Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 187.—Long-handled Comb of Bone, from Broch of
Kettleburn.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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