Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
The articles found in the underground chambers were few in number. They
consisted of some fragments of pottery, coarse, but wheel-made, pale
yellow in colour, and differing in texture and manufacture from the
usual handmade pottery of native origin found in many of the other
structures of the same class. It closely resembles some varieties of
pottery that are constantly found in the vicinity of Roman stations in
Scotland. A bronze needle and a portion of a quern were the only other
objects found. But that the place had been long occupied was
sufficiently apparent from the quantity of ashes mixed with calcined and
broken bones of the common domestic animals which it contained.
In this case we have distinct evidence of an underground chamber
associated with an overground habitation of less permanent structure, of
which time and cultivation had removed all traces except the circular
paved floor and the casual relics which it contained. There can be no
doubt that the people who occupied this overground habitation also
possessed the underground structure, and used it for purposes connected
with their daily life. There is little now left to disclose what the
manner of that life was, but that little is highly significant. It
discloses that they were a people cultivating grain and rearing cattle
and sheep. They had utensils of stone it is true, and these of the very
rudest form and fabrication, but they also possessed wheel-made pottery
and weapons or implements of bronze, iron, and lead.
A singular interest attaches to this little settlement, inasmuch as it
not only shows us the association of the two forms of underground and
overground structure which united to make one habitation, but also gives
the associated grave-ground of the family. A few yards distant from the
dwelling there was a group of six graves. They were full-length,
stone-lined graves, rudely constructed, with three or four flattish
slabs forming the sides, and one stone placed for each end. They lay so
near the surface that the covering stones had mostly been removed by the
plough, and the remains in them were greatly decayed. The only
manufactured object found in them was a single ring or child’s bracelet
of cannel coal. This is the only instance on record of the discovery of
a cemetery associated with the double dwelling of the people who
constructed these subterranean galleries.
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