Part 20

“Tela jugo vincta est; stamen secernit arundo Inseritur medium radiis subtemen acutis Quod digiti expediunt, atque inter stamina ductum Percusso feriunt insecti pectine dentes.”

Also (_Fasti_, iii. 820) he says that Pallas was the inventress of weaving, and adds—

“Illa etiam stantes radio percurrere telas Erudit; et rarum pectine denset opus.”

Juvenal (_Sat._ ix. 30) makes Nævolus complain that he gets cloth from a Gaulish weaver greasy and badly woven—“Et male percussas textoris pectine Galli;” while Virgil (_Æn._ vii. 14) represents Circe as—

“Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas;”

and again in the _Georgicon_ says—

“Interea longum cantu solata laborem Arguto conjunx percurrit pectine telas.”

These descriptions specify the precise operations necessary for closing or driving home the weft, if the instrument employed were a comb held in the weaver’s hand. Alexander Neckham, in his work _De Naturis Rerum_ (written in the twelfth century, and recently printed in the series of Chronicles by the Master of the Rolls), has a chapter (cap. clxxi., De Textore) on weaving, in which, after describing the insertion of the weft by means of the shuttle, he says—

“Inde textrix telam stantem percurret pectine,”

thus using the same words to describe the same operation.

Footnote 91:

Dr. Malcolm Monro Mackenzie, Civil Surgeon, Dharwar, Bombay, states that in the jails in Bombay, where the work of the convicts is chiefly weaving, the implement used for beating in the weft is a hand-comb generally of wood, with iron teeth like that represented above in Fig. 241 241 . The late Mr. Whytock, carpet manufacturer, when applied to for information as to the nature of the implement used in carpet-weaving, stated that “In the manufacture of the Persian or Axminster carpet, made in one piece and worked in an upright loom, the instrument used for beating down the weft or pile was about 4 inches broad, with iron teeth resembling those of a horse-comb, fastened into a short handle.” He was kind enough to supply a sketch from memory of the instrument as formerly used in the factory at Lasswade. The sketch showed an implement in shape somewhat like the short flat hand-brush used by painters in whitewashing, or a good deal like the Indian loom comb (figured above), only a little broader in proportion to its length. The nature and use of these long-handled combs formed the subject of two papers in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ix. pp. 118, 548.

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. [Illustration: Fig. 243.—Metatarsal Bone of Ox (front and back views), with incised symbols, from Broch of Burrian (actual size).] 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.

Footnote 92:

_Scotland in Early Christian Times; The Rhind Lectures_ for 1879, p. 175; and Second Series for 1880, p. 211.

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.

LECTURE VI. (NOVEMBER 2, 1881.) LAKE-DWELLINGS, HILL-FORTS, AND EARTH-HOUSES.

A Broch like that of Clickamin (see the Frontispiece), situated upon an island in a loch, accessible by a causeway from the island to the shore is practically a lake-dwelling. But there are many defensive structures occupying similar positions which are not Brochs, although they are often constructed of stone. Most of them are now in such a ruinous condition that it is impossible to say what may have been the precise nature of their form and architectural construction.

