Lecture V (31st October 1881.) — The Brochs and Their Contents
In 1852 the late Mr. A. H. Rhind of Sibster, the founder of the Rhind Lectureship, made a systematic investigation of an ancient structure at Kettleburn, near Wick, in Caithness. It was a work of great magnitude, employing a number of men for upwards of three months.79 It is easy for us, with more extended knowledge of this class of buildings, to recognise the features of the structure as those of a Broch, although it was not so considered by Mr. Rhind.
The external appearance of the ruin was that of a mound somewhat more than 120 feet in diameter, and 10 feet high. It stood in a cultivated field; the plough had regularly passed over it for a quarter of a century, and a cottage had been built out of one of its sides. Though thus diminished and dilapidated, there remained enough of its structure underneath the surface to show clearly what were its general features.
When fully cleared from the ruin of its upper portion, the lower part of the building showed a circular construction (b b in the accompanying plan, Fig. 185), consisting of a wall 15 feet thick, surrounding a central area of 30 feet diameter. The doorway (e) passing straight through the wall, was flanked by a guard-chamber (t) on either side. Remains of two oblong chambers (r, i) constructed in the thickness of the wall were also found some distance apart. The roofs of all the chambers were gone, but the lintels remained on the passages leading into them. There was a well with steps leading down to it in the central area. It was 9 feet deep, and being covered for the support of a partition wall (p p) which passed over it, was full of good spring water when discovered. The area enclosed within the circular wall of the Broch was subdivided into irregularly-shaped spaces (m, s, o) by walls built across it in various directions, and abutting on the main wall. I shall have more to say of such irregular constructions within and around these towers when we come to deal with them in other cases, which show that they are secondary constructions, built out of and upon the fallen materials of the primary edifice. The area outside the tower for a distance of 25 feet from its external wall was covered by the ruins of similar irregular constructions (c d), and the whole was surrounded at that distance from the central tower by a wall (a) 3 feet thick, of whose height little more than the foundations remained.
The objects found during the excavation of the buildings are preserved in the Museum. They were not very numerous, but they formed the first collection made by the systematic excavation of a Broch, and thus were possessed of inestimable value and interest. In point of fact, the gift of this collection to the National Museum gave a new character to the collection of Scottish antiquities, and a new direction to the science of Scottish Archæology. The Museum had previously been enriched by multitudes of donations of objects illustrating the unwritten history of the country, but they were mostly objects whose associations and relations were matters of inference and speculation. This group of objects, on the other hand, was one of which it could be said—(1) that they were related to each other by their common association with a single inhabited site; (2) that they all had relations with a certain typical form of structure; (3) that very various characteristics of form, material, art, and industry were shown to be thus inter-associated; (4) that the condition and culture of the occupants of the structure are truly disclosed by the study of this group of relics, in so far as the objects of which it is composed are capable of affording such indications; and (5) that the special knowledge thus acquired from the study of a group of relics derived from one structure is also an important contribution to our general knowledge of the class to which it belongs.
The group of objects recovered from the ruins of the Broch consisted—(1) of manufactured articles used in connection with the daily life of the inmates; and (2) of objects not manufactured, which were plainly the refuse of their food.
The manufactured articles included objects fabricated in stone and bone, bronze and iron. The stone objects were principally querns or stones of the old small hand-mills for grinding grain; stone pounders or oblong naturally rounded pebbles of various sizes, having their ends worn down by use; flat circular discs of thin slaty stone, varying from 3 or 4 to 10 or 12 inches diameter, which might have served such purposes as are still occasionally served by similar articles in country dairies and kitchens; oval-shaped boulders of sandstone, having roughly-formed oval or cup-shaped cavities in their upper surfaces, which may have held a dab of tallow, with a wick of tow or moss, and thus served as lamps (Fig. 186); other hollowed cup-shaped or bowl-shaped stones, more regularly formed externally and internally, some of which were furnished with handles, and were therefore obviously domestic dishes; seven stone whorls for the spindle; several whetstones and various other articles of indeterminate purpose.
Among the articles fashioned in bone were pins and bodkins, made out of the long bones of various animals; rounded knobs like buttons, cut out of the outer table of the jaw-bone of the whale, and retaining part of the loop of iron inserted into them; and two long-handled combs (Fig. 187) of the same material, furnished with stout teeth, about an inch in length, at the end of the handle. These peculiar implements are so frequently found in Brochs that no considerable group of Broch relics is without them. They are of great interest; but their purpose has to be inferred from considerations of their form, associations, and marks of use. It is sufficiently obvious from their form, that as long-handled combs they are quite distinct in character from the ordinary double-edged combs for the hair, which are also common in Brochs.
The objects in bronze found in the Broch of Kettleburn were a small bronze pin and a pair of bronze tweezers of large size (Figs. 188, 189), 4½ inches in length by 1¾ inch in breadth, elegantly formed and ornamented in a style that is suggestive of the peculiarly bold and effective ornamentation of the metal-work of the early Celtic period, described in a former Lecture. They are 4¾ inches in length and 1¾ inches in width. Their special purpose is unknown;80 but they are still strong and serviceable for any purpose for which such implements may have been employed. They possess a peculiar interest as being the only pair of tweezers known to have been found in Scotland.
The objects of iron were mostly in such a fragmentary condition and so greatly oxidised that little more could be said of them than that they were portions of implements of iron.
The fragments of pottery were abundant. They were coarse in texture and unglazed. They mostly represented globular vessels with everted rims and bulging sides.
