Lecture I (17th October 1881.) — Christian and Pagan Burial — Viking Burials
At the outset of my first series of Lectures I stated that the necessity of abandoning the historical method of inquiry was involved in the very nature of the investigation which I contemplated, because the relations which the materials to be investigated bear to each other, and to special phases of human culture and civilisation, are neither disclosed by historical record nor discoverable by historical methods of research. I therefore proposed that, for the purposes of this inquiry, we should consider ourselves engaged in the exploration of an unknown region; and that, starting from the borderland where the historic and the non-historic meet, and ascending the stream of time, we should proceed to make such observations of the facts and phenomena encountered in our progress as would enable us to determine their relations by comparison with facts and phenomena already familiar to us, and to deduce conclusions which, so far as they are sound and relevant, would serve as materials for the construction of a logical history of culture and civilisation within the area investigated.
Having thus traversed the region characterised by the phenomena of the Early Christianity of Scotland, all that is distinctively Christian is now left behind. Before us lies the whole extent of the Pagan period, resolvable into three great divisions, characterised as the Ages of Iron, of Bronze, and of Stone. In each of these we shall meet with distinctive manifestations of culture, disclosing their peculiar characteristics by their special products. These products are the materials of our investigation, and they fall to be dealt with by the same methods that have been employed in the disclosure of the nature and quality of the culture and civilisation of the Early Christian Time in Scotland.
I have adopted this division of the general subject into “Christian Times” and “Pagan Times,” because the phenomena with which I am dealing do themselves exhibit a clearly defined distinction, and are separable from each other by their characteristics according as they are products of Christian or of Pagan forms of culture and civilisation.
For instance, while Paganism existed, there were two customs which gave a distinctly typical character to the archaeological deposits of the heathen period. These were (1) the burning of the bodies of the dead; and (2) the deposit with the dead (whether burnt or unburnt) of grave-goods—urns, weapons, clothing, personal ornaments, and implements and utensils of domestic life. Previous to the introduction of Christianity, the burials are characterised by cremation or by the association of urns, arms, implements, and ornaments. After the introduction of Christianity these characteristics cease. The substitution of Christianity for Paganism thus produced an alteration in the character of the archæological deposits exactly comparable to that which was produced by the substitution of bronze for stone, or of iron for bronze; and the difference between the Christianity and the Paganism of a people or an area, as thus manifested, is therefore a true archæological distinction.
But no archæological boundary is of the nature of a hard and fast line. The deposits which constitute the periodic divisions of archæology (like those of the geological series) are always to a greater or less extent products of a re-formative process, by which portions of pre-existing systems are imbedded in the new formation, in whose constitution the disintegrated elements of the older system are often quite clearly visible. There is therefore necessarily a series of transitional phenomena along the whole line of contact, and though the new system may have been characterised by a gradually increasing number of new types, the older types are often continued with altered characteristics, caused by an increasing conformity to the new conditions. It thus becomes of importance that the character of these transitional phenomena should at least be indicated before we finally pass from the region of Christianity into that of Paganism. Their investigation is essentially an examination of the disintegrated elements and altered fragments of the Pagan systems that have entered into the composition of later Christian formations; and no branch of this inquiry is more instructive than that which takes cognisance of the survival of Pagan customs in the usages connected with Christian burial.
“The first Christians,” says Aringhi, “did not follow the heathen custom of placing deposits of gold, silver, and other precious articles in their sepulchres.” But it is plain from his further statement that they followed it partly, or, in other words, that the older custom was continued in a modified form;1 for he goes on to say that “they permitted gold, interwoven with the cloth used in the preparation of the body for burial, and such things as gold rings on the fingers; with young girls, too, they often buried their ornaments and such things as they most delighted in.”
Although the Pagan form of burial in which the dead were placed in their tombs, apparelled in their richest robes, and with their arms, ornaments, and insignia, is clearly opposed to the doctrine taught in all ages of the church, that the dead are for ever done with the things of this life,2 we find it strangely surviving as a Christian ceremonial in the burial of kings and clergy. Childeric, the last of the Pagan kings of France, was buried seated on a throne, in his kingly robes, and with the arms, ornaments, and insignia of royalty. Charlemagne, the establisher of Christianity (who meted out the punishment of death to the Saxons who dared to burn their dead after the old manner),3 was also buried seated on a throne, with his royal robes, his arms and ornaments, and the book of the Gospels on his knee. The Scandinavian Viking was buried with his arms because his Valhalla was a fighting place; but the Christian kings of Denmark continued to be buried with their arms although there was no Valhalla prepared for them.4 Giraldus Cambrensis, describing the miserable death of Henry II. of England, laments that when the body was being prepared for burial “scarcely was a decent ring to be found for his finger or a sceptre for his hand, or a crown for his head, except such a thing as was made from an old head-dress.” When the custom was disused for kings, it was retained for the clergy.5 Archbishops and bishops have always been buried with their insignia and robes of office.6 Their graves, containing the crosier or staff, the chalice and paten, the robes and ring, although necessarily of Christian time and Christian character, are directly related in the line of archæological succession to those of the earlier Paganism. The custom also survives in the pompous accessories of a military funeral. When we see the sword laid over the coffin, and the horse led in procession to the grave, we witness the survival of one of the oldest ceremonies ever performed among men—the difference being, that of old the weapon was laid in the grave beside the hand that had wielded it, and the horse was slaughtered to accompany his master to the unseen world.7 Some forms of this survival gradually passed into distinctively Christian usages8 with a definitely Christian significance, and others became actually incorporated in the ritual of the Church. One of the most striking of the sepulchral customs of the Pagan Northmen was that of binding the “hell-shoes” on the feet of the dead. It is stated in the Saga of Gisli the Outlaw that when they were laying Vestein in his grave-mound, Thorgrim the priest went up to the mound and said, “’Tis the custom to bind the hell-shoes on men so that they may walk on them to Valhalla, and I will now do that by Vestein;” and when he had done it he said, “I know nothing about binding on hell-shoon, if these loosen.” This custom is often found in Christian as well as in pre-Christian graves in Central Europe. It was well known to the liturgical writers of the Middle Ages. Durandus says: “The dead must also have shoes on their feet by which they may show that they are ready for the judgment.” Members of religious orders were usually thus buried, but the custom was not confined to them alone.9 The idea of providing for a journey which was implied in the Northern custom of the “hell-shoon,” is curiously illustrated by the statement of Weinhold, that in some remote districts of Sweden, up to a very recent period, the tobacco-pipe, the pocket-knife, and the filled brandy-flask, were placed with the dead in the grave.
Broadly stated, the archæological effect of the establishment of Christianity was to cut off the presence of grave-goods from the burials of the area. But these examples show that while this was the general and final result, it was neither obtained absolutely nor at once. The burial usages of a people are among the most unalterable of all their institutions. Other observances may change with the convictions of individuals, but the prevailing sentiment which leads to the disposal of the dead—“gathered to their fathers”—in the same manner as the fathers themselves were disposed, resists innovation longer and more stubbornly than any other. In point of fact we find that from the beginning there have been but two great typical forms of burial—viz. burial with grave-goods, which is the universally Pagan type, and burial without them, which is the universally Christian type.
These typical forms of burial are respectively products of the opposing doctrines of Paganism and Christianity as touching the future life. I cannot tell what may have been the precise attitude of mind which induced my Pagan ancestor to provide his dead with grave-goods. In view of the general prevalence of the custom, I cannot doubt that it was an attitude which regarded their provision as a sacred duty, universally binding and almost universally performed. But the Christian belief in a resurrection to newness of life recognised no such duty to the dead, and steadily opposed the practice as amounting to a denial of the faith. On this account it is plain that when we find the dead in Christian graves provided with grave-goods we have a form of burial which cannot be accounted for by anything in the essential elements of Christianity itself, and therefore it must be regarded as a survival of the older custom, which logically ought to have died with the death of the Pagan system,—of which it was a distinctive usage.
