The archæology and prehistoric annals of ScotlandWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
Scotland -- Antiquities
Not the least interesting indications which
these results afford, both to the ethnologist and the archæologist,
are the evidences of native primitive races in Scotland prior to the
intrusion of the Celtæ; and also the probability of these races having
succeeded each other in a different order from the primitive colonists
of Scandinavia. Of the former fact, viz., the existence of primitive
races prior to the Celtæ, I think no doubt can now be entertained. Of
the order of their succession, and their exact share in the changes
and progressive development of the native arts which the archæologist
detects, we still stand in need of further proof; and the assumed
primeval position of the kumbe-kephalic race of Scotland is advanced
here only interrogatively, and with the view of inducing others to take
up the same interesting inquiry. The subject demands much more extended
observation before any such conclusion can be dogmatically affirmed
concerning the primitive Scottish races. We have also still to obtain
the proofs of that abrupt change from the one form to the other, only
to be procured as the result of numerous independent observations, but
which can alone satisfactorily establish the fact of the intrusion
of new races. The same evidence may also be expected to show whether
the primitive race was entirely superseded by later colonists. If the
Allophylian aborigines were not exterminated, but were admitted to
share in the superior arts of their conquerors, some proof may yet be
recoverable of the gradual progression in physical conformation as they
abandoned the nomadic and wild hunter state for a pastoral life, so
that they were not finally extirpated, but interfused into the mixed
race which now occupies the country, as we know was to some extent the
case, at a later period, with its Celtic population.
Not only in the annual operations of the agriculturist, but also in the
deliberate researches of the archæologist, hundreds of tumular crania