In the Loch of Hogsetter, in the island of Whalsay, in Shetland, there is a small island containing a defensive structure of dry-built masonry (Fig. 244) which is plainly not a Broch.[93] The structure occupies the greater part of the available surface of the island, and its form has evidently been determined by the form of the island. It consists of a dry-built wall of stones with a minimum thickness of 3 to 4 feet, enclosing an oblong oval of about 70 feet by 75 feet. A causeway, 33 yards in length, has been constructed to give access to the island from the shore, and on the side next the causeway the enclosing wall is amplified so as to admit of the construction of a doorway, flanked on each side by a chamber, as seen in the detached work protecting the entrance to the island of Clickamin. This part of the construction is solidly built, and the chambers, which are placed to right and left of the entrance passage, occupy the interior of a somewhat rectangular expansion of the wall, measuring about 20 feet by 12 feet, and now only about 8 feet high. When Low visited Whalsay in 1774, this part of the construction was 15 feet high, and the chambers and their entrances were quite entire. They were beehive roofed, the entrances going straight through the back wall from the enclosed area. The main entrance, which was 2½ feet wide and 4½ feet high, was covered by the masonry which joined the two sides of the construction over its lintels, and at about two-thirds of its length inwards there were checks for a door and the usual bar-holes on either side. Dr. Mitchell states that above the two lower chambers there appear to have been other two forming a second tier, but as Low did not observe them, and no trace of a stair or other access to the upper level now remains, it seems possible that they may have been chambers of construction, or merely vacancies left to lighten the weight on the roofs of the chambers below. Apart from the peculiarity of its chambers, which are unlike the guard-chambers of the Brochs in having their entrances opening to the enclosed space and not directly opening into the passage, this structure has more affinities with the stone cashels than with the Brochs. Like them it adapts its form to the space in which it is situated, and like them it consists of a simple rampart with cells in the thickness of the wall. The wall is low, and of no great strength, and like the wall of a cashel is merely meant to add to the defensibility of a naturally defensive position. The special peculiarities of this defensive construction are, that it is a dry-built structure which is not a Broch but a cashel, and that it is situated on an island in a loch and rendered accessible by a causeway. The island is of natural formation, and has been thus utilised, because of its suitability for defensive purposes.

Footnote 93:

Described in Low’s _Tour in Orkney and Shetland_, 1774 (Kirkwall, 1879), p. 177; and by Dr. Arthur Mitchell in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. xv. p. 304.

Such instances of the adaptation of natural islands in lochs as places of strength by constructing defensive buildings of stone upon them are not uncommon, although it rarely happens that the form and characteristics of the buildings themselves are so clearly traceable. But there is another variety of defensive construction which is more frequently found in similar positions. It possesses the additional peculiarity of being either wholly or partially constructed of wood.

The Lake-Dwellings in Scotland, which are either wholly or partially constructed of wood, and which on that account are known as Crannogs, are very numerous, but so few of them have yet been systematically explored that it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty the special characteristics of their typical form and structural arrangements. Indeed, it is questionable whether this knowledge may be in any measure attainable by investigation of their existing remains. Constructed of perishable material, which, as long as it survived the ravages of time, was capable of being adapted to many and various purposes of general utility, the parts of the Crannogs that stood above the water were almost certain to be gradually destroyed. But whatever may have been the special form of the superstructure of the Lake-Dwelling when it was built of timber instead of stone, the typical Crannog, taken as a whole, differs from the stone-built strengths that are placed in lakes not only in the substitution of timber in place of stone as the material of its construction, but also in being constructed usually on an island that is itself an artificial construction. The Crannog is therefore a Lake-Dwelling, actually built up from the lake-bottom. Of the structure which stood above the water, and gave shelter and habitable houseroom to the inmates, there is usually no trace whatever. Occasionally the remains of a pavement of timber or of flagstones, or the site of a hearth with its accumulations of ashes and food refuse marks the level of the floor, and sometimes a succession of such indications at different levels may betoken successive occupations. But the story of the Crannog as told by the casual relics imbedded in and around its submerged foundations is clearly intelligible, although it reveals nothing of the precise form and arrangements of the habitable part of the structure.

