Part 19

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 [Illustration: Fig. 211.—Polished Bone Pin from Broch of Burwick. (Actual size.)] 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, [Illustration: Fig. 213.—Round-backed, single-edged Comb from Broch of Burwick.] 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 [Illustration: Fig. 214.—Cap of Sandstone from Broch of Okstrow (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. 216 216 ) are similar to the lamp from Kettleburn. [Illustration: Figs. 215, 216.—Lamps from the Broch of Okstrow.] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 217.—Bronze Pin from Broch of Okstrow (4¾ inches in length).] The objects in metal were a bronze pin, 4¾ inches in length (Fig. 217), ornamented with [Illustration: Fig. 218.—Penannular Brooch of Bronze from Broch of Okstrow (1½ inch in diameter).] 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 [Illustration: Fig. 221.—Pebble of Quartzite marked by use as a point-sharpener, from Broch of Lingrow (2½ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 222.—Implement of Deer-horn from Broch of Lingrow (4¼ inches in length).] 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.

Footnote 87:

I am indebted to Mr. James W. Cursiter, Kirkwall, for the extracts from the _Orcadian_ newspaper in which the finding of these coins was recorded. A denarius of the reign of Antoninus (Pius ?), is noted in the issue of Nov. 26, 1870. On Dec. 10, one of Antoninus, and one of Vespasian, having a sow on the reverse. On Jan. 21, 1871, one of Hadrian, with Clementina on the reverse, and a female figure holding a paterá in the extended right hand, and a spear in the left. A jotting by Mr. Petrie on the rough plan of the Broch also mentions “two coins of Crispina and bone dice found here.”

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. [Illustration: Fig. 224.—Bone Implement from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 225.—Bone Pins, with ornamental heads, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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 [Illustration: Fig. 226.—Bone Pins from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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. 229 229 ) is marked with transverse scorings. [Illustration: Fig. 227.—Crutch-headed Bone Pin from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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. [Illustration: Figs. 228, 229.—Bone Pin with ornamental head, and pin with transverse markings, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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. [Illustration: Figs. 230, 231.—Bone Needles from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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 [Illustration: Fig. 232.—One of a set of Dice made from a sheep shank-bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 233.—Tool of Bone found in the Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 234.—Round-backed Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian (half actual size).] [Illustration: Fig. 235.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian (half actual size).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 236.—Double-edged Comb of Bone from Broch of Burrian (5½ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 237.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian, Orkney (4¾ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 238.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4¼ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 239.—Long-handled Comb from the Broch of Burrian (4 inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 240.—One of a number of Smoothing Implements of Bone from the Broch of Burrian (6½ inches in length).] 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. [Illustration: Fig. 241.—Weaving-comb of Wood and Iron used in India (13 inches in length).] One such implement (Fig. 241 241 ) 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]

Footnote 88:

Dice of this form have not been otherwise found in Scotland. They are occasionally found in Viking graves in Norway.

Footnote 89:

An Egyptian weaving-comb of wood from the tombs at Thebes is in the Museum. Its teeth are differently formed, but the principle of its use is evidently the same. Rich figures a long-handled weaving-comb from a tomb in Thebes, which is now in the British Museum.

Footnote 90:

Ovid (_Met._ vi. 55) gives a minute description of the process of weaving as follows—