The Christian fathers appear to have drawn the line of demarcation between Pagan and Christian burial so as to prevent the continuance of cremation. Yet the practice of strewing charcoal and ashes ritually in the open grave, and laying the unburnt body upon them, was a wide-spread Christian custom of the early Middle Ages.10 I cannot conceive the process by which a custom like this could have been evolved from any of the distinctive usages of Christianity, if the custom of cremation had not preceded it. Again the practice of placing vessels of clay in the cist with the unburnt body, which was one of the most widely diffused and most distinctively Pagan customs connected with the interment of the dead, was continued with certain modifications of form and significance as a Christian usage.11 In Pagan times these vessels contained food and drink; in Christian times they held holy water and charcoal and incense. The holy water vessel was shallow and basin-like, and was placed usually at the feet of the corpse. Johannes Belethus, in the twelfth century, notices this custom, and after him Durandus, Bishop of Mende,12 who says that the holy water is used “that the demons who are greatly afraid of it may not come near the body;” and that incense is used “to indicate that the dead person has entered his Creator’s presence with the acceptable odour of good works, and has obtained the benefit of the Church’s prayers.” That the latter usage was widely extended throughout Christendom is proved by the frequent discoveries of vases pierced with holes, and containing the remains of charcoal, which have occurred in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Denmark.13 It was not unknown in Scotland, as the following examples will show. On the demolition of the old town steeple of Montrose in 1833, in removing the soil under the base of the structure, a rude stone cist was discovered at a depth of three feet. The cist contained a skeleton disposed at full length, and beside the skeleton were four vessels of clay placed two at the head and two at the feet. One of these vessels (Fig. 1) is still preserved in the Montrose museum. It is of reddish clay, 4 inches in height, 5 inches in diameter at the widest part, and 3 inches across the mouth. Its form is shown in the accompanying woodcut, from which it is also observable that it is pierced with holes which exhibit irregular outlines. There are five of these holes in the circumference of the widest part of the vase, and it is evident from their appearance that they have been pierced by driving a sharp-pointed instrument through it, not when the clay was soft but after it was fired.14 All the characteristics of the interment—the stone-lined grave, the full-length burial, the vases placed two at the head and two at the feet15—are those of the commonest form of Christian burial with incense vases, as manifested in continental examples later than twelfth century.
The form of the vase figured is not that of any known variety of urn found with interments of Pagan type. But it closely corresponds with the form of the incense vases represented in an illumination from a manuscript of the fourteenth century (Fig. 2), as placed alternately with candles on the floor round the coffin during the funeral service, and which, as we learn from contemporary documents, were afterwards placed in the grave.16 In the illumination the red colour of the fire within the vases appears through the holes pierced in their sides. (This cannot be shown in the woodcut here given, but the escaping smoke indicates the position of the apertures). There is in the National Museum another pierced vase, in which the holes have been made when the clay was soft. It was found in 1829, with two others, under a flat stone at the Castle Hill of Rattray in Aberdeenshire. It is here figured (Fig. 3) along with one of the two others found with it, of which the Society possesses a drawing (Fig. 4). From a note attached to the drawing we learn that the three vessels were filled, with ashes when they were first discovered. No other record of the phenomena of this interesting deposit exists; but, from the character of the vessels themselves, which is totally distinct from that of all known types of vessels deposited with Pagan interments in this country, they may be assigned to the class of vessels deposited in Christian graves of twelfth to fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with charcoal and incense.
In the special features of such survivals as these we read the story of the transition from the older to the newer forms of burial resulting from the change of faith. We see the custom of burial with grave-goods retained as a ceremonial observance in Christian sepulture, and the practice of cremation succeeded by the symbolic act of strewing charcoal in the open grave, and by a ritual which still regards the act of burial as a consigning of “ashes to ashes;” and by these and similar links of connection we pass gradually from the Christian system to the system of Paganism that preceded it.
But when we advance beyond the Christian boundary in Scotland we enter on a region singularly destitute of materials by which the burial customs of the people may be correlated with those which offer indications of their culture and civilisation. The general phenomena of the burials of the Celtic Paganism of the Iron Age in Scotland are not disclosed by any recorded observations known to me. If they exist, they exist either as phenomena of unrecognised character or as phenomena which are still unobserved. I therefore proceed to the examination of a group of phenomena disclosing the existence within the Celtic area of a system of Paganism which was not of Celtic origin; and I turn to these phenomena as the only materials available for the demonstration of the character of Pagan burial—premising that they belong to a time when, owing to the intrusion of a foreign element, the Christian form and the Pagan form were closely contiguous and contemporary in Scotland.
In the autumn of 1878 the late Mr. William Campbell of Ballinaby, on the west coast of the island of Islay, passing through the sandy links there, had his attention arrested by the unusual appearance of a patch of iron-rust in a hollow from which the sand had drifted. Examining the spot more closely, he found that there was a deposit of iron implements in the sand. Digging out the deposit, he discovered that it had been disposed in two contiguous graves, each containing a skeleton laid at full length, with the head to the east and the feet to the west, the boundary of each grave being marked by an enclosure formed of stones set on edge in the sand.
In grave No. 1 he found the following objects deposited with the skeleton:—
An iron sword in its sheath (Fig. 5).
The iron boss of a shield, with its handle of bronze or brass still attached. (The boss and handle are shown in Fig. 6, and the handle separately in Fig. 7.)
An iron spear-head with wide blade and long socket (Fig. 8).
An iron object, having a wide socket at one end of a long shank (Fig. 9).
A conical iron object with the remains of wood adhering to the interior surface (Fig. 10).
A number of fragments of corrugated iron (Fig. 11).
A hollow cylindrical object of bronze with a globular end, probably the mounting of the end of a small sheath (Fig. 13).
An iron axe-head, not differing greatly from the modern form, the eye broken (Fig. 14).
An iron axe-head of similar form, but longer in the shank, the eye entire (also shown in Fig. 14).
The iron head of a small adze, nearly entire (Fig. 15).
The iron head of a hammer, entire (Fig. 16).
A pair of forge-tongs, partially broken (Fig. 17).
The broken fragments of a large iron pot, and its bow-handle, broken (Fig. 18).
In grave No. 2 he found the following objects deposited with the skeleton:—
A pair of oval bowl-shaped brooches of bronze, ornamented with pierced and chased work and with plaited bands of silver wire and studs, of which the pins only remain (Fig. 20).
The brass spring-pins of the two brooches (Fig. 19).
Portions of three pairs of discs of thin bronze, plated with silver, each pair connected by a narrow band, the discs ornamented with bosses arranged in circles, and the bands with borders all in repoussé work (Fig. 21).
A silver hair-pin with a globular head, ornamented with filigree work, and furnished with a ring of wire fastened by a peculiar twisting of one end round the other (Fig. 22).
A silver chain-like ornament, formed of fine silver wire knitted as a hollow tube, knotted at the two ends, and furnished at one end with a ring fastened by a peculiar twisting of the ends round each other (Fig. 23).
Seven beads of coloured glass, enamelled on the surface with patterns in different colours (Fig. 24).
A saucepan of thin bronze, with a long flat handle (Fig. 25).
A hemispherical lump of black glass, in shape nearly resembling the bottom of a bottle, and having its convex side rubbed and striated by use (Fig. 26).
A small object like a needle-case, of silver, broken, and containing what seems to be a portion of a broken needle of bronze.
It is apparent, from the nature of the groups of objects severally associated with the two burials, that No. 1 was the grave of a man, and No. 2 was the grave of a woman. The man was buried with his arms and implements, the woman with her personal ornaments and housewife’s gear. It is equally apparent, from an examination of the whole phenomena of the burials, that there is an obvious absence of all indications of Christianity. They are not destitute of characteristics possessing a special significance, but they are destitute of characteristics possessing such significance as could be attributed to the faith and hope of the Christian creed, or explained by reference to any recognised customs of Christian burial. They suggest, for instance, a condition of life considerably removed from absolute poverty; they present indications of culture and taste, of skill and industry, of manly vigour and womanly grace. But the position of the graves, with the head to the east and the feet to the west, is the opposite of that referred to by the liturgical writers of early Christian times as the proper position of the Christian dead, who should be placed with their feet to the east, so that in rising they may face their Lord as He comes from the east. And there is no feature which can be more surely relied on as an indication of early Christian burial than this orientation of the grave which is here so plainly disregarded.
If the absence of all indications of Christianity be thus obvious, there is no less obviously a complete absence of all the characteristics of art and art-workmanship with which we have become familiar in the progress of our investigation. There is no Celticism apparent in the art of the decorated objects placed in these graves. The characteristics which we have found to be constantly present in the decorative metal-work of the Celtic school of art are notably absent, and those that are present are mostly new and strange to us. If the phenomena of the burials are clearly not Christian, the characteristics of the art are as clearly not Celtic.
