two concentric rows of stones separated by a space of six or eight inches, which is filled by small stones and earth, the whole forming a rude wall of about eighteen inches in height; and the space within this wall is generally from twenty to thirty feet in diameter. They have often been discovered on the summits, the brows, and the sides of hills; and also on the lower grounds, the sea beaches, and on the banks of lochs and of rivers.¹ Now it is probable that these were the foundations of prehistoric dwellings, and that above these foundations a structure formed of wood was erected. Many indications, circumstances, and final results, tend to show that the sites and settlements of the prehistoric people of Scotland were often on elevated positions​—on heights and hills. The natural reasons and circumstances which originally led the prehistoric people to select the heights for their habitations, probably were that abodes erected upon the high grounds would be more likely to escape the ravages of inundation from a high tide, a heavy rainfall, a sudden thaw of snow, or any unusual rising of the waters upon the lower grounds; while the heights were also best adapted for defence against the attacks of enemies. Thus it is in the highest degree probable that the earliest dwellings of man in Scotland were on pretty elevated positions. Further, many of the towns of Scotland which stretch back into the prehistoric period, were originally sites of human habitation upon heights or hills, such as Edinburgh, Stirling, Paisley, Dundee, Aberdeen, Banff, Inverness, and many others. As indicated in the second section, man selected the sites for his dwellings with remarkable sagacity.

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VII., pages 291, 297, 300, 541; Volume VIII., page 410; Volume IX., pages 158, 169; Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Volume I., pages 103‒106.

But in the prehistoric ages it frequently happened that the advantages of the elevated sites, great as they were​—mainly owing to the difficulties of obtaining food​—these advantages were partly counterbalanced, and hence the selection of spots on the banks of lakes and rivers, and near the sea, as sites of early occupation. Thus, traces of hut foundations have been observed on the sea beaches, the banks of lakes and rivers, in close association with shell mounds, kitchen middens, and grave mounds. On the links between the Meikle and Little Ferries, Sutherlandshire, the hut foundations, the shell mounds, and the grave mounds, were found in close proximity with each other; and similar traces and remains occur in Elginshire, and in other parts of the country. From these indications it has reasonably been inferred that these places were sites of early habitation, and that shell fish or eatable mussel formed a main part of the food of those people. A few flint and stone implements, and the bones of animals, were found embedded amongst these shell heaps.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VI., pages 423‒426; Volume VIII., pages 63‒64, 177‒178; Volume IX., pages 250‒260, 452‒454, 45‒52.

There are a number of caves in Scotland which appear to have been used for human habitations, or hiding places; but their occupation cannot be assigned to definite periods, unless in rare instances. In quite recent times travelling tinkers and bands of vagrants occasionally lived in caves. Several of the early Scottish saints sometimes resorted to caves.

In the Gaswork Cave, at Wemyss, there was a mass of debris like a kitchen midden, containing bones of the ox, sheep, pig, deer, hare, and bones of birds; and also shells of the limpet and the whelk. Another cave at Seacliff, near North Berwick, contained similar evidence of human occupation.​—Sculptured Stones of Scotland, Volume II., pages 87‒88.

The Burness Cave in the Parish of Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire, the exploration of which commenced in 1872, presented evidence of prolonged occupation. Large quantities of the bones of animals and of birds were found in it, and also indications that its occupiers had used grain. Nearly two hundred implements, tools, and objects of human art, were disinterred from this cave; and the greater part of these implements were made of bone, comparatively few stone or bronze tools were found in it. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume X., pages 479‒507; also Volume XI.

There is always more or less uncertainty in assigning prehistoric structures to a given period; for from the nature of the subject such evidence as exists is rarely conclusive. This is the case with the Scotch Crannogs and the Hill Forts. Both these classes of structures are prehistoric, and it would be difficult to determine which of them is the oldest. The period of the Scotch Crannogs has been placed after the departure of the Romans; a time of darkness and confusion, which somehow seems to have been exceedingly fertile in originating new buildings and structures.¹ But looking at the antiquity assigned to a somewhat similar class of structures in Switzerland and Italy, which were constructed by a kindred race, and other circumstances of the people themselves associated with the Crannogs in Scotland, it appears to me highly probable that they were originated and some of them constructed in the later stage of the Bronze Age. In fact, only the origin of the Crannogs within the area of the Kingdom of Strathclyde are accounted for, on Dr. Munro’s hypothesis, as he explicitly admits:​—“Turning now to the Celtic area beyond the limits of the Scottish portion of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, I may at once state that there is no data derived from an examination of its artificial islands, nor any relics of their occupiers, which can give even an approximate notion of their chronological range.”² Thus the question of their origin and possible age is left unsettled for the greater part of Scotland. An attempt therefore may be made to indicate the natural causes and the conditions which led to their origin and construction, without having recourse to a special line of explanation.

