Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
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 [Illustration:
Fig. 209.—Cup made from Vertebra of Whale from Broch of Burray (4½
inches high).] material, a bronze pin with a flat circular head (Fig.
210), and an iron chisel and knife-blade. [Illustration: Fig. 210.—Bone
Button with iron shank, Fragment of Comb and Pins of Bone and Bronze
from Broch of Burray (actual size).] 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 210.—Bone Button with iron shank, Fragment of Comb
and Pins of Bone and Bronze from Broch of Burray (actual size).]
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