Part 17

In the previous course of Lectures it was shown that as a nation we are the possessors of the remains of a school of art exemplified in a series of monumental types which are so truly unique that no other nation possesses a single example. It has now been demonstrated that we are also the possessors of the remains of a school of architecture which is as truly unique and even more pronounced in its features of absolute individuality. I do not claim for it any higher merit than that it has designed a typical form of structure possessed of almost perfect fitness for the purposes for which it was intended. It has no special beauty of form, nor is there evident in any of its parts the least attempt at ornamentation or decorative construction. But, judged by its proper standard—the measure of its fitness for its special purpose—its peculiar characteristics fulfil the most exacting requirements of architectural criticism. The fact that this peculiar type of structure exists only in one area must necessarily have some significance in relation to the history of architecture; but the fact that their remains may still be counted by hundreds must also have great significance in relation to the unwritten history of Scotland, for it is obvious that the presence within its area of this vast series of massive structures, so closely alike in their general features, and so admirably contrived in their special arrangements, implies a wide-spread concentration of thought and energy towards a common object which is found only in communities that have attained to a comparatively high condition of general culture and social organisation.

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.

Footnote 79:

An account of the excavation, with plans and drawings, was given by Mr. Rhind in the _Archæological Journal_, vol. x. p. 212; and also in the first volume of the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 265.

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, [Illustration: Fig. 186.—Lamp of Sandstone from Broch of Kettleburn.] 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.

Footnote 80:

Bronze tweezers are not uncommon accompaniments of female interments of the Bronze Age in Denmark, and it has been suggested that they were used as sewing implements when the material to be sewed was skin and the thread a thong. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that small awls of bronze are occasionally found with them, and it is obvious that the end of a thong hardened in the fire, and pushed partially through the holes bored by an awl, could be readily seized by such a pair of tweezers and so dragged tight. But the tweezers found in the Kettleburn Broch do not belong to the Bronze Age. Their ornamentation is that of the Iron Age, and they were found in association with objects of iron.

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.

Footnote 81:

See a paper by Rev. Dr. J. M. Joass, in _Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v. p. 95, entitled “The Brochs of Cinn Trolla, Cairn Liath, and Craig Carril, in Sutherland,” etc., with plans and drawings.

Footnote 82:

"As to the scarcement or facing wall, about 1 foot thick and 8 feet high, of such frequent occurrence in the Brochs, it has been suggested that it may have formed the resting-ledge for a conical wooden roof covering the (lower part of the) central area. Others have supposed that it formed the support of a narrow roof, sloping downwards like that of a shed or series of lean-to booths surrounding the wall. It may be noted that it seems rarely of such massive structure as the wall proper with which it appears to be bonded only at the door-corners. This, with the fact that it was found covering what was almost certainly an original doorway to a wall-chamber at Clickamin, suggests the possibility of the scarcement being sometimes, if not generally, a secondary structure."—Rev. J. M. Joass, LL.D., in _Archæologia Scotica_, vol. v. p. 112.

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]

Footnote 83:

It is rather suggested by the frequency with which such remains have been met with in other cases, that burials were occasionally made in these mounds long after they had become grass-grown hillocks.

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.