To find such weapons of bronze or stone as are commonly styled prehistoric deposited with the dead excites no feeling of surprise, because we know, in a general way, that this was the common custom of prehistoric Paganism. But when we find in a grave, along with the ordinary weapons of war, a collection of implements like this—a group of actual tools of iron—scarcely differing in shape, and not differing in material from those now in use in our workshops, we instantly realise the presence of a phenomenon at once unusual and suggestive. It is unusual in this country because our forefathers received Christianity early, and Christianity abolished the custom of placing implements in graves. It is suggestive because it enables us to perceive how closely the characteristic customs of the man we call primeval may be linked with the arts and culture of modern times. It is therefore a phenomenon which it is desirable to investigate as fully as possible.
For this purpose it will be necessary to examine in detail the principal objects found in the graves, with the view of determining their typical characteristics and relations.
First, I take the sword (Fig. 5) as the most important, and therefore the most likely to disclose its typical relationship by comparison with others. It is a long, broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, tapering slightly and evenly from hilt to point. Its whole length is 36½ inches. The blade is 2¾ inches wide at the junction with the guard of the hilt, 2½ inches in the middle of its length, and 1½ where it begins to be rounded off at the point. The grip of the hilt, which is covered with leather, is 3¾ inches in length. The guard, which forms a straight collar to the blade, flattened on the upper and under surfaces, and convex on both sides, is 4¼ inches in length. The pommel, which is triangular in outline and convex from the apex to the base, is 2½ inches high, 4 inches from side to side, and 1½ inches thick. Portions of the wooden lining of the scabbard still adhere to the blade.17
The shield boss (Fig. 6) is a round piece of hammered iron, like a hollow truncated cone, the outlines being those of an ogee curve instead of rectilinear. It measures 3¼ inches diameter and 3½ inches high, the flattened top being half an inch across. The base of the cone impinged upon the wood of the shield, to which it was securely fastened by two rivets passing through the flange of the boss and through the wood. Other two rivets, placed in the circumference of the flange midway between these two, also passed through the wood of the shield and were riveted into the handle. The handle is of brass or bronze, 7¼ inches in length, convex on the exterior surface, and concave internally in the direction of its breadth, and slightly convex also in outline in the direction of its length. It is ornamented (as shown in Fig. 7) by bands of engraved lines forming reticulated patterns, and terminates at both ends in slightly raised circular discs, furnished with loops in front and back. The front loops apparently passed through the wood of the shield, those on the backs of the discs must have stood free on the inside of the shield, and were probably used for its suspension by a strap slung across the shoulder. Portions of the wood of the shield still adhere to the edges of the boss. This specimen shows what has never before been seen in this country, viz. the method of attachment of the boss and handle through the wood of the shield.
The spear-head (Fig.8) is a long and stout-bladed weapon, straight-edged, and tapering equally from the butt of the blade, which is unbarbed, the short neck of the blade passing gradually into the rounded socket. The blade is now only 7 inches in length, but was probably about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide at the butt. The socket still contains a portion of the wood of the shaft.
With these weapons there are other relics to which it is less easy to assign a definite purpose, such as the iron object (Fig. 9), 6 inches in length, which may have been the ferrule of a shaft, if not the heel of the spear-shaft itself, which was often mounted with an iron prong for convenience of thrusting it into the ground.
Akin to this object is the broken portion of a conical ferrule (shown in Fig. 10), and there are a number of fragments of an iron object with a corrugated surface, as if formed of thick wires laid side by side (Fig. 11). None of the fragments suggest the probable size or form of the object when entire, or reveal its purpose. But in the figure of a warrior represented on a small bronze plaque (Fig. 12), dug up in the island of Oland, we see a helmet formed of bands of somewhat similar appearance, and the sword he bears in his hand is a sword of the peculiar type associated with these peculiar relics.
A small and elegantly-formed and ornamented object of bronze (Fig. 13), with a cylindrical socket, terminating in a globose and lobated expansion, with a rope-like moulding round the upper part of the terminal expansion, appears to have been the mounting of the end of a small sheath. A similar object, nearly of the same size, having its globose termination ornamented with a grotesque face was found in a grave in the island of Westray, in Orkney, and will be hereafter referred to. (See Fig. 50.)
The implements associated with these weapons and accoutrements in the man’s grave are equally worthy of special examination, because, when regarded as a representative group, it will be seen that they point with equal definiteness to the same conclusion as to the typical character and relations of the special form of burial with which we are dealing.
The iron axe-heads (Fig. 14) found in the grave were two in number, nearly alike in form and dimensions, though somewhat mutilated. They do not differ greatly from the modern form of the implement, and are good serviceable tools.
The small adze-head (Fig. 15) and the hammer-head (Fig. 16) of iron are also good serviceable tools, not differing greatly from forms that are still in use, but possessing, in common with the axes, sufficient individuality of form and character to establish their typical relationship as members of a special group.
The forge-tongs (Fig. 17), in the same manner, present features of individuality which are capable of being correlated with a special variety of this type of tool confined to a special area, and usually occurring in certain special associations of a similar character to those in which this example occurs.
The broken fragments of the large iron pot present no features of character that can be recognised as distinctive. They are simple fragments of a large culinary pot, the diameter of which is indicated by the span of the iron bow-handle (Fig. 18), of which about half remains entire. But though the pot itself is not a specially remarkable object, the occurrence of an iron culinary pot in such associations is a fact of sufficiently remarkable character to be of importance in the determination of the special relations of a burial distinguished by such a group of unusual phenomena.
Let us now examine in detail the special characteristics of the ornaments and other articles found in the grave of the woman.
The most peculiar and striking objects among these ornaments are the two brooches. They are determined to be brooches by the fact that they are each furnished with a pin on the under side. These pins, which are of brass, are of very peculiar construction.18 The head of the pin (Fig. 19) is bent back to form a loop, by which the pin is secured in a socket formed by two projections from the inner surface of the brooch, in which a small rod is riveted passing through the loop of the pin. On this rod, the pin plays as on a hinge. The free end of the loop of the pin, doubled back and recurved, impinges on the inner and concave surface of the brooch, and acts as a spring when the point of the pin is pressed back to be slipped under a projecting catch on the opposite end of the brooch. When in its place it lies under the concavity in a line with the longest diameter of the brooch, which is oval and bowl-shaped, convex externally and concave internally. The body of the brooch (Fig. 20), which is 4¾ inches in length, 3 inches in width, and 1½ inch in height, is double,19 consisting of an outer and highly ornamented shell of pierced open work, placed over an inner shell which is smooth and highly gilt on the upper surface, so that the gilding may appear through the open work above it. This open work consists of a series of patterns which are similar as to the general effect, though they vary in their details. They are arranged in equal segmentai divisions of the convexity of the brooch, and separated by continuous bands of unpierced metal. These bands are traversed longitudinally by furrows, in which plaited strands of fine silver wire are laid and carried through perforations at the junctions where they cross each other. At these junctions are circular spaces, each of which has borne a knob or stud, probably of coloured paste or enamelled glass. These are all gone, but the pins that fastened them remain. The patterns themselves are zoomorphic in character, but their zoomorphism is radically different from that of the Celtic school. It is zoomorphism in which the details are sacrificed to the general effect, as if in the mind of the artist the idea of the ornament was dominant, and the idea of the form of its parts subordinate. No two styles of ornament could be more widely dissimilar. The artist of the Celtic school produced his effects by simple variation of the arrangements of his stereotyped forms. In all the intricate interlacements of his zoomorphic patterns, the typical forms employed to produce the most bewilderingly beautiful combinations are substantially the same, and their parts are the same. His zoomorphism was consistent throughout. If the conventional beast was there at all, his tail was there, and his crest, and his limbs—he was there in unvarying completeness of form and conventionality of feature. But this zoomorphism renders nothing distinctly. There is a suggestion of heads here and wings there, but there may be no bodies and no limbs, or there may be a suggestion of limbs to which no bodies effeir. The Celtic artist built up his patterns with the forms of his conventional beasts laboriously expressed. This artist simply blocks out his pattern and covers it with suggestions of animal forms.
