Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
The other objects found in association with these Crannogs or in the
loch-bottom in their immediate neighbourhood, were a number of beads of
variegated glass or vitreous paste, one of which (Fig. 247) has a lining
of bronze in the perforation; one amber bead; a small bronze ring; a
clay crucible; several whetstones; five querns; a bronze dish (Fig.
248), about 12 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, hammered out of the
solid, and having a flat rim 1 inch in breadth, turned over, and
slightly bent downwards; another dish similarly made, but without the
flattened rim, 12 inches diameter and 4 inches deep; and a third (Fig.
249) of thinner metal, flat-bottomed with sloping sides, 10 inches
diameter and 4 inches deep, the bottom and sides patched in several
places by pieces fastened on with flat-headed double-toed rivets exactly
like the modern paper-fasteners; a large bronze ring attached to the
upper part of a caldron of thin bronze; a portion of a tube of cast
bronze of unknown use; a wooden paddle; and a number of fragments of
articles of iron complete the list.
[Illustration: Fig. 248.—Bronze Basin found in the Loch of Dowalton
(height, 3 inches).]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.—Basin of thin bronze found in the Loch of
Dowalton (height, 4 inches).]
In the Black Loch, in the parish of Inch, Wigtonshire, an island
explored in 1872 by Mr. C. E. Dalrymple was found to have been a Crannog
formed upon a shoal in the lake. In the centre of the island there was a
circular mound, 45 feet in diameter, and rising to about 5 feet above
the level of the loch and 3½ feet above the general surface of the
island. At a depth of about 5 feet in the centre of the mound there was
a flooring of trunks of trees, chiefly oak and alder, crossing each
other at right angles. This log flooring covered a circular space of
about 50 feet in diameter. At different levels above it and over the
whole of its area there were found many fireplaces or hearths, formed of
two long narrow slabs set on edge and parallel to each other with a
paved space between, and filled and surrounded by ashes and bones of
animals broken and split. In one of these accumulations of ashes and
food refuse there were found a fragment of bronze and a portion of an
iron knife; and in another a broken armlet of glass. A broken
double-edged bone comb, ornamented with dots and circles, and a portion
of a stone disc with a bevelled edge, were also found. The island seemed
to have been surrounded with piles, and a small canoe, dug out of a
single tree, was discovered in the loch, near the narrow channel which
separates the island from the shore.
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