¹ Dr. P. Munro, who has specially examined and has given a very interesting account of the Scottish Crannogs, and also in a larger work presented a masterly account of this class of structures in Europe; touching those of Scotland, he says:​—“There is, in my opinion, only one hypothesis that can satisfactorily account for all the facts and phenomena here adduced, viz., that the lake dwellings in the south-west of Scotland were constructed by the Celtic inhabitants as a means of protecting themselves and their movable property, when, upon the frequent withdrawal of the Roman soldiers from the district, they were left single-handed, to contend against the Angles on the east, and the Picts and Scots on the south. It is not likely that these provincials ... would become the assailants of such fierce and lawless enemies.... Hence their military tactics and operations would assume more the character of defence than of aggression, and in order to defeat the object of the frequent and sudden inroads of the northern tribes, which was to plunder the inhabitants rather than to conquer the country, experience taught them the necessity of being prepared for emergencies, by having certain places of more than ordinary security, where they could deposit their wealth, or to which they could retire as a last resource when hard pressed. These retreats might be caves, fortified camps, or inaccessible islands; but in localities where no such natural strongholds exists, the military genius of the Celtic inhabitants, prompted perhaps by inherited notions, led them to construct these wooden islands. Since the final departure of the Romans till the conquest of the Kingdom of Strathclyde by the Northumbrian Angles, a period of several centuries, this unfortunate people had few intervals of peace, and with their subjugation, ended the special function of the lake-dwellings as a national system of protection.”​—Ancient Scottish Lake-dwellings, pages 283‒284.

² Ibid., page 287.

The area of the Crannogs and artificial islands embrace the whole of modern Scotland, excepting its two northmost counties, and one or two on its south-eastern extremity, and even in these such structures may yet be discovered. The question then is, what were the causes of their origin? We need not travel beyond the natural and known circumstances of the country and its inhabitants, and the motives of human action and effort. All Crannogs have in view one common end,​—defence, protection, and security. They were probably often used as places of refuge, though no doubt they were often in many instances occupied continuously. “There is often a fort on the top of some neighbouring hill, to which the lake-dwellers may have gone when the lochs were frozen and the Crannogs open to invasion.”¹

¹ Ibid., page 187.

In the later part of the bronze period the people of Scotland were organised and formed into strong tribes, which were separate and independent, and each tribe living under the rule of its own head. No doubt these tribes sometimes waged war with one another. But before this time, there was a strong and constant pressure from the south on the tribes to the north of the Tweed and the Cheviot Hills, which arose from fresh migrations from the Continent to the southern shores of the Island. So there was a continuous onward and outward movement of the tribes from the south of the Island toward the north, which naturally caused the tribes to construct defensive works for their self-preservation, protection, and security. Such then were the causes of the origin of the Hill Forts and the Crannogs of Scotland. As to which of those two classes of structures was the earliest, I will not undertake to determine; but that both were in use many centuries before the Roman invasion, I have no doubt whatever. Thus we have a real historic explanation of the origin of the Crannogs and the Hill Forts; they were the effects of the state of the inhabitants of the whole Island, and the historic conditions which had arisen.

Crannogs would continue to be used so long as the circumstances of the people rendered them necessary, or till they were superseded by structures more in harmony with the conditions of society. Thus many of them may have been occasionally occupied long after the departure of the Romans, and even after the kingdom of Strathclyde was annexed to Scotland.

In many instances natural islands in lochs were selected as suitable sites on which to erect defensive works and secure dwellings. Advantage also was often taken of the natural ridges and the shallows in the bottom of the lochs, on which to construct abodes with stones or wood, and then connect them with the shore by a causeway.¹

¹ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VI., pages 114‒117; Volume X., pages 31‒34, 741.

But the class of structures most frequently found in lochs in Scotland, is usually constructed wholly or principally of wood, and on that account are called Crannogs. They are pretty numerous, and a considerable number of them have been systematically explored by Dr. Munro; and he gives the following account of the method of their construction:​—“This is how they worked: 1, Immediately over the chosen site a circular raft of trunks of trees laid above branches and brushwood was formed, and above it additional layers of logs, together with stones, gravel, etc., were heaped up till the whole was grounded. 2, As this process went on, upright piles, made of oak and of the requisite length, were inserted into prepared holes in the structure, and probably also a few were inserted into the bed of the lake. 3, The rough logs forming horizontal layers were made of various kinds of wood, generally birch, it being the most abundant. These were occasionally pinned together by thick oak pegs, and here and there at intervals oak beams mortised into one another stretched across the substance of the island, and fixed the surrounding piles. 4, When a sufficient height above the water-line was attained, a prepared pavement of oak beams was constructed, and mortised beams were laid over the tops of the encircling piles, which bound them firmly together as already described. The margin of the island was also slantingly shaped by an intricate arrangement of beams and stones, constituting in some cases a well-formed breakwater. 5, When the skeleton of the island was thus finished, probably turf would be laid over its margin, where the pointed piles protruded, and a superficial barrier of hurdles, or some such fence, erected close to the edge of the water. 6, Frequently a wooden gangway, probably submerged, stretched to the shore, by means of which secret access to the Crannog could be obtained without the use of a canoe.