The unmanufactured objects consisted chiefly of bones and shells, which were so abundant that they were evidently the remains of a long accumulation of the refuse of the food of a considerable number of individuals who had neither fared scantily nor without variety. Their diet had included beef and venison, pork and veal, mutton and lamb, fish and shell-fish, with an occasional fowl. The animal remains were determined by Mr. Quekett, who notes that the bones and teeth of a small horse, larger, however, than the Shetland pony, occurred in great numbers; there were also remains of a horse of much greater size. The other animals were red-deer and roe-buck, the ox, sheep of small size, goats, and swine. Many remains of dogs were found, some indicating a variety larger than a pointer, others being smaller. There were also bones of the whale and seal, and some remains of a bird of the size of the heron or swan. The fish-bones were not determined. The shell-fish were principally the periwinkle, the whelk, and the limpet. A few human bones were found intermixed with the relics, but there is no record of their precise associations, and other examples will show that the mounds covering these ruined Brochs were frequently selected as burying-places in subsequent ages. The occurrence of the bones of the dog and the horse, the seal and the whale among the food refuse of a community, does not necessarily imply that the animals were eaten. But there is reason to believe that tastes differed in this respect at different times. The horse was eaten among the northern nations of Europe till within the historic period. The whale appears down to the sixteenth century among the provision made for rich and royal tables in Scottish and English records. The seal was salted with the ashes of burnt seaware, and eaten in the Hebrides in the beginning of the last century. While, therefore, it may be a fair inference from the occurrence of many bones of these animals in the food refuse of this Broch that its occupants used the flesh of such beasts as a common article of diet, it is obviously an equally fair admission that they are no more to be regarded as savages on that account than the people of historic times who were partial to the same kind of food. In point of fact, so far as the evidence goes, there is no reason for attributing to them an exceptionally low condition of culture or civilisation. We have seen that the type of defensive dwelling with which we find them associated is one which possesses remarkable features of constructive merit and originality of design. Their diet was not less varied in kind and quality of nutriment than that of modern times. They possessed iron and bronze, and their manufactured implements show that they were neither destitute of technical skill nor deficient in artistic taste.
The Broch of Kintradwell, three miles north of Brora, excavated by Rev. Dr. J. M. Joass,81 was situated on a natural terrace close to the edge of the declivity which marks the old sea-margin of the east coast of Sutherlandshire. Previous to its excavation it was a rounded grass-covered knoll. Within this mound, formed of the debris of the structure, the basement of the broch was found entire to the height of about 14 feet. The circular wall, 18 feet in thickness, enclosed a central space 31 feet in diameter. The doorway was 7 feet high, with inclined instead of perpendicular sides, so that the width was 3½ feet at the bottom and 3 feet at the top. The entrance passage went straight through the wall, and was provided with checks for two doors, the first at 6 feet within the outer face of the wall, and the second 8 feet farther in. These checks were formed by wall-fast slabs whose edges projected, the wall being also slightly set back at their inner faces, and a corresponding slab on edge projected a few inches above the floor across the passage-way to check the bottom of the door. Between the two doors a guard-chamber opens on the right of the passage. The sill of its doorway is 2 feet above the floor, the opening 4 feet high by 2 feet wide, and the passage into the chamber 4½ feet in length. The guard-room itself is circular in form on the ground-plan, 7 feet in diameter, and 11 feet high, and roofed in the usual way by overlapping stones (Fig. 190). The whole length of the passage leading through the wall into the central area is 18 feet, and the lintels covering it are 8 inches apart. This feature is frequently seen, and as there is often a vacant space which may have formed an apartment over the lintels of the passage, the openings left between them may have had a special purpose in connection with the defence of the doorway. To the left of the main entrance was an oval-shaped chamber 11 feet long and 10 feet high, constructed in the thickness of the wall; and, still farther to the left, were the remains of the staircase, also constructed in the interior of the wall, with an oblong chamber at the stair-foot. Thirteen steps of the stair remained, but the galleries above were gone. In one side of the area was a well 7 feet deep, with steps leading down to a point 3 feet from the bottom. A stone cup (Fig. 191), presumably the common drinking-cup of the establishment, lay near the steps of the well. In its constructive features and arrangements this Broch is similar to all the others that have been described. But it also presents some features which have not hitherto been noticed, because they have either been wanting or only obscurely presented in previous examples. The inner wall of the court or central area was faced by a roughly-built wall about a foot in thickness, rising to a height of about 8 feet, and there terminating and forming a scarcement projecting from the main wall. This inner shell or scarcement, although bonded with the main wall at the door-corners, was not so throughout. It was evidently an addition to the original wall built against its inner face all round, at some time subsequent to the construction of the main wall.82 We shall meet with this feature in other examples, and in circumstances which will clearly demonstrate its secondary character.
Again, on the outside of the tower, to a distance of 60 feet from its base, the ground was covered with the foundations of irregularly-built constructions, with passages and doorways communicating with an access leading up to the main entrance to the tower. These outbuildings were much less massive, much more irregular, and much less carefully constructed than the main building. They were chiefly clustered about the entrance to the tower, and a little to the north-west of the principal group of them was a shallow open cavity lined with flat stones set on edge, and containing the fragments of a human skeleton and an iron dagger-blade. In one of the outbuildings also there were found a human skeleton and an iron spear-head. Portions of eight other human skeletons were found in and about the ruins, mostly at a depth of from 2 to 2½ feet under the turf which covered the mound, but not in such circumstances as would necessarily imply that they belonged to the period of the occupation of the Broch.83
The relics found in this Broch included a variety of manufactured objects in stone and bone, bronze and iron. The stone objects formed a very considerable and striking group. Among them there were upwards of fifty querns or hand-mill stones, and an immense quantity of oblong naturally-shaped stones from 3 or 4 to 15 or 18 inches in length, water-worn originally, but also wasted at the ends by use as hammer-stones or pounders. A number of the largest of these were found set in the ground in rows both inside and outside of the tower. There were also a large number of stone mortars, irregularly-rounded blocks, with wide-mouthed rounded cavities, worn smooth by use. Most of the other stone articles were small. They consisted of the drinking-cup already mentioned (Fig. 121) as a bowl-shaped vessel, neatly made, with a handle at one side; a thin smoothly-polished disc of quartzose sandstone, about 2½ inches diameter, similar to others of mica schist, and other materials that have been found in Brochs and Crannogs, but of undetermined use; a small black whetstone or burnisher, smoothed and polished by use; a small flattish ovoid pebble of quartzite (Fig. 192), having indentations produced apparently by point-sharpening on its opposite sides; a quantity of fragments of rings or bracelets of lignite probably obtained from the Brora beds, and a considerable number of spindle-whorls of various forms and sizes. The bone implements were mostly of the nature of handles made of deer-horn, and spatulæ, which Dr. Joass has suggested may probably have been potter’s tools. No implements or ornaments of bronze were found, but the presence of the metal was determined by the finding of three fragments of well-made crucibles with adhering portions of the melted metal. The iron objects were a spear-head, a dagger-blade, a knife-blade, a socketed chisel, and several fragments of implements of indeterminate character. The only other object of metal discovered was a small and thick ring of lead a little more than an inch in diameter. The fragments of pottery found were for the most part portions of coarsely-made vessels, all unglazed and unornamented. The refuse of the food of the inmates was present in considerable quantity. The land animals represented among these remains were the reindeer, the red-deer, the roe, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the pig, the fox, the wild-cat, and either the wolf or a very large dog. The marine animals were the whale, the grampus, the porpoise, the dog-fish, and the cod and haddock, while the remains of such edible shell-fish as the oyster, the mussel, the cockle, the periwinkle, and the limpet were very abundant.
