The archæology and prehistoric annals of ScotlandWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
Scotland -- Antiquities
Flint knives, though apparently less abundant than in the different
Scandinavian countries, and especially in Denmark, are frequently
turned up in the course of agricultural operations. In no instance that
has come under my notice have implements been found in Scotland exactly
resembling the curious lunar flint knives and saws of such common
occurrence in Denmark and Sweden; yet examples of similar form are
familiar to American archæologists among the singular contents of the
great mounds explored of late years in the valley of the Mississippi,
and in other districts of the North American continent. These are
generally made of slate, and stone knives analogous to them appear also
to have been used in the Scottish primitive periods, to supply similar
necessities. In the Shetland and Orkney islands especially stone knives
are common, and in other districts knives of flint, though not of the
northern lunar shape, are often met with. It is perhaps of fully as
much importance, in the present stage of archæological inquiries, to
note the dissimilarity, as the correspondence of relics of the same
period in different countries. We have already observed a resemblance
so remarkable, in the implements of the Stone Period pertaining to
countries alike separated by time and space, as to preclude the
possibility of ascribing it to any mutual intercourse or common source
of knowledge, that nothing but a correspondence in many minute details
will justify the inference of international intercourse or similarity
of races. Dissimilarity, however, in these primitive implements, if
the means of comparison be sufficiently extensive, may suffice to
establish the opposite conclusion, that little or no intercourse had
existed between Scotland and those countries, such as Norway and
Sweden, at least during the earliest historic periods. Little proof,
indeed, is required to establish this--if we set aside the opinion,
assumed without any investigation of the evidence, that the natives of
ancient Caledonia lagged far behind the other races of Northern Europe
in the arts of civilisation--for their primitive arts precluded the
construction of fleets fitted for the navigation of the intermediate
seas, and shut them up to their own native ingenuity. Still it may be
that the discovery of a more complete correspondence with the stone
implements of other parts of Europe will yet add to our knowledge of
the first colonisation of the British Isles, and help us to follow back
the track of these nomadic tribes in their wanderings from the eastern
cradle land of the human race.
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