In the Loch of Dowalton, situated in the centre of the peninsula, bounded on the west by the Bay of Luce, and on the east by the Bay of Wigton, in Wigtonshire, a group of Crannogs was investigated by Earl Percy (then Lord Lovaine) in 1863, and subsequently examined by Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, and the late Dr. John Stuart, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. One of these, situated on the south side of the loch and near the west end, presented the appearance of a mass of stones and soil surrounded by numerous rows of piles formed of young oak-trees. On the north-east side of the island a number of beams of oak mortised together like hurdles were visible, and below them layers of round logs laid horizontally. A few vertical piles were observed, which, in some cases, had cross-beams mortised into them. Below the layers of logs were masses of brushwood and fern. The only sign of occupation noticed was the site of a hearth, with an accumulation of ashes, burnt wood, and bones of animals. In the adjacent refuse-heap a small fragment of bronze was discovered, and close by the island a bronze basin was found. Near the eastern margin of the loch was a group of three Crannogs. The largest of these was about 23 yards in diameter. It was surrounded by many rows of piles, some of which had their ends cut square across with a hatchet. The surface of the Crannog was covered with stones resting on a mass of brushwood, fern, and heather, intermingled with stones and earth. The whole mass was penetrated and kept together by piles driven through it into the bottom of the loch. On the south side were the remains of a massive construction of planks of roughly-squared oak, 5 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 inches thick, laid side by side in layers crossing each other transversely, and pinned together. The general framework of this platform-like structure was of massive beams mortised together, the mortises measuring about 10 inches by 8 inches. On the north-east side, and underneath part of the timber construction, a canoe was found, 21 feet in length and 3 feet 10 inches wide at the stern. The canoe was of oak, hollowed out of a single tree, and the stern was closed by a board sliding in a groove cut in both sides, and secured by a thicker piece 3 inches in height pegged down over it. A washboard projecting slightly over the edge and pegged into the upper margin of the canoe, ran all round the sides. [Illustration: Fig. 245.—Portion of a Shoe of stamped leather (length, 7 inches).] There were two thole-pins inserted in square holes on each side, and one of the thwarts remained in position. A portion of a shoe formed of stamped leather (Fig. 245) was discovered among the mass of material thrown out in excavating the canoe. One hearth was discovered. It was simply a paved space, showing marks of fire and an accumulation of ashes and food refuse. The bones were those of the common domestic animals, the ox, the pig, and sheep. Among the relies found on the Crannog were a bronze penannular brooch with knobbed ends, the knobs somewhat quadrangular in form, two iron hammers, and four whetstones.

Another Crannog, nearly circular, and 13 yards in diameter, lay a little to the southward. Its construction was in every respect similar to that last described, and it was surrounded by an immense number of piles, extending in rows for 20 yards outside the circumference of a solid construction of brushwood and logs, covered by earth and stones. One canoe was found on its margin, 24 feet long and 4 feet 2 inches wide in the middle; and another was found between it and the shore of the loch, 18½ feet long and 2 feet 7 inches wide. Among the refuse of the occupancy of the Crannog, consisting chiefly of bones of domestic animals, were found a broken bead of glass, and portions of two armlets of glass, one ornamented with a yellow streak and the other with streaks of blue and white.

Between this Crannog and the shore a bronze saucepan (Fig. 246), of the form usually associated with remains of the Roman period,[94] was found in the mud of the loch. It is an elegant and well-finished vessel of bronze, tinned inside, and measuring 8 inches in diameter across the mouth and 5½ inches deep. The flattened handle springing from the upper edge is 7 inches in length. The bottom of the vessel is furnished exteriorly with five projecting concentric rings. In front, opposite to the handle, is an ornamental ring, swung by a loop projecting from beneath the upper margin of the rim, and encircling a well-modelled figure of a human face in relief. On the handle is the stamp of the maker, CIPI POLIBI F.[95]

Footnote 94:

This special form of saucepan with curved sides and flat bottom, concentrically moulded on the outside, is found in most collections of antiquities obtained from sites of Roman occupation. In the Museo Borbonico, at Naples, there are about 200 examples, mostly of this type.

Footnote 95:

His full designation apparently was Publius Cipius Polibus. His saucepans are widely distributed. Two found in a nest of five dug up at Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, bore his stamp, the one having P·CIPI·POLIB, and the other P·CIPI·POLVIBI. In the Museum at Zurich there is a handle of a saucepan with the stamp CIPI·POLIBI, and one found in Lower Saxony has P·CIPI·POLIBI.

About 60 yards from this last Crannog was a smaller one, presenting no essential points of difference, and nearer the south-east shore of the loch was a group of six, still smaller and less distinct in outline, but all apparently similar in construction.