But if the art of these brooches is not Celtic, the form differs no less widely from that of the Celtic brooches, which is penannular, with flattened and expanded ends. No brooch of this oval bowl-shaped form occurs within the Celtic area, either ornamented with Celtic art, or associated with objects of exclusively Celtic origin.
Equally characteristic, and as widely different from anything that we have seen of Celtic forms or Celtic art, are the forms and the art of the double discs of plated metal (Fig. 21), of which three were found in the same grave with the brooches. They are so thin and so sorely wasted that they could only have been recovered from a sandy soil, and even then, if they had been subjected to less careful handling, we should have been unable to establish their original form. They are all imperfect, the most entire being 7½ inches in length, consisting of a pair of buckler-like discs, ornamented with bosses and concentric circles, and connected by a band ornamented with zigzags and pellets, all in repoussé work. It is difficult even to conjecture what may have been their use. They are of silvered bronze, and if they had occurred in the man’s grave, they might have been supposed to have been ornamental mountings of the shield. But Mr. Campbell’s testimony as to their occurrence in the grave of the woman is distinct, and it is equally clear from their form and character, that they are objects of ornament, but neither the form nor the character of the objects gives any clue to the manner in which they were worn.
The silver hair-pin (Fig. 22), with globular head and ring attached by a loop, is 5 inches in length. The globular head is ornamented with double reversing spiral scrolls of filigree work of notched wire, finely executed. The ring of wire which hangs in the loop on the summit of the globular head of the pin, is also notched, and the ends twisted round each other in a fashion which is characteristic of many similarly joined rings of this type; as, for instance, the ring attached to the end of the chain of knitted wire to be next described.
The chain of knitted silver wire (Fig. 23) is an object of very peculiar character, but its relations are not difficult to establish.20 Its total length is 16 inches, and its width ¼ inch. It is formed of silver wire of the fineness of sewing thread, knitted as a hollow tube, with the common knitting-stitch used in knitting stockings. The knots at the ends of the tube are produced separately, and fastened on. The ring at the end of the chain has its ends twisted together in the same manner as the ring attached to the hair-pin.
The beads of coloured glass found in the graves (of which the different varieties are shown in Fig. 24), were seven in number. In all probability, only a part of them were recovered. They present the peculiarity of being formed of glass of different colours fused together so as to present a variegated surface, sometimes in regular patterns of different colours.
The saucepan of thin bronze (Fig. 25) is extremely light, of good shape and excellent workmanship. Its whole length is 17½ inches,—the handle being 12 inches in length, the bowl 5½ inches wide and 3½ inches deep. It is formed of extremely thin beaten bronze, not much thicker than writing paper. A T-shaped fillet surrounds the rim, giving strength and rigidity to the upper part of the bowl. Below the rim are three slight mouldings in repoussé work. The handle is strengthened by a T-shaped fillet on either edge, and the circular expansion at the end is ornamented with a disc hammered up from the under side.
The hemispherical implement of black glass (which is here shown in Fig. 26), is the most peculiar object found in this grave. In shape it nearly resembles the bottom of a common black bottle, though flatter in the concavity and scarcely so large, being 3 inches in diameter and 1½ inches in thickness. It has been made by “throwing” a lump of glass in fusion, and has evidently been “thrown” in this special form for a special purpose. That purpose, as we shall see hereafter, is indicated by the marks of use on its convex side,—which is considerably rubbed and striated, chiefly towards the centre where the surface is most prominent.
Fig. 26.—Implement of Black Glass, from grave No. 2 at Ballinaby (3 inches in diameter).
Lastly, a little cylinder of bronze plated with silver, about 2 inches in length and scarcely so thick as a common pencil-case, contains in its interior, adhering to one of its sides, what seems to be the point end of a needle of bronze.
From this detailed examination of the objects associated with these interments, we perceive that they are for the most part objects presenting a strongly marked individuality of character. The weapons form a peculiar group, consisting of a long, broad-bladed, double-edged sword, with short, straight guard and triangular pommel; a light wooden shield with a truncated boss of iron, and a long, stout-bladed, and unbarbed spear. The ornaments also form a peculiar group, the brooches being large, oval, and bowl-shaped, and covered with patterns of zoomorphic decoration, imperfectly expressed. Reverting to the remarks made on the essential qualities of this peculiar style of decoration, it will be remembered that it differs widely in character and spirit from the decoration of the Celtic school with which we have now become familiar; and if the general teaching of these Lectures, in regard to the value of decoration as an index to the archæological relations of the objects on which it is found, has been successfully applied, it must be obvious that there is no Celticism apparent in these objects. We are unable to compare the forms of the weapons and implements with forms obtained from Celtic burials, because no iron sword, no iron spear, or wooden shield has ever been found in Scotland in association with any burial demonstrably of Celtic character. And no such group of implements as axes and smithy-tools of iron has ever been found in association with any interment on the mainland of Scotland. The obvious inference is that these two burials, with their associated groups of weapons, implements, and ornaments possessing such strongly marked and unusual characteristics, may be outlying examples of a form of burial and associated types of objects, whose special area is not Celtic, and therefore probably not in Scotland.
I have already explained that since it is difficult, if not impossible, to point to any given area which has remained unaffected by movements of populations, invasions, colonisations, and other changes not dependent on purely physical conditions, we must be prepared for the occurrence, among the products that are indigenous to the soil, of other products archæologically characteristic of other areas; and I have endeavoured to show how these are separable from the purely indigenous types by their difference in character and decoration, and how they are assignable to their parent area by their identity with the types native to the region from which they are derived. This is the problem we have now to deal with.
The most prominent features of the form of burial exhibited by these Islay graves are that it is burial unburnt, and with grave-goods. I have already shown that these are features that are common to almost all forms of Paganism. But there seems to be a special suggestiveness in the character of the group of objects deposited in the man’s grave. Since he took with him his sword and spear, his axe and shield, and took also with him his smithy-tools to keep them in repair, it seems a fair inference that his form of faith must have taught him to look for a continuance of warfare in the life beyond the grave. We know that such a faith existed, and that the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland were overrun by men who held it at a time when such implements and weapons of iron were in common use. The special feature which distinguished the wild creed of the Northmen from most other forms of heathenism was that it promised a place in Odin’s Hall to all men wounded by arms or slain in battle. Spears supported the ceiling of this Valhalla; it was roofed with shields, and coats of mail adorned its benches. It was the perpetual pastime of its inmates to fight and slay each other every day, to be revived again before evening, and then to ride back to the feast of boar’s flesh and mead. If, therefore, it can be shown that the forms of the weapons, implements, and ornaments thus found in these Islay graves are the forms of the Norwegian area, and that, when they occur in Scotland, they are found in those portions of Scottish territory that were possessed and colonised by the Norwegians—and found only there—the demonstration of the character, period, and relations of these burials will be complete.
The materials for forming an estimate of the typical character of the burials of the Viking time in Norway are ample, and they have been very fully described by the Norwegian archæologists. Upwards of a thousand graves of this period are known. The form of burial which they exhibit is burial with grave-goods. The burial is usually covered by a mound, either round or oblong in shape. The mounds vary greatly in size, but they differ from those of the early Iron Age, and of all previous ages, in being usually unfurnished with either cist or chamber. Stones are often found set round the burial, which, when the body was unburnt, was simply laid on the natural surface, and the mound heaped over it. In Norway the custom of burning the body exceeds in frequency the custom of burying unburnt by about four to one. Where the body has been burnt it is usually found that the grave-goods have also passed through the fire, but this is not always the case. The burnt remains are either found spread over the area of the base of the mound or gathered together in a heap in the centre. Very frequently they are found placed in an urn. The urns of the Viking time are very rarely made of clay, but are either hollowed out of some soft stone, such as steatite, or they are caldrons made of thin plates of iron riveted together, or beaten out in bronze. The grave-goods buried with these interments include the clothing, weapons, implements, or ornaments used or possessed by the deceased, and the furnishings of the grave are thus rich in proportion to the wealth and station of the individual.
The sword which is characteristic of these interments in Norway is a peculiar weapon. It is long, broad-bladed, often double-edged, and usually furnished with a short, straight guard and a triangular pommel. One which was ploughed up from a grave-mound at Vik, in Flaa Sogn in Norway, in 1837, is shown in Fig. 27 for comparison with those of the same type found in Scotland. I have said that we have no Celtic sword of this type. It is the type which prevailed in Scandinavia during the last three centuries of their heathen period. It differs from the types that preceded and succeeded it in Norway, and it differs also from the types of swords of the later Iron Age in other countries of Europe. It is specially the sword of the Norwegian Viking.