The Broch of Carn-liath, in Dunrobin Park, also excavated by Rev. Dr. Joass, consisted of a wall 18 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 30 feet in diameter. The doorway was 7 feet high and 3 feet wide. As usual, it goes straight through the wall; and at a distance of 8 feet within the outer face of the wall there are checks for a door, and a guard-chamber opens on the right side of the passage immediately within them. This Broch differs from that last described in having no chambers in the thickness of the wall, and it also presents the unusual feature of having two underground chambers faced with slabs, underneath the level of the central area. The only opening from the court into the thickness of the wall is the entrance to the stair, of which 25 steps remain, but the galleries are gone. Around the outside of the tower are the foundations of irregularly-formed constructions, of which it is now difficult to determine the character with certainty. The objects found in the excavation of this Broch consisted of about a dozen querns, three large stone mortars, a considerable quantity of hammer-stones or pestles, a large number of rings of shale or lignite—many in process of manufacture, two stone cups, scooped out of steatite, and a large ladle-like dish of the same material, a stone sinker rounded, oblong, conical at top and flat at bottom, and the top perforated by a hole for a cord, and another sinker with a longitudinal groove and circular depressions on either side. Of bone objects, there were two long-handled combs, and a piece of whalebone like a club, 14 inches long. Among the objects in metal, the most interesting were two plates of brass, each a little more than ⅙ inch in thickness, the one (Fig. 193) oblong, rectangular, 11 inches in length, and 7½ inches in breadth; the other nearly semicircular, and about 7½ inches in radius. Both were found near the floor of the interior area of the Broch. They are hammer-marked with blows of the pin end of the hammer in lines across the surface. Dr. Joass remarks of them that this perhaps was one of the forms in which the metal was imported into the northern districts of Scotland for home manufacture. That they are brass and not bronze is certified by the analysis made of the one now in the Museum by Dr. Stevenson Macadam. The composition was found to be 82 parts of copper to 16 of zinc, with one part of tin, and a trace of lead. This fact is important, because while the alloy of copper and tin, which constitutes bronze, has been in use from an indefinitely remote prehistoric period, the alloy of copper and zinc, which constitutes brass, is not found earlier than the period of the Roman Empire. A silver fibula of peculiar form was also found in this Broch.84 The form is not Celtic, but belongs to a type which is widely distributed over Central and Southern Europe, and is commonly associated with objects of a late Roman character. The only article in iron found in this Broch was a dirk-like blade greatly corroded. The pottery was abundant, but coarse and fragmentary, and destitute of ornamentation.
In 1866 and 1867 I excavated the Broch of Yarhouse, situated in the south end of the loch of the same name, about six miles south of Wick, in Caithness. The ground plan of the structure is shown in Fig. 194. Its appearance before excavation was that of a conical grass-covered mound, 200 paces in circumference, and 18 to 20 feet high. It stood on a low flat triangular projection of the shore of the loch, and was cut off from the land by a ditch now silted up, and varying from 25 to 30 feet wide. In the upper part of the mound we found portions of two human skeletons, at a depth of from 2½ to 3 feet under the turf; and at different places on the sides of the mound, lower down, the remains of three other skeletons were met with. Near one of those first found was a flat circular brooch of brass (Fig. 195), of about 2½ inches diameter. It was rudely inscribed with letters which appear to be a blundering attempt at the formula ISVS NAZAR [ENVS], a common and popular talismanic inscription on the brooches of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These skeletons were not enclosed in cists, but simply embedded in the earth and stones of the mound. They were not deep enough to have any determinable relation with the structure of the Broch below. They were all incomplete and the bones in disorder, though this might perhaps be accounted for by the movement of the loose material of the slope of the mound in the course of ages. The inference appeared to be that they were casual interments made in the mound long after it had become a grassy knoll. This was also the conclusion to which Dr. Joass came with respect to the burials in the mound at Kintradwell. It is easy to see how such a practice might have arisen in remoter districts, where burial-grounds connected with ecclesiastical sites were distant and roads were few. In point of fact, there is evidence which seems to connect the custom with the later Paganism of these northern parts. Mr. Petrie found a small cemetery of stone cists, containing interments after cremation, overlying the ruined Broch of Okstrow, in Orkney. In this case, the mound which covered the ruins must have been chosen as a place of heathen sepulture because it was a mound. A grave containing two oval bowl-shaped brooches, and therefore belonging to the heathen Viking time, was found in the upper part of a mound covering the ruins of a Broch at Castletown, in Caithness. I found a single burial in a stone-lined grave laid close to the doorway of the Broch of Brounaben, not far from Yarhouse; and burials were found in the mounds covering the ruins of the Brochs of Thrumster and Dunbeath, in Caithness. It is therefore probable that in all such cases the interments that are found immediately below the surface of these mounds belong to a time when the Broch had been so long in ruins that it appeared to those so using it as a natural grassy knoll.
