The archæology and prehistoric annals of ScotlandWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
Scotland -- Antiquities
The succeeding group of crania, Nos. 17-27, afford a fair average
criterion of the Celtic type.--No. 17 is a skull dug up in a cave on
the sea-coast, at the Mull of Kintyre, Argyleshire, near to where
tradition affirms a battle to have been fought between the natives and
an invading host of Northmen.--No. 18 is in like manner a memorial
of Scandinavian aggression, and is marked in the catalogue of the
Phrenological Museum as the skull of a Dane. It was dug out of the
sand on the sea-beach, near Larnahinden, Argyleshire, where a party
of Danes are believed to have landed and been defeated. It exhibits
some remarkable measurements, especially in the small proportion of
the vertical diameter; and a comparison of its various dimensions with
those of the Roman skull, No. 16, brings out very distinctly the points
of disagreement of two essentially different forms of crania. No. 18,
however, is not to be accepted as a good Celtic type. The best medium
form of the Celtic cranium is No. 20, which appears, in so far as the
present amount of observation admits of such conclusions, to be a fair
standard of this important class of crania. It forms one of a very
interesting group of skulls in the Phrenological Museum. No. 19 was
brought from Harray, near Lewis, and Nos. 20-24 from Iona. The whole of
these were presented to the Society, in 1833, by Mr. Donald Gregory,
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and they are each
marked by him as the "Skull of a Druid from the Hebrides." They were
no doubt obtained during the operations carried on by the members of
the Iona Club, thus described in the introduction to the Collectanea de
Rebus Albanicis:--
"In order to celebrate the institution of the Club, a meeting
was held in the island of Iona, upon the 7th day of September
1833, permission having been obtained from His Grace the Duke
of Argyle, the President, to make such excavations in the
island as the Club might deem necessary. A search was made in
the ancient cemetery called _Relig Oran_, for such tombstones
as might in the process of time have been concealed by the
accumulation of rubbish. The result of these operations was,
that a considerable number of finely carved tombstones was
brought to view, which none of the inhabitants had ever seen
before."
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