As the sword is the most characteristic object among the grave-goods of the man, the brooch is also the most characteristic object among the grave-goods of the woman. The brooch, which is constantly found in these interments in Norway, is a most peculiar ornament. It is always of brass, massive, oval, and bowl-shaped in form, and is distinguished from all other brooches that are known, not only of this, but of every other area and every other time, by the fact that it is an article of personal adornment which (though as capable of being used singly as any other form of fibula might be), is almost never found singly, but constantly occurs in pairs—the one being usually an almost exact duplicate of the other. This singular type of brooch is the special ornament of the female dress which prevailed in Norway during the last three centuries of their heathen period.21 It differs entirely from the types that preceded and succeeded it; and it differs as completely from the types of the later Iron Age in all other European countries.
We therefore see that if the sword thus found in Islay had been dug up in Norway it would have taken its place as one in a great series of the ordinary Viking type, and these brooches from the woman’s grave would have matched exactly with some hundreds of similar pairs from Norwegian graves.22 The whole group of objects would have corresponded with the special characters of many similar groups preserved in the Christiania Museum. The special forms of each of the members of the groups—as, for instance, the forge-tongs, the hammer, the adze, the axes,—are all forms that are abundantly represented in Viking graves there. Nicolaysen gives twenty-three instances of smithy-hammers, and seventeen instances of forge-tongs among the articles found in grave-mounds of the Viking time described by him, in Norway. Several of these grave-mounds contained more or less complete sets of smith’s tools, including anvils, chisels, files, as well as hammers and tongs. Along with an interment of this period at Thiele, in Jutland, there were two anvils of different forms, four different kinds of hammers, four varieties of pincers or forge-tongs, two chisels, two implements for drawing wire, four files, two melting pans, a pair of scales and weights, and a quantity of other implements. It was natural that the smith’s craft should hold a high place in the estimation of a people wholly devoted to the use of arms, and as famous for their skill in forging, tempering, and ornamenting weapons as for their prowess in using them. But such homelier objects as the pot and the saucepan of the Islay graves are common accompaniments of these interments in Norway, and the counterparts of the implement of black glass found in the woman’s grave may be seen in the museums of that country, and their purpose demonstrated by specimens that are actually still in use. Nicolaysen describes them as lumps of glass formed like the bottom of a bottle, and the character of the objects usually associated with them may be indicated by the contents of one grave-mound in which this implement occurs. The mound was a large one, 44½ feet long, and 73 feet broad, set round the base with large stones. It contained an interment after cremation. The ashes were gathered into a bronze vessel, 8 inches high, and 17 inches in greatest diameter, over which was inverted a pot of steatite, both vessels enclosing a quantity of iron implements cemented into a solid mass of oxidation and burnt human bones. Among the implements were a lump of glass like the bottom of a bottle, a knife-blade, the rings of a bridle-bit, an axe, a sickle-blade, a whetstone, some bronze ornaments, and an ox-horn. Alongside of the bronze vessel were a spear-head and a frying-pan of iron, 8½ inches diameter, with 7 inches of the handle remaining, and all around were large quantities of clinker nails. Here the associations of the glass implement are similar in character to its associations in the Islay graves. Its purpose is demonstrated by the facts recorded by Nicolaysen and Lorange, who state that in Mandal Amt and in several remote districts on the west coast of Norway, the women still use them for giving a gloss to their white linen caps, and generally for getting up a gloss on linen by friction.23
It has thus been demonstrated that every feature of these two Islay burials, and every object associated with them, is clearly of Norwegian type, and of the heathen period of their Viking time—that is, of the period ranging between the beginning of the eighth and the end of the tenth centuries—and that the sword of this peculiar form and the bowl-shaped brooch of this remarkable type are the most characteristic objects associated with this class of burials.
The next question that presents itself for determination is, What is the range or area of this type of burial, associated with these types of objects, in Scotland?
On this same estate of Ballinaby, in Islay, a grave was discovered under a large standing-stone in the year 1788. There is no precise record of the circumstances beyond the fact that a pair of oval bowl-shaped brooches (Fig. 29) were found in it. They were presented to the National Museum, and are thus preserved. They are of the same variety of type as those previously described, but differing somewhat in the patterns of their ornamentation. They are 4¼ inches in length, 2⅞ inches in breadth, and 1¼ inch in height. Their pins were of iron and are gone, but the hinge and catch remain in both. The central ornament of the upper shell is a raised boss, cast hollow in the metal, chased on the upper surface, and pierced with four holes. The channels cut in the bands of unpierced metal between the patterns of pierced work, and the holes through which the plaited strands of silver wires had passed, are visible, but the wires themselves are gone. The holes for the pins that fastened the studs of coloured paste on the circular spaces at the junction of the bands are there, but pins and studs are both wanting. The patterns of the ornamentation are zoomorphic, representing winged, dragon-like animals placed face to face. The band round the lower part of the under shell of the brooch is filled with a suggestion of zoomorphic patterns in panels, and the flange or flat border underneath it is divided into a series of raised and sunk spaces, produced apparently by a triangular punch.
In 1845 a similar burial was discovered in the strath near Newton Distillery, also in Islay. No record of the circumstances is preserved, but two oval bowl-shaped brooches (Fig. 30) and an amber bead, which were found in the grave, are in the possession of Mr. John Campbell of Islay. The brooches are each 4⅛ inches in length, 2¾ inches in width, and 1 inch in height. The pins had been of iron and are gone, but the hinge and catch are still traceable. These brooches differ from those that have been already described, inasmuch as they are not double shelled but cast in one piece, that is, they are made of a single shell, which is chased, but not pierced in open-work patterns. The division and the arrangement of the patterns are much the same as in those first described, but there are no channels in the partitions for silver wires, and the partitions themselves are ornamented with a species of fret. The circular spaces at the junctions of the partitions have been ornamented with studs of paste pinned on, but studs and pins are both gone. The patterns of the ornamentation are executed with a graving tool, but they exhibit so little coherency of design that it is impossible to call them zoomorphic.24
In the old Statistical Account of Tiree it is stated that, in digging at Cornaigbeg, there were found at different times human skeletons, and nigh them skeletons of horses. Swords, it is said, were also found, but diminished with rust,—silver-work preserved the handles; there were also shields and helmets. In March 1847 an oval bowl-shaped brooch of this special character, which had been found in Tiree, was exhibited to the Society by Sir John Graham Dalzell, but it was not left in the Museum, and it is not now known what became of it. But in 1872, the late Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod presented to the Museum a brooch of this character found in Tiree (Fig. 31), which is almost precisely of the same pattern as those first found in Islay. It is 4¼ inches in length, 2¼ inches in breadth, and 1½ inch in height. It is double, and is here figured with the upper and under shells separated from each other so as to show the manner in which they were fitted and pinned together, so that the smooth-gilded surface of the under shell might shine through the pierced work of the upper. This brooch also presents a peculiar appearance common to them all, but which, in this instance, is strongly marked. The interior of the under shell is impressed with the texture of coarse cloth so distinctly, that the size, number, and interweaving of the threads are as visible as in the web. The cloth seems to be coarse linen, and the appearance is really an impression cast in the metal. These under shells were probably cast in moulds prepared in this way—the side of the mould corresponding to the convex surface with its ornamental border was cut in soft stone, a thickness of wet cloth was then fitted into it corresponding to the thickness of the metal, and over this a lump of clay was rammed hard; the clay was lifted and the cloth removed, thus leaving a cavity for the metal;25 the clay became one side of the mould and the stone the other, and, when the metal was run in, it produced a cast of the impression of the cloth retained upon the backing of clay. Thus these brooches present castings in metal of the textile fabrics of the eighth and ninth centuries, showing the thickness of its threads, the method of weaving, and the general finish of the fabric. But there is a still more interesting circumstance connected with them in respect to the cloth of the period when they were made and worn. In some instances they have not only preserved casts in the metal of the impression of cloth in the clay of the mould, but have actually preserved portions of the dress in which they were worn, or in which they were fixed when committed to the grave with the body of the wearer. I have already stated that they have usually had pins of iron, now represented by a lump of oxidation. In this brooch from Tiree, and also in one which I brought from Hakedalen, near Christiania, I have ascertained by careful examination of this lump of oxidation that it has enclosed and protected from decay a minute portion of puckered cloth which had been caught between the point of the thick pin and the iron catch into which it slipped when the brooch was fastened on the dress. I have been able to remove and mount for microscopical examination some small scraps of this cloth. It appears to be linen, but with a partial admixture of another fibre, which may be hemp, and I can detect no material difference between the cloth in the specimen from Norway and that from the island of Tiree on our own western coast.