When excavated, the Broch of Yarhouse consisted of a circular wall, 12 to 13 feet thick, enclosing a central area, 30 feet in diameter. The height of the wall remaining was about 15 feet. The doorway which passes straight through the wall is about 6 feet high and 2½ wide, slightly narrower at top than at bottom, and well built with long flat slabs, some of which were 8 feet in length. The opening of the doorway into the interior area and recess above it are shown in Fig. 196. There were no guard-chambers or bar-holes, and the checks for the door were quite on the inner side of the wall. But this Broch stood on what was practically an island, cut off from the land by a ditch 25 to 30 feet wide, and the access to the doorway was carefully protected by the outworks to be subsequently described. Opening from the interior area to the left of the doorway was the entrance to the stair (Fig. 197), which also gave access to an oblong chamber at the stairfoot. The stair itself was 3 feet wide, and 16 steps up there was a landing, with a light hole or window looking into the interior of the Broch. Above the entrance to the stair there were also three windows, placed vertically over each other—all that remained of a vertical range of windows, such as we have seen in the case of Mousa, Dun Carloway, and the Glenelg Brochs. On the side of the area opposite to the doorway was an oblong chamber in the thickness of the wall, roofed in the usual manner by overlapping stones. In this Broch, as at Kintradwell, there was an interior wall, of inferior masonry, built against the main wall, and partially bonded into it at the door openings. This inner wall was 2½ feet thick, and rose to a height of 8 feet, where the wall-head formed a level scarcement all round the interior. Partition walls (shown at B in ground plan, Fig. 194) ran half way across the area from both sides of the doorway, and that on the right of the entrance bent at a right angle towards the Broch wall. These partitions were partly built, and partly formed of long slabs set on end. They rose to about 8 feet—the same height as the scarcement. The partitions and the inner wall forming the scarcement were founded on an accumulation of rubbish largely mixed with ashes and food refuse, which covered the original floor of the Broch to the depth of 12 to 14 inches. They were therefore clearly secondary constructions, made to adapt the Broch to the purposes of a secondary occupation. Outside the Broch wall are two long irregularly-shaped enclosures, and several smaller cells. The outer enclosure (D in plan, Fig. 194) is 100 feet in length, and varies in width from 6 to 20 feet. The length of the inner enclosure (C) is 70 feet, and its width about 12 feet. They have each a little cell, provided with door checks opening off them. In some places their walls remained entire to the height of 10 feet, without showing any sign of overlapping for a roof. Both these large oblong enclosures had irregular rows of long slabs set on end in their floors, as if to divide them into cattle stalls. A long covered way (A) leading to the entrance of the Broch traversed the N.E. end of these enclosures. It varied from about 3 feet wide at the door of the Broch to about 5 feet wide at the outer end, and had checks for doors at four different places in its length. The secondary character of all these exterior constructions was obvious from the fact that underneath their foundations there was a considerable depth of stones overlying the original soil, and mingled with ashes and food refuse. It was also evident that various occupations of the interior of the Broch had taken place from time to time, when the original floor had become covered with rubbish to a considerable depth. Partition walls were met with at three different levels, dividing the internal area on three different plans; the last being a partial partition, utilising only one side of the area, at a time when the original floor had become covered with 8 feet of stones and rubbish. The relics obtained in the course of the excavation were few in number compared with the size and apparent importance of the structure. No querns were found, but about a dozen grain rubbers and stones hollowed like mortars, large numbers of stone pestles, pounders, or hammer-stones, abraded at the ends by use; several whetstones (Figs. 198, 199), a large number of thin circular discs of slaty sandstone, from 2½ inches up to 14 or 15 inches in diameter, many stone balls 2½ to 3 inches diameter, a small rounded pebble of quartz, with a hole through it, a number of spindle-whorls of stone, and one of burnt clay. The objects in metal were a ring of bronze, half an inch in diameter, an armlet of bronze (Fig. 200), made of a wire 1⁄16-inch in diameter, square for half its length, and twisted so that the corners form a spiral pattern, the other half being the plain round wire. A few fragments of iron knives, and some indeterminate objects of small size, greatly corroded, were all the remains of iron implements that were found. The pottery was very abundant, but the fragments were in general small. Some were coarse and thick, others thin and fine; all unglazed, and entirely without ornament, except that some pieces showed a slightly everted lip. The animal remains included those of the reindeer (Figs. 201, 202) and red-deer, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the pig, the dog, and some undetermined birds and fish. Although the site is a long way from the sea, there was a considerable accumulation of the common shore shells, chiefly periwinkles and limpets. The occurrence of the remains of the reindeer among the refuse of the food of the occupants of the Brochs of the North of Scotland is a fact of much interest in various ways. It establishes the correctness of the statement made incidentally in the Orkneyinga Saga,85 when, in recording the movements of Harald and Rognvald, Earls of Orkney, in the year 1158, the writer says that “every summer the Earls were wont to go over to Caithness, and up into the forests to hunt the red deer or the reindeer.” It also shows that in Scotland at least the association of reindeer remains with those of prehistoric man does not of itself or necessarily indicate extreme antiquity.
The Broch of Old Stirkoke, which I watched during its removal by the farmer for drains and top-dressing, was a grass-covered mound 120 paces in circumference, 12 feet high, and nearly 40 feet diameter across its level summit. The wall of the Broch was 13 feet thick and the enclosed area 30 feet diameter. A square drain ran under the floor. The objects casually recovered from the rubbish were a bone bodkin 8 inches long, a polished bone needle 3 inches in length, a thin polished disc of mica schist 2½ inches diameter similar to other objects of the same character (of which the intention is not obvious) found in Brochs and Crannogs, a stone lamp, a few spindle-whorls, two whetstones, hammer-stones, thin circular discs of slaty stone, a fragment of bronze and a portion of the hilt end of an iron sword with a very broad double-edged blade.
The Broch of Bowermadden, also removed by the farmer, had a well in the area with steps leading down to it. It was impossible to obtain with any degree of precision the general dimensions of the structure, but so far as I could ascertain it differed in no feature of importance from the others which have been described. The objects found in it were a number of stone balls similar to those found in the Broch of Yarhouse, a stone mortar, a small oval vessel of red sandstone (Fig. 203), a number of spindle-whorls, and several stone vessels of large size which I did not see. The farmer said that the largest one was 3 feet deep, and that as they were always in his way he smashed them up and saved only a few of the smaller ones to be utilised as hen troughs, etc. A bead of vitreous paste enamelled with a yellow spiral ornament (Fig. 204), a very pretty small comb of bone (Fig. 205), with an open semi-circular handle, and a bronze pin having an open circular head with ribbed ornamentation on the upper part of the circle (Fig. 206), were also found. A few fragments of iron implements occurred, but they were greatly corroded and indeterminable.
