The archæology and prehistoric annals of ScotlandWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
Scotland -- Antiquities
Linlithgow. It was covered with two unhewn slabs of stone, and measured
internally about six feet long. The skeleton was in good preservation,
and lay at full length. Only a few inches of soil covered the slabs
with which it was inclosed. No relics were found in the cist, but some
time prior to its discovery a bronze celt and spear-head were turned up
in its immediate vicinity.
[Illustration: No. 10. Old Steeple, Montrose.]
[Illustration: No. 15. Linlithgow Cist.]
Few as these examples are, they will probably be found, on
further investigation, to belong to a race entirely distinct from
those previously described. They correspond very nearly to the
Brachy-kephalic crania of the supposed primeval race of Scandinavia,
described by Professor Nillson as short, with prominent parietal
tubers, and broad and flattened occiput. In frontal development,
however, they are decidedly superior to the previous class of crania,
and such evidence as we possess seems to point to a very different
succession of races to that which Scandinavian ethnologists now
recognise in the primitive history of the north of Europe. Our data
are as yet too few to admit of our doing more than noticing these
indications of the evidence that has been produced, in the hope that it
may stimulate to the further prosecution of this interesting branch of
primitive ethnology.
No. 16 is a cranium chiefly interesting from the circumstances under
which it was found. During the construction of the Edinburgh and
Hawick Railway, in 1846, extensive Roman remains were brought to light
in the vicinity of the village of Newstead, Roxburghshire. These are
described in a subsequent chapter. In the progress of the work the
excavators exposed a group of circular shafts, or well-like pits,
varying from three feet to about twenty feet in depth. They were
filled with black fetid earth, intermixed with bones of animals, Roman
pottery, mortaria, amphoræ, Samian ware, &c., whole and in fragments.
In one of these shafts was found the entire skeleton of a man, standing
upright, with a long iron spear at his side, and various specimens of
Roman pottery in the debris with which the pit was filled.[206] Of
the period, therefore, to which the cranium belongs, there can be no
doubt, though no sufficient evidence exists to determine whether it
pertained to a Roman legionary, or a contemporary native Briton. The
latter is, perhaps, more probable. The skull is of moderate size, but
exceedingly well proportioned, the teeth are in perfect preservation,
with the crowns very little worn, and the markings of all the muscles
are unusually strong and well defined.
[Illustration: No. 16. Roman Shaft, Newstead.]
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