Continuing our inquiry as to the area over which these peculiar relics have been found in Scotland, we ascertain that there are other instances of their occurrence in the Hebrides. On the island of Barra a large grave-mound, crowned by a standing stone 7 feet high, was opened by Commander Edge in 1862. The grave contained a skeleton placed with the head to the west, and along with it there were found an iron sword, 33 inches in length, with remains of the scabbard, a shield-boss of iron and some remains of the shield, a whetstone, two oval bowl-shaped brooches of this type, and a comb of bone, 8 inches in length.26 A similar burial was found “in the island of Sangay” (probably Sanderay) “between Uist and Harris.” The grave contained a skeleton, and with it were found a pair of these brooches (closely resembling Fig. 48, from Pierowall in Orkney), together with a brass pin and a brass needle.27 Even in remote St. Kilda the evidences of the occurrence of this typical form of burial are not wanting. A pair of these oval brooches found in that island are preserved in the Andersonian Museum, Glasgow.28
Coming now to the mainland of Scotland, we find that one of these brooches is preserved in Ospisdale House, Sutherlandshire, of which there is no precise record; but there is every reason to conclude that it is one of a pair found somewhere in the neighbourhood. Another pair were found in a grave in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin Castle, and the under shells of them are preserved in the Duke of Sutherland’s museum there.
In Caithness there have been occasional discoveries of interments of this character, but unfortunately no one seems to have thought a burial which was associated with “rusty pieces of old iron” worthy of careful investigation. The Rev. Mr. Pope records, incidentally,29 a remarkable discovery of swords “in a peat bank near the house of Haimar” in the neighbourhood of Thurso, and dismisses the subject with the remark that “they were odd machines resembling plough-shares, all iron.” A pair of oval bowl-shaped brooches of great beauty were found at Castletown in Caithness in 1786. One of these (Fig. 32) is in the National Museum.30 It is 4½ inches in length and 3 inches in width. It is double-shelled, and the gilding, both on the under and upper shells, is still visible, although the “double row of silver cord along the edge,” which is noted in the first description of the brooches when they were presented by James Traill of Rattar in 1787, is now gone. The centre of the convexity of the brooch is surmounted by a bold ornament, in form somewhat resembling a crown. The ornamentation is distinctly zoomorphic, the four projecting ornaments below the centrepiece being carved into the form of animals’ heads. These brooches were “dug out of the top of the ruins” of a Broch near Castletown, and were found “lying beside a skeleton, buried under a flat stone with very little earth above it.” This evidently implies that the interment had been made in the upper part of the mound covering the ruins of the Broch.31
Another pair of these oval bowl-shaped brooches from Caithness is also in the National Museum. They were found in a cist in the top of a natural mound of gravel called the Longhills, on the north side of the river, a little above the bridge of Wick, in 1840. Although found together they differ in pattern, one being nearly similar to the Tiree brooch, while the other (Fig. 33) differs from all the Scottish specimens in having eight bosses of open work arranged round the central boss. They retain portions of the twisted strands of fine silver wire which lay in the channeled depressions of the upper part.
Passing from Caithness to Orkney, we find abundant evidence of the same form of burial associated with objects of similar character. At Sweindrow, in the island of Rousay, there is a field in which there are many graves, from which objects of iron were occasionally turned up by the plough many years ago, when the soil had been less frequently disturbed. In the year 1826 a fine specimen of the peculiar type of sword associated with these burials (Fig. 34) was thus turned up by the plough in close proximity to the spot where previously the iron boss of a shield had been similarly discovered.32 The sword is a long, broad-bladed, double-edged weapon, with short straight guard and triangular pommel. It measures 3 feet 3¼ inches in total length, the blade being 2 feet 8 inches in length. The guard is 5 inches in length and 1¼ inch in depth. The grip measures 3¼ inches in length. The pommel is 4¼ inches in width and 3 inches in height. The blade, which is 2⅛ inches wide at the hilt, has been in the scabbard at the time of its deposit, and blade and scabbard are now converted into a mass of oxidation. The scabbard has been made of thin laths of wood, the fibre of which is still visible, covered in some places with leather. There are also some remains of the side-plates of bone or horn which made up the grip, and the gilt metallic mounting which adorned both ends of the grip still remains. The ornament closely resembles that of the silver mounting of the rim of a horn or beaker (Fig. 35), which was dug up at Burghead some time previous to 1826, and is now in the Museum. But the ornament of the sword has a distinctly zoomorphic feeling, and still more closely resembles the decoration of a similar mounting of the hilt of a sword of the Viking type dug up at Islandbridge, near Dublin, and preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
Except in the island of Westray (in which seven specimens have occurred), there is no record of the discovery of the oval bowl-shaped brooches elsewhere in Orkney. I shall describe the remarkable group of graves in Westray in connection with the phenomena of burial, merely remarking here that the presence of these brooches and this type of sword carries the area of this form of burial into the Orkney Islands.
Two oval bowl-shaped brooches, having the usual mark of cloth on the inside of their inner shells, are also in the museum at Lerwick. They were found at Clibberswick, in the north end of the island of Unst, the most northerly island of the Shetland group. Along with them there were found a plain silver bracelet, two glass beads ornamented with twisted streaks of white and blue, and a trefoil-shaped brooch of a type which is also peculiarly Scandinavian, covered with a zoomorphic ornament consisting of dragonesque forms, whose feet twist under and grasp parts of their bodies.33
The range of these burials, distinguished (among other features peculiar to themselves), by the presence of this peculiar type of sword and this remarkable type of brooch,34 has thus been traced through the western and northern isles from Islay to Unst, in Shetland, touching the mainland only in the counties of Sutherland and Caithness. This area, established on archæological evidence, coincides exactly with the area established by historical record as that which was colonised and possessed by the Norwegians in the time of their heathenism.
I now proceed to notice other instances in which burials with grave-goods of a similar character, though differing more or less in certain special features, have been observed. It is but recently that they have attracted attention, and the interest and significance of their peculiar phenomena is only beginning to be understood.
About fifty years ago, a grave-mound situated between the chapel of St. Donan and the shore in the island of Eigg, was levelled by the tenant of the land. No observations of the phenomena of the burial were made, but the objects found were fortunately preserved.35 The principal object found in this grave-mound was a sword-hilt of bronze (Fig. 36), 7½ inches in length. In its form it resembles the hilt of the Islay sword, but is greatly superior to it in the beauty of its ornamentation and the skill of its workmanship. Indeed, I know no finer or more elaborate piece of art workmanship of the kind, either in this country or in Norway. It is constructed in four pieces—the triangular pommel, the cross-piece under it, the grip, and the guard. Each of these has been cast and worked separately, and they are all united by the tang of the blade which passes up through them. The decoration is difficult to describe, but it is not difficult to perceive the harmony, elegance, and fitness of the general design. Each of the four parts is treated with reference to its decoration as a separate whole, but they also combine to give to the entire object a completely harmonious design. The triangular pommel is placed upon a cross-piece answering in character to the cross-piece below the grip, and the grip answers in character to both. The ends of the pommel are formed as heads of animals, the zoomorphism more suggested than expressed, and more distinct in the front view of the whole hilt (Fig. 36) than in the side view of the pommel alone as here represented (Fig. 37). The grip and the cross-piece below it are all decorated in the same style, with a beautiful pattern formed of a series of arcaded spaces with quadrate ornaments between. The patterns chased in the arcaded spaces are apparently zoomorphic in character, and the quadrate ornaments between them are plates of silver pinned on to the bronze, a circle being incised round every pin head, and each pair of circles connected by a line drawn from the right side of the one to the left side of the other, so as to resemble an S-shaped scroll. The edges of the grip (Fig. 38) are ornamented with three sunk panels of interlaced work alternating with four plain panels. The upper side of the guard (Fig. 39) has two ornaments of similar character, each consisting of four loops round a pellet, the bands composing the loops crossing each other in the centre of the figure. There is nothing that is distinctively Celtic in the style of this interlaced work. Indeed, there is so little of it, that it would be difficult, from this specimen alone, to form any opinion as to the relations of interlaced ornament to the system of decoration characteristic of the Viking period. I have already stated that the mere presence of interlaced work is not a feature which can be relied on as a certain indication either of the Celtic or the Scandinavian character of the ornament of which it forms a part. In consequence of the close intercourse which subsisted between the areas of the two distinctive schools of art during the Viking time, the influence of the one upon the other is traceable in such transitional styles as that of the Manx crosses and the decorations of the Skaill brooches to be hereafter described. And the Celtic manner, with a Scandinavian spirit, is distinctly discernible in the decoration of a sword-hilt (Fig. 40) found in a grave-mound of the Viking time at Ultuna, in Sweden.36
In the grave-mound at Eigg there were found, along with the sword-hilt, a buckle or fastener of a belt of bronze or brass (Fig. 41), attached to a thin plate of the same metal, and a solid lump of metal apparently of a similar alloy, 2½ inches in length, which appears to have been one of the feet of a large three-footed pot.