The Broch of Dunbeath, situated in the angle formed by the confluence of the Burn of Houstry with the Water of Dunbeath, which was excavated by Mr. Thomson Sinclair, jun., of Dunbeath, had larger and loftier chambers in the thickness of its wall than any of the others. One of these measured 12 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches, and 13 feet high. Among the relics found in this Broch were an iron spear-head 5 inches in length, a whetstone, and some bone implements. A quantity of charred grain, bere, and oats was found on the floor.
These examples will suffice to convey a general idea of the nature and contents of the Brochs of Sutherland and Caithness, and to show how closely they resemble one another alike in the style of their construction, the nature of their arrangements, and the general character of their contained relics. I now proceed to notice briefly a few of those which have been excavated in Shetland and Orkney. They all exhibit the same typical structure, with variations in their details which need not be minutely specified. It is necessary, however, to examine the groups of relics which have been obtained from them in order to complete the general view of the evidence from which we arrive at conclusions as to the nature and quality of the culture and civilisation of their occupants.
The Broch of Levenwick in the parish of Dunrossness, Shetland, excavated by Mr. Gilbert Goudie in 1869 and 1871 (Fig. 207), had an internal diameter of 29½ to 30 feet, the wall varying in thickness from 12 to 16 feet, while the greatest height of wall remaining was 15 feet. It presented the unusual feature of a “scarcement” or secondary wall, about 6 feet high and 6 feet wide, built against the face of the interior wall. From this secondary construction there were five buttress-like projections from 2½ to 4½ feet in length, placed at regular distances from each other, and extending into the enclosed area. At one side of the area opposite the shortest of the projecting walls was a fireplace (d), consisting of three flags placed on edge. The entrance passage (b e f) led straight through the wall of the Broch and through the secondary wall in its interior, widening to the outer part of the secondary wall. There were two of the lintels of the passage remaining, but the outer part of the original entrance way was much dilapidated. On this account perhaps the checks for the door were not visible and there is no appearance of guard-chambers. Contrary to the usual experience also, the stair ascends from an opening to the right of the main entrance in the middle of the east side of the building (at h on the plan), and ascending to a height of 8 or 10 feet, enters a level gallery which apparently went half way round the building to the west side (at m on the plan), where there is another flight of 15 steps remaining. At the point where this second flight of steps starts from the gallery, there is a window opening to the interior area. This arrangement of the stair differs from that of Mousa. At the Broch of Yarhouse in Caithness what remained of the stair was similarly divided into two flights, though the distance between them was less than at Levenwick. The objects found in this Broch were few, consisting of quern-stones, pounders, and roughly-hollowed stones. It is chiefly interesting on account of the variation exhibited in its structural details.
In one of the Brochs in the parish of Harray, in Orkney, excavated by Mr. Farrer, a number of stone lamps, circular discs, and perforated stones were found, and along with them the bronze object here figured (Fig. 208).86
The East Broch of Burray, also explored by Mr. Farrer, yielded a number of stone vessels of various sizes, a lamp of stone, a thin circular disc of mica schist, polished, like those found in the Brochs of Old Stirkoke and Kintradwell, small bead-like objects made of bone, a bone cup made of one of the vertebral joints of a small whale (Fig. 209), a number of bone pins from 1½ to 3½ inches long, four long-handled combs of bone, two broken portions of double-edged combs of the same material, a bronze pin with a flat circular head (Fig. 210), and an iron chisel and knife-blade. Besides the ordinary unglazed pottery of native manufacture there was found in this Broch a fragment of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian. This ware, which is found abundantly on the sites of Roman settlements, as at Inveresk for instance, is always one of the most characteristic indications of Roman influence, and its presence necessarily betokens some degree of contact with the effects of Roman civilisation. In this Broch also a quantity of charred bere or barley lay on the floor, and the most remarkable feature of the collection of food refuse from its rubbish was the presence among the bones of the ordinary domestic animals, of great numbers of the horns of the red-deer, many of which belonged to animals of considerable size. There are now no red-deer in Orkney, but there is no Broch which does not contain their remains abundantly.
At Burwick, near Stromness, in Orkney, a Broch situated on a rugged promontory rising to a considerable height above the sea has been recently explored by Mr. W. G. T. Watt. The external appearance of the ruin previous to its excavation was that of a circular mound about 15 to 20 feet in height occupying the whole width of the promontory and sloping to the crag on both sides. On the landward side, about 50 feet from the exterior margin of the base of the mound, there is a deep and wide ditch across the neck of the promontory isolating the part on which the tower stands from the mainland. The ditch is 160 feet long and about 40 feet wide, and is faced on the inner side by a well-built wall 9 feet high, 6 feet thick at the bottom, and sloping to from 3 to 4 feet at the top. The Broch itself consists of the usual circular wall, averaging from 12 to 13 feet in thickness. No part of the wall now exceeds 16 feet in height. The entrance to the interior area of the Broch is 5 feet 2 inches high, 3 feet 5 inches wide at the bottom and 3 feet 1 inch at the top. The passage through the wall is paved in the bottom and diminishes slightly in width and height until at the distance of 9 feet 9 inches inwards, where there are checks for a door, the opening of the doorway is only 4 feet 6 inches high and 2 feet 11 inches wide. Inside this doorway the passage widens by 12 inches on either side, and on the right side there is a guard-chamber entering by a doorway 3 feet 5 inches high and 2 feet wide, lighted by an opening above the lintel of about 1 foot square. The chamber seems to have been about 12 feet long and has been roofed in the usual manner by overlapping stones. The interior area was occupied by secondary constructions founded at a height of 3 feet above the original floor-level upon a bed of stones and rubbish which had accumulated to that depth upon the original floor previous to the time of this secondary occupation. The area within the Broch wall, which had been originally 24 feet in diameter, was diminished to 16 feet in diameter by a roughly-constructed circular wall or “scarcement” built against the inner wall of the Broch, rising to the height of about 6 feet. Unlike many of these “scarcements,” it presents great inequality in thickness, varying from about 7 feet on one side of the area to about 2½ on the other. The area is further intersected in various directions by several partition walls of the same inferior character of masonry. The space outside the Broch wall, intervening between it and the ditch, is also occupied by secondary constructions, and an underground passage has been traced for about 50 feet towards the ditch.
