Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
The general character of the group of relics obtained from these
structures is that of the Iron Age, with indications of a period
subsequent to the Roman conquest. The same character and the same
indications are presented by the group of relics obtained from the
Crannogs of Ayrshire, which have been so carefully investigated by Dr.
Munro.[96] The Lochlee Crannog, near Tarbolton, yielded a very large
collection of objects in the various materials of stone, bone, wood,
bronze or brass, iron, glass, and jet or cannel coal. But with the
single exception of a polished stone celt, the types of the Stone and
Bronze Ages are entirely absent from the group. The same thing is true
of the collections obtained from the Crannog at Lochspouts near Maybole,
and the Buston Crannog near Kilmaurs. But in these Crannog collections
there are certain groups of objects which are closely akin to those
found in Brochs. These are the hammer-stones, oblong water-worn pebbles
wasted at the ends by use, spindle-whorls and querns, the round polished
discs of stone, the peculiarly-shaped bone pins, needles, and borers,
the double-edged bone combs, the deer-horn implements, the bronze
brooches, rings, and pins, and the spiral finger-rings. There are also
certain objects in these collections which present features of form and
ornamentation clearly of the early Celtic types, such as a bridle-bit
from Lochlee (of the same form as that shown in Fig. 101), a block of
ash-wood from the same Crannog with Celtic patterns cut in both sides,
and a bronze mounting from Lochspouts, which is characteristically
Celtic in style. On the other hand, there are certain objects which,
like the harp-shaped fibulæ and the lustrous red ware (commonly called
Samian), are indicative of post-Roman times. The bulk of the relics from
the Crannogs being thus of Iron Age types with indications of post-Roman
time, and with a striking general affinity to the group of relics
obtained from the Brochs, the place of these lake-Dwellings in the
general series may be considered as sufficiently established.[97]
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Footnote 96:
Since these Lectures were delivered an exhaustive treatise on _The
Lake-Dwellings of Scotland_, by Dr. Robert Munro, of Kilmarnock, has
been issued. In this copiously illustrated work Dr. Munro has
described the Crannogs in Ayrshire recently excavated under his
personal superintendence, and systematised the whole subject in a
manner that leaves nothing to be desired.
Footnote 97:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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