Two other grave-mounds in the same neighbourhood were excavated in 1875 by Professor Macpherson, and I had the opportunity of seeing them subsequently. The ground-plans and sections of them which are here given (Fig. 42), were made by Mr. Arthur Joass. The largest mound was about 40 feet in diameter and from 6 to 7 feet in height, with a circular depression in the centre. In an enclosure roughly formed of stones in the centre of the mound and on the original level of the surface, there were found traces of an interment, with grave-goods, of the usual Viking character. They consisted of an iron sword in the sheath, similar to that found in the Islay grave, an iron axe-head, a spear-head of iron, a penannular brooch of bronze plated with silver and ending in knobs of the shape of thistle heads (Fig. 43), an agrafe or belt-clasp of bronze or brass, ornamented with a scroll-like pattern in relief (Fig. 44); a small whetstone (Fig. 45), and several portions of dress consisting of cloth of three different varieties of texture (Fig. 46), one of which is trimmed with fur.
The smaller grave-mound, a few yards distant, contained the fragments of an iron sword, a whetstone, a plain penannular brooch with knobbed ends, of a slightly flattened form, in bronze or brass, and some beads of amber and jet.
Perhaps the most remarkable cemetery of graves belonging to this intruded Paganism of the Norsemen was that excavated by Mr. William Rendall, of Pierowall, in the island of Westray, in Orkney, in 1849. The graves were situated in the sandy links at the north-west side of the head of the bay of Pierowall. Mr. Rendall’s notes are brief and imperfect. I have twice gone over the ground explored by him, with the view of ascertaining certain points in connection with these interments, and I think there is evidence on the spot that each of them was placed on the original surface of the ground, that they were surrounded by roughly made enclosures of stones, and covered by a mound of greater or less bulk. Mr. Rendall explored two groups of these grave-mounds, the one containing four and the other five interments.
In the first group, grave-mound No. 1 contained a human skeleton laid on its right side, north and south, the skull cleft, apparently before burial, and only one half of it found. Deposited with it there were a number of iron weapons or implements, among which Mr. Rendall recognised an iron axe and what he calls the half of a helmet, which I have no doubt was half of the globular boss of a shield. Grave-mound No. 2 contained the remains of a man, a horse, and a dog. It is not said whether the whole skeleton of the horse was in the grave, but the remark is made that the horse was of small size, and the bridle-bit remained between its jaws. Many pieces of iron were found, among which were a buckle and a spear-head or part of a sword. Grave-mound No. 3 contained the remains of a man and a horse with fragments of iron implements. Grave-mound No. 4 contained a skeleton only.
At a little distance to the north-east of this group of grave-mounds was the second group. In grave-mound No. 1 was the skeleton of a man. At his head lay the cup-shaped boss of his shield; at his left side his sword. A whetstone, a comb, and several glass beads were also found, and many pieces of iron of whose form and purpose there is no suggestion. In grave-mound No. 2 was a skeleton, which Mr. Rendall concluded to be that of a female. Two oval bowl-shaped brooches of brass were found on the breast, and a little below them a circular ornament and a pin of the same metal. There were no traces of iron, or remains of iron implements or weapons. Grave-mound No. 3 contained a small skeleton with two oval bowl-shaped brooches and a small circular-headed pin on the breast, and two long single-edged, round-backed combs of bone (Fig. 47) lay on either side of the neck. No. 4 had been previously disturbed. In No. 5 were two brooches, two combs, and a pin similar to those in No. 3.
In 1851 Mr. Rendall presented to the National Museum the contents of a grave which is not described in these notes but was found in the same locality. It contained the skeleton of a man, with which there had been deposited an iron axe, a spear-head of iron, and the iron boss of a shield, an oval bowl-shaped brooch (Fig. 48), and a penannular brooch of Celtic form, ornamented with interlaced work of purely Celtic style.37 In this remarkable cemetery we have the same type of burial and the same typical forms of weapons, implements, and ornaments, as in Islay and in Eigg. Of the whole group of objects found in all these graves there is but one, viz. the Celtic brooch last mentioned, that is of a type native to the soil in which they are found.
But a still more remarkable set of graves was found at Pierowall by Mr. Farrer and Mr. George Petrie. Unfortunately there is the same absence of any precise and detailed record of the phenomena. The first, which contained the bones of a man and a horse, had been found at the sands of Gill by Mr. George Petrie in 1841, and the relics from it were deposited in the Kirkwall Museum. When that museum was broken up and its contents sold, they were purchased by Colonel Balfour of Trenaby, and sent to the National Museum. They consist of the bronze cheek-ring of a bridle with part of the iron bit, and fragments of wood with iron rivets which were supposed to be the remains of a shield. The second grave was explored by Mr. Farrer in 1855. There is no record of the phenomena of the burial, but the objects found were sent to the museum. They are an iron knife, a small sickle of iron, an iron key of peculiar form (Fig. 49), and a bronze mounting of a sheath or scabbard-end plated with silver, and ornamented with an engraved pattern suggesting a grotesque face (Fig. 50). With these were found large quantities of decayed wood pierced with iron rivets which were also supposed to be the remains of a wooden shield. The third grave-mound was explored by Mr. Farrer and Mr. Petrie in 1863. No record of the phenomena exists, but the articles found were two iron buckles apparently of saddle girths, and a quantity of pieces of decayed wood varying in thickness from 1 to 2 inches, pierced by iron rivets, and also suggested to be portions of a wooden shield.
In these three instances the principal feature of the interment is the presence of quantities of wooden planks, sometimes as much as two inches thick, pierced by iron rivets. When these are closely examined it is seen that the wood is of oak, that the rivets are peculiar in character, having round heads on one side and square heads on the other, and that they frequently pass through the wood obliquely. These are the characteristics of the clinker-nails which fastened the planking of the Viking ships. They were square-headed on one side and round-headed on the other. The fact that these rivets pass through the wood obliquely is more suggestive of a boat than of a shield. The thickness of wood between the rivet-heads is more than twice that of any shield of the time whose thickness is known. No shield-boss or handle was found with any of these interments, and no shield of oaken planks fastened with such rivets is known. In point of fact, no shield could be used whose thickness was two inches of solid oak, and the quantity of wood and iron found with the interments seems much in excess of what would be required for shields. I therefore conclude that, in these three instances, the form of burial was that in which the Viking was laid in his ship—drawn up on the strand, and set on even keel to receive him and his grave-goods—and a mound raised over all.