The articles found during the excavation consisted of a number of stone pounders or hammer-stones, wasted at the ends by use, round flat stone discs of various sizes roughly chipped to shape, broken mortars or vessels of various sizes roughly hollowed in naturally-shaped boulders of sandstone (one being apparently a stone mould for an iron crusie), a considerable number of bone implements of various kinds, among which are several bone pins, one of which (Fig. 211) is flat at the point, has an ornamented head, and has been furnished with a loop for suspension at the side; a polished bone handle in which an instrument, apparently of iron, has been inserted; two spindle-whorls, one of bone and the other of stone; portions of deer-horns cut into slips and pierced by peg-holes; two long-handled combs made of deer-horn, one of which is here figured (Fig. 212); one double-edged comb of bone, and one single-edged comb with round back (Fig. 213), both formed in several pieces, neatly joined and held together by transverse slips of bone fastened with rivets. The only iron object found was a portion of a cylindrical rod. The pottery was coarse, thick, unglazed, and unornamented, except one piece of dark-coloured ware resembling the black ware made in Roman kilns in several parts of England. The animal remains were chiefly those of the ox, the sheep or goat, the horse, the swine, and the red-deer.
The Broch of Okstrow, in Birsay, excavated by Mr. Leask of Boardhouse, yielded a number of the commoner implements of stone, such as hammer-stones and rough circular discs, a well-made cup of sandstone, 3½ inches in diameter (Fig. 214), its cavity still bearing the marks of the pointed tool by which it was fashioned; a thin flat disc of compact slaty stone, 3¼ inches diameter, smoothly polished on both sides, and ground flat on the edges like those from the Brochs of Burray, Old Stirkoke, and Kintradwell; three lamps of sandstone, one of which seems an unskilful imitation of the form of a Roman lamp (Fig. 215); while the others (Fig. 216) are similar to the lamp from Kettleburn. Among the other objects found were two of the long-handled combs of bone, a flat piece of bone resembling a weaver’s rubbing implement for smoothing or calendering the web after it is woven, and several spindle-whorls of stone and bone; a bone ring, 2 inches diameter, perforated with small holes, and a tableman made of an ox tooth. The objects in metal were a bronze pin, 4¾ inches in length (Fig. 217), ornamented with engraved lines, and having a small ring, ¾ inch in diameter, inserted in a loop at the head of the pin; a small penannular brooch of bronze of Celtic form (Fig. 218), with flattened and slightly expanded ends terminating in the semblance of animals’ heads; and a mounting of bronze, 3 inches in length (Fig. 219), chased on the upper surface, and having perforated prolongations, as if for fastening it to some other object. Besides the usual fragments of plain unglazed pottery of native manufacture, there were in this Broch again several pieces of the red lustrous ware commonly called Samian. These pieces indicate two vessels—one a bowl of about 6 inches diameter; the other a shallow straight-sided vessel of considerable size. Both had been broken and mended by the insertion of soft metal clamps in holes drilled close to the sides of the fracture.
The Broch of Lingrow at the head of the Bay of Scapa, near Kirkwall, explored by the late Mr. George Petrie, had little of its height remaining, but was specially remarkable for the number and extent of the outbuildings clustered round its base. These were not all explored, but so far as they were laid bare they are shown on the plan (Fig. 220). The articles found were—a large number of querns, a stone lamp, a number of quartz pebbles indented on their flat sides by use as point-sharpeners (Fig. 221), like those from the Broch of Kintradwell, a large number of implements in red-deer horn, one of which is shown (Fig. 222), bone pins and needles, and long-handled combs, spindle-whorls of stone, some fragments of bronze, a clay mould (Fig. 223) for casting bronze pins with open circular heads bearing the same ornamentation, and precisely of the same form as the pin from Bowermadden (Fig. 203), in Caithness; playing dice of bone, and a very large quantity of pottery ornamented in various patterns, but all unglazed, and of the coarse black paste characteristic of native manufacture. In different parts of the outbuildings there were found four silver Roman coins—denarii of the Empire. Mr. Petrie did not live to draw up a detailed account of the excavation, and his notes do not indicate the reigns to which the coins severally belonged.87 But the occurrence in this Broch of imperial coins, and in others of the red lustrous ware of late Roman or Gallo-Roman origin are indications of the occupation of the Brochs subsequently to the Roman conquest of the southern part of Britain.