“Bearing in mind that all these structures were solidly put together without nails or bolts, and that the gangways, which have remained permanently fixed to the present time, had neither joint nor mortise, we may fearlessly challenge modern science to produce better results under these, or indeed under any circumstances. Not only do these wooden islands evince much mechanical and technical skill on the part of their producers, but what is still more singular, their area of distribution appears to have been co-extensive with the districts formerly occupied by Celtic tribes. Hence we have here another proof of the extraordinary vigour, intense individuality, and plastic character of early Celtic civilisation, in thus developing, from its own inherent resources, an unique form of stronghold, simple in its structure, but admirably adapted to the unsettled conditions of life and military requirements of the period.”¹

¹ Ancient Lake Dwellings of Scotland, pages 262‒264.

The dimensions of the Crannogs vary considerably, some of them are twenty-three feet in diameter, while others are much less. The character of the relics and implements found in association with them are pretty various, embracing culinary articles, tools, weapons, and ornaments, such as cauldrons, stone-hammers, spindle-whorls, objects in bronze, bone pins, needles, and borers, and deer horn implements, and many ornaments. Altogether the collection of articles discovered in the Scottish Crannogs, indicates that some of them were frequented and occasionally occupied after the Christian era.¹ But this in no way proves that they were not originated and constructed, and many of them occupied at a much earlier period; indeed the very nature of the construction of these Crannogs, without nails or bolts of any kind, points to an early and prehistoric origin, and it was already observed that the primitive canoes have been often found associated with the Crannogs.

¹ Ibid., page 277; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume VI., pages 121, 132, 148; Volume IX., pages 389, 391; Volume XX., iii. page 148.

The Hill Forts may be divided into three classes:​—1, Those formed of earth; 2, Those formed partly or wholly of stones; and 3, Those formed of stones and partly vitrified. Seeing that they are all prehistoric, there seems no necessity for placing them after the Roman invasion. Although it may be quite true, that we cannot with certainty assign any of them to the Bronze Age, still I have sufficiently shown, on probably historic grounds, that the movements of the population in the island, and the tribal organisation of society, would have naturally and politically led to the construction of such defensive works; and that at least some of these works were constructed several centuries before the Christian era. The movement of the tribes from the southern parts of the Island, inwards and outwards, issued in the first creation of historic conditions in Britain; and the consequent necessity of efforts for self-preservation and defence. It is therefore of comparatively little importance whether the defensive works in question be assigned to the Bronze Age or the Iron Age, provided that the causes of their origin and their consecutive development can be shown, in association with the advance of the people.

The first class of hill-forts, which were probably the earliest, consists of a number of low mounds of earth drawn round the brow, or summits of natural heights. They are mostly circular or oval in form, as this was often modified by the nature of the sites selected, and the number of the enclosing mounds of earth vary for similar reasons, sometimes there are two, three, four or more, which enclose a central space. They differ from most of the other early constructions, inasmuch as they are adaptations of naturally elevated sites for purposes of defence. They are numerous and extend over the whole area of Scotland; and, as noticed in a preceding page, they were probably sometimes used in connection with the crannogs. A characteristic example occurs on a height on the estate of Borthwick Hall, in Mid Lothian, which has recently been examined. It consists of four mounds of earth which enclose a space of 410 feet in length from east to west, and 284 feet in breadth from north to south. The mounds are only a few feet in height; and there are three entrances to the central enclosure. This class of earthworks in general, simply consist of a series of earthen walls enclosing the highest part of a hill of moderate elevation.¹

¹ Chalmers’ Caledonia, Volume I., pages 87‒98; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume XVI., page 254, et seq.

The second class of hill-forts formed of stones, in some instances have only a single wall round the brow of a hill, which encloses ♦the area of its summit; while others have two, three, or more walls drawn round the ribs of a conical hill, at short distances apart. In Argyleshire there are a number of prehistoric forts with only one line of walls: in all, there are fifty-nine forts in this ancient district: of these thirty-seven are simply enclosed by a single wall, some of which are circular or oval in form, and others whose figure follow the contour of the site, and others again on sites partly protected from attack by nature​—steep crags and rocks are only partially defended by walls on the accessible sides. The greater part of the Argyle forts have had only one entrance. Out of fifty-four of these forts, sixteen are under 50 feet in length inside the walls, and four of them had outworks; twenty-four were between 50 and 100 feet inside, and seven had outworks; eight were between 100 and 200 feet in length inside, and three had outworks; and four were between 200 and 300 feet in length, but comparatively narrow. Evidence of wells of water within these Argyle forts is rare.¹