The testimony of the earlier sagas is unanimous that the common mode of sepulture in the heathen Viking time was by raising a mound over the remains of the dead, who were placed in their grave-mounds honourably, with abundance of goods, weapons, ornaments, and costly garments, horses and sometimes even thralls or slaves. Thus we are told that a great store of goods was placed in the grave-mound with Hravnkel Freysgode, and all his war-suits and his good spear. So also we learn that Skalagrim was laid in his grave-mound with his horse, his weapons, and his smithy-tools, and Egil was buried with his weapons and his clothing. Thorgrim, priest of Frey at Sæbol was buried in his ship, over which they raised the mound after the ancient fashion. But the most striking of all the saga notices of heathen burial is that of the sepulture of King Harald Hildetand, who was slain on Braavalla Heath by his nephew Sigurd Ring, in the middle of the eighth century. After the battle the victor caused search to be made for the body of his uncle, which he placed in his chariot in the midst of the grave-mound; then his horse was slain and laid beside the dead; and Sigurd caused his own saddle to be placed beside the horse, so that Harald might have his choice and ride or drive to Valhalla as he had a mind. Then Sigurd made a great funeral feast, and the nobles threw massive rings and splendid arms into the grave-mound in honour of the dead king.
Thus we gather from the early literature of the Scandinavians a very vivid impression of the character and accompaniments of their heathen burial. Yet this literary evidence is characteristically defective on special points that are of paramount interest to the archæologist. Hence, when it is attempted to be used scientifically, the result is what might be expected of a scientific operation conducted with unscientific materials. For instance, Dr. Dasent, gathering the literary evidence into one generalisation, concludes that the burial took place in a how or cairn, and that the body was laid in the how with goods and arms, sometimes in a sitting posture, sometimes even in a ship, but always in a chamber, formed of baulks of timber or blocks of stone, over which earth and gravel were piled. Since it is the main object of our science to attain to great and wide generalisations from completed evidence, it is manifest that such a generalisation as this, which gives us what always was the special character of the sepulchral structure for a given period, would be one of the most precious and costly fruits of scientific research. Founded on purely archæological evidence, it could only be the result of the completed investigation of all the grave-mounds of the period. As here given, it is arrived at by a much shorter process, viz. the comparison and critical interpretation of a few texts, for it is not expressly stated in any text, but is an inference from incidental expressions in several of them.38 And the interest with which we must regard the inference lies in the fact that this special form of sepulchral mound, which is deduced from the literary evidence as having been always the form in use throughout the Viking period, is a form which is almost archæologically unknown in that period.
It is to be observed also that the saga evidence is defective as to the customs connected with cremation.39 The only literary evidence we possess in regard to them is to be found in the strange narrative by Ahmed Ibn-Fozlan, an eye-witness of the ceremonies attending the incremation of the dead body of a Northern chief.40 The scene is on the banks of the Volga, and the date is towards the close of the Viking time. The narrator tells us that there was a temporary interment till all the preparations were made; that a female slave who had elected to die with her master was given in charge to an old hag, who as mistress of the ceremonies was significantly styled “the angel of the dead;” that the dead man’s ship was hauled up on the strand and prepared to be his funeral pile; that, when all was ready, the corpse was taken out of its temporary grave, arrayed in fur-mounted and gold-embroidered garments, and laid in state on the deck, where a banquet was spread for him; that his weapons were placed ready to his hand, and two horses, two oxen, his dog, and two fowls were hewn in pieces with swords and cast into the ship; that the woman who was to die, after taking leave of her friends, was first drugged with strong drink and then brutally slaughtered with a big knife by the “angel of the dead,” while two men pulled the ends of a cord wound round her neck and the crowd beat upon their shields to drown her shrieks; that she was then laid beside her dead lord and the pile fired by his nearest relative, and after it had burnt out a great mound was raised over the ashes.
Turning now to the evidence derived from the grave-mounds themselves, we find that it corroborates and supplements the literary evidence in a remarkable manner. For instance, close above the strand at Möklebust, in Norway, there is a semi-globular mound 12 feet high and 92 feet in diameter; round its base there is a ditch 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep, interrupted on the south and east by accesses on the natural level. The whole base of the mound was covered by a layer of burnt ashes. In an oval, about 28 feet long and 14 feet wide, lay a quantity of iron rivets and nails as they had settled down among the ashes when the planks they had fastened were consumed. Around the circumference of this oval, and among these rivets, were found no fewer than forty-two shield-bosses, mingled with pike-heads, axes, swords, knives, and other implements of iron. Near the centre of the oval lay a large bronze pot or caldron, one-third full of burnt human bones, over which were heaped the bosses of thirteen shields, now firmly rusted to each other and to the sides of the pot. The pot itself was splendidly enamelled round the rim; in fact, an exquisite work of art. Among the bones within it was an iron pike-head, which M. Lorange, who explored the mound, concluded to have been the weapon by which the Viking met his death. Recounting the whole phenomena and circumstances of the burial as observed during the process of exploration, he says: “It seems that the sea-king’s men had drawn his ship up on the strand, with all its fittings as it was on the day of his death, laid the dead man in it clad in his best and with his arms and horse; then they hung their shields round the gunwales as they used to do when going on a cruise, hoisted the sail, piled wood under and around, and fired the vessel as she stood. Then, when the fire had done its work, they gathered the burnt bones into this splendid pot, covered them with the bosses of the burnt shields, and placed them in the centre of the heap of ashes over which the great mound was finally reared.”
But more frequently the vessel and its contents have not passed through the fire. One such ship I have seen. It was found under a mound at Tune, and is now preserved in connection with the museum at Christiania. The mound was 12 feet high and 80 yards in circumference. The vessel stood on the original surface on even keel. It is clinker-built; the planks of oak, the ribs of fir. The keel is 43½ feet in length, and the ship is low and narrow for her length, which is no more than that of a first-class herring boat of the present day on the east coast of Scotland. Each side was of eleven planks, an inch thick, fastened with clinker nails, having round heads outside and square heads inside. The seams were caulked with tarred oakum of neat’s hair. The ribs, thirteen in number, are built of three different layers of wood fastened with oaken trenails and iron nails. The mode in which they are fastened to the skin of the boat is peculiar. The upper boards alone are fastened with oaken trenails, and the lower ones are merely attached to the planking by ropes of bast passed through holes in the ribs, and then through corresponding holes in wooden clumps on the planks. The mast was secured in a step on the bottom lining, and the vessel was steered by a side rudder. The Viking’s body, which was unburnt, was placed on a wooden platform abaft the mast. Beside it lay the bones of a horse, with remains of the saddle. The rest of the grave-goods were of the common character, comprising merely a few beads of coloured glass, a few fragments of clothing, a sword of the ordinary Viking type, a spear-head, a shield-boss, a rolled-up coat of mail, and some tools and implements of iron.
Another of larger size was discovered last summer in a mound at Gokstad, near Sandefiord, and is now placed beside the Tune specimen. Its length is about 80 feet, with a breadth of beam of 17 feet. It is of oak, and clinker-built, the planks and the frame-timbers connected in the same peculiar manner as in the Tune ship. All the planks have planed and moulded edges both inside and out, but there is no trace of the use of the saw either in the planking or framework of the vessel. Her lines are well laid; stem and stern are alike sharp and finely modelled. She has neither deck nor seats for the rowers, although her sides are pierced for sixteen oars each. The oars, some of which were found on board, were 20 feet long. In rowing, they were passed through circular holes 18 inches below the gunwale, and having narrow slits cut on each side of them to allow the passage of the blade of the oar. Like all her kind, she had but one mast and one sail, square in form, and she was steered by a side rudder. The vessel, though showing signs of wear, had been comparatively new when drawn on shore to enhance the funeral honours of its owner. A sepulchral chamber was built of timbers in front of the mast reaching to the prow. In this chamber the dead Viking was laid, surrounded with his grave-goods, his arms, and ornaments. That these were numerous and costly there can be little doubt, but the mound was broken into at an early date, a great hole cut in the side of the ship, and the funeral chamber rifled. The few relics that were left, chiefly mountings of belts and harness, exhibit the finest art of the Viking time, and the completeness of the equipment of the vessel, from the row of painted shields round the gunwale down to her cordage and anchor, and the cooking utensils of the crew—together with the fact that the mound also contained the remains of three boats and the bones of eight or nine horses, as many dogs, and a peacock—testify to the wealth and consideration of the man whose burial rites were thus celebrated.
I have described these Viking burials found in Norway and in Scotland partly because they enable us most vividly to realise the peculiar characteristics of Pagan burial, but chiefly because I am unable to illustrate the burial phenomena of the Iron Age Paganism of Celtic Scotland from its own remains. The archæology of Scotland is absolutely destitute of recorded data for this purpose. The uninstructed excavators have some respect for stone and bronze, but old iron is shovelled into oblivion without a moment’s hesitation.