The Broch that has yielded the largest and most interesting collection of objects is that of Burrian in the island of North Ronaldsay, excavated by Dr. William Traill of Woodwick, the proprietor of the island. The structure was essentially similar to those that have been previously described. The wall of the tower was 15 feet thick at the base, enclosing an area of 30 feet in diameter. The greatest height of the wall remaining was 10 feet. The doorway was on the south-east side facing the sea. It was 3 feet 3 inches wide at the outer face of the wall, and had checks for a door consisting of two slabs projecting on either side of the passage so as to narrow the aperture to 2 feet 10 inches. Within the door-checks the passage widened to 4 feet 3 inches. There was but one chamber in the thickness of the wall on the north-east side of the tower. It measured 9 feet 9 inches by 5 feet 9 inches on the floor, and was about 5 feet high, the roof having fallen in. The entrance from the interior court to the chamber was 3 feet 3 inches high, and 2 feet 2 inches wide. The objects found in the course of the excavations consisted of a large number of hammer-stones or oblong water-worn pebbles wasted at the ends by use, a number of querns and grain-rubbers, sinkstones, pieces of black vesicular lava, roughly pear-shaped, with holes bored through their smaller ends, and circular discs of thin slaty stone of various sizes. Among the objects made of bone, which were exceptionally numerous, were an implement of bone 5½ inches in length (Fig. 224), made from the radius or wing-bone of a bird by cutting it obliquely across at one end, and grinding the section smooth; ninety pins of bone varying in size from 4¾ inches to somewhat less than 1¼ inch in length, many of which have ornamental heads of the character shown in Fig. 225, while others of larger size are of the forms shown in Fig. 226, a large number are crutch-headed like Fig. 227, while one neatly-made pin with a rounded body (Fig. 228) is cleverly ornamented by its head being carved in the similitude of two horses’ heads looking opposite ways, and another coarsely-made pin without a head (Fig. 229) is marked with transverse scorings. Besides the pins there are three needles of bone with elongated eyes, one broken, the others (Figs. 230, 231) 2¼ and 1¾ inches in length respectively. There are also a number of pegs of bone, roughly finished, varying in length from 3 inches to 1½ inch, and from nearly ¼ inch to about ⅛ inch diameter. These have evidently been used in pegging slips of bone or wood, and several slips of bone, about 3½ inches in length, convex on one side and flat on the other, occur among the relics, two of them having the pegs still in the holes. There are also a large number of shaped pieces of bone and deer-horn which might have served as the handles of small implements—hafts of knives, and suchlike. Among the smaller objects of bone there are several button-like articles, one apparently the half of a square-shaped stud or button of ivory with a small hole for the shank discoloured by oxide of iron, and two others made from short sections of the shank-bone of a sheep. One of these has the iron shank still in the hole. Akin to these in the manner of their formation are several playing dice, manufactured from sheep shank-bones. They are simple sections of the shank-bone 1⅝ inch in length, with one or more of the sides rubbed smooth and marked with the customary numbers in the shape of dots and circles. The one here figured (Fig. 232) is ground smooth on one side, on which there are six points; on the convexity of the bone there are five points; on the naturally flattened side of the bone (which is broken) there are no markings to be seen at the ends, but the centre portion shows one marking. The second example has only one side of the bone remaining, which shows four points. The surface of the bone has scaled off the third example, and obliterated the numbers.88 Among the miscellaneous articles of bone to which no definite use can be assigned, although they are obviously tools or implements intended for special purposes, there is one (Fig. 233), strongly made of a roughly cut bone, having a rounded point with two grooves cut in it so as to have prominent parallel ridges between and on either side of them. Among the objects of personal use are sixteen combs, most of them more or less broken, but several still in a fair state of preservation. One is round-backed and single-edged (Fig. 234), measuring 3 inches by 2 inches, the back pierced with three triplets of small holes, and ornamented with a profusion of dots and circle markings. It is formed of five thin slips of bone laid together lengthwise, and held in their places by two slips laid transversely across them on opposite sides, and fastened by four iron rivets. The teeth of the comb have been very regularly cut by a fine saw, and the saw-marks on the under edges of the transverse slips show that the cutting of the teeth was performed after the pieces of the comb were fastened together. The rest of the combs are all double-edged. One measuring 2¾ inches by 2 inches (Fig. 235), is formed of four slips of bone inserted between two transverse slips, and held together by three rivets of iron. The transverse slips are ornamented by a single line incised along each border, and by four sets of two concentric circles with central dots ranged at equal distances along the centre of the slips. The teeth are widely but regularly cut, narrowing towards the points, and those towards the sides of the comb shorter than those in the middle. Another comb of the same character (Fig. 236) measures 5½ inches in length, by 2 inches in breadth. This is the largest comb obtained from a Broch. It is formed of six slips of bone enclosed between two transverse slips fastened by five rivets of iron. Above and below each rivet is an ornamented dot and circle marking. A similar marking is placed in the centre of each of the broad terminal teeth at either end of the comb. The transverse slips are much marked by the saw. The teeth are well cut and regular in length and thickness; they show strongly the marks of wear by use, chiefly towards their bases, where minute transverse lines are worn deeply into the corners of the teeth, almost completely encircling them. Besides these combs for the hair, there were found no fewer than eighteen of the long-handled combs, which are of such frequent occurrence among the relics recovered from Brochs. That shown in Fig. 233 appears to be of deerhorn, but they are mostly made from portions of the outer table of the jaw-bone of the whale. They vary in length from 3 inches to 5½ inches. They also vary considerably in the size and form of the teeth, some, like Fig. 238, having teeth that are short and pointed, and rounded in section, while the teeth of others, like those in Fig. 239, are longer, less pointed, and more rectangular in section. It has been already stated that sixteen combs of the ordinary single and double-edged forms which are characteristic of the comb used for the hair were found in this Broch. It is therefore probable that these eighteen long-handled combs were intended for some other purpose. They are not only unfitted by their clumsiness for this special and personal use, but the strength of the teeth, their coarseness, and the manner in which they are marked by the use to which they have been put are suggestive of implements for some manufacturing process rather than objects of the toilet. Another circumstance of their association is of some importance in the inquiry as to the nature of their special purpose. There is only one other implement which occurs with equal frequency in collections made from Brochs. In this same Broch, which yielded sixteen combs for the hair and eighteen of the long-handled implements, there were upwards of thirty spindle-whorls for spinning with the distaff and spindle. As this implies the existence of a very considerable manufacture of thread, and as the presence of the industry of weaving is also suggested by the occurrence of a number of smoothing or calendering implements of bone (Fig. 240), which had seen much service, it is probable that these eighteen long-handled implements may have had some connection with the process of making cloth from the thread spun by the spindle-whorls. The evidence as to the special use of the implement is derived (1) from the specialty of its form—it is long-handled; and (2) from the marks of wear upon its teeth, which are more distinct towards the apices of the teeth than towards their bases. These marks are such as would result from combing fibres in the preparation of lint or even of wool for spinning; but for this use the implement is not well suited by its form, and the marks on the teeth are often such deeply-cut transverse lines, as would rather imply the contact and friction of threads. And it is the fact that a comb of this special form, long-handled, and having a few stout teeth on the end of the handle, was used in the operation of weaving when the warp was fixed upright, as it always was in the older form of loom. The purpose for which the comb was used was the driving of the weft home as each successive thread was passed through the upright sheds of the warp by the shuttle. Such weaving-combs were used by the Egyptians,89 the Greeks, and the Romans,90 and they continued in use throughout Europe even in late mediæval times. In some varieties of carpet-weaving, in which alone the upright mode of working is now retained, the weft is driven home by a similar instrument made of iron. The Hindoo weaver of the present day retains the form of the implement used by his remote ancestors, although the materials of which it is made are now wood and iron. One such implement (Fig. 241) is in the National Museum. Although its teeth are of iron, a close examination suffices to show the marks of use, and in the iron comb as well as in those of bone, it is towards the apices and not towards the bases of the teeth that the transverse striations appear.91
The collection of relics from this Broch contains a greater number of objects than has been found in any other, and it is also remarkable as presenting some varieties of objects which have not been found in any other. These are—(1) an oblong pebble of sandstone (Fig. 242), with an incised figure on each of its flatter sides resembling the talismanic device of the Middle Ages known as Solomon’s seal; (2) the metatarsal bone of a small ox, bearing on one side the peculiar symbol of the sculptured monuments resembling a crescent, crossed by a V-shaped rod or sceptre (as shown in Fig. 243); (3) a small iron bell; and (4) a slab of sandstone with a cross of Celtic form, a fish, and an Ogham inscription. The bell and the monumental slab have been already described, and need not be further alluded to.92 The stone with the geometric figure of Solomon’s seal lay within a cist-like construction half filled with red ashes, which was in a paved floor that overlay the original floor, and was separated from it by a layer of from 1 to 2 feet of ashes and rubbish. The cross-bearing slab was found at a point near the side of the Broch, where the wall was so low that though the slab lay not much above the floor of the tower it was also not far below the surface of the mound. It cannot therefore be said of any of these objects that they were certainly associated with the earlier occupation of the Broch, and as they differ in character from all the objects usually found in such structures, their exceptional occurrence here can have no bearing on the discussion of the general questions of the character and relations of the group of relics usually found in Brochs.
That character and these relations are now distinctly established. The general character of the relics obtained by the systematic excavation of these northern Brochs is not that of a primitive group, but of a group which is the product of an advanced stage of culture, civilisation, and social organisation. The inference deducible from the character of the relics is the same as that which has been deduced from the type of the structure, and when the whole of the facts are thus marshalled and their significance is calmly considered, it becomes plain that there is even less ground for ascribing a low condition of culture, of civilisation, or of social organisation to the people who constructed and occupied these massive towers, than there is for ascribing such a condition to the builders of the beehive huts and dry-built churches of Christian times. Reviewing the various aspects of the life of the occupants of Brochs, as these have been successively disclosed, we see them planting their defensive habitations thickly over the area of the best arable land, fringing the coasts, and studding the straths with a form of structure perfectly unique in character and conception, and for purposes of defence and passive resistance as admirably devised as anything yet invented. We see that this system of gigantic and laboriously constructed strongholds has been devised and universally adopted with the plain intention of providing for the security of the tillers and the produce of the soil. We find their occupants cultivating grain, keeping flocks and herds, and hunting the forests and fishing the sea for their sustenance. We find them practising arts and industries implying intelligence and technical skill, and apparently also involving commercial relations with distant sources of the raw materials. The probability is that they manufactured all the weapons and implements they used, and we find them using swords, spears, knives, axes, and chisels of iron, and pincers, rings, bracelets, pins, and other articles of bronze or brass. We know that they made their own ornaments in these metals, because the clay moulds, the crucibles, and the cakes of rough metal have been found in different Brochs. Gold has not been found in any well-authenticated instance, but silver and lead are not wanting. They utilised the bones and horns of animals in the fabrication of such things as pins, needles, and bodkins, buttons, combs, spindle-whorls, and various other implements, ornaments, and furnishings of everyday life and industry. They also used stone when it suited their purpose. They made beads and bracelets of jet or lignite, and they had other beads of variously-coloured vitreous pastes, enamelled on the surface with spiral lines and other devices. They also made beads and discs of highly-polished stone, such as serpentine, marble, and mica schist, with imbedded garnets. From the commoner varieties of stone they made millstones or querns, mortars, pestles, pounders and hammer-stones, whetstones and point-sharpeners, bowls, cups with and without handles, lamps, and culinary vessels of various kinds, net-weights, sinkers, and spindle-whorls. They made pottery, plain and ornamented of various, kinds, chiefly round-bottomed globular vessels with bulging sides and everted rims. The women practised the arts of spinning and weaving, and probably also made the pottery and ground the grain, while the men made the weapons and tools of metal, and the ornaments and implements of bone and stone, did the hunting and fishing, and the warfare when needful, and erected the great structures which made the industrious quietude of domestic life possible to them.
That the people thus occupying these peculiar strongholds were the people of the soil, and not strangers effecting a lodgement in a hostile territory, is obviously suggested both by the character and relations of the typical structure, and by the character and relations of the relics of their domestic life. It has been demonstrated in the previous Lecture that while the typical structure, taken in the totality of its characteristics, stands absolutely alone and quite apart from all other types of construction, ancient or modern, its essential features are those which are characteristic of early Celtic constructions. It is circular, it is dry-built, its doorways have inclined instead of perpendicular sides, the roofs of its chambers are formed of beehive vaulting of overlapping stones, and its galleries are comparable to a series of earth-houses placed one over the other. It has now been shown that the relics of the life of the occupants of the Brochs constitute a group of objects differing widely from those which characterise the Scandinavian occupancy of the north and west of Scotland. No group of objects in its general facies, entirely comparable to the group which is characteristic of the Brochs, exists on the continent of Europe or anywhere out of Scotland. But when the typical forms of the Broch group of relics are compared with those of other groups existing in Scotland, it becomes at once apparent that they are forms which are characteristic of the Celtic area and of post-Roman times. This unique series of objects from a unique type of structure illustrates a peculiar phase of the early Celtic or Iron Age culture and civilisation of our country which until recently was absolutely unknown. And as we find the investigation on which we have embarked continuously disclosing series after series of similarly unique types, it becomes increasingly apparent that its final result can be nothing less than the establishment of the fact that Scotland has an archæology—in other words, that the unwritten story of her early systems of culture and civilisation is dispersed among the disjecta membra of her scattered remains, and is only to be disclosed by the systematic collection and study of all existing materials illustrative of her native industry and native art, with their associated indications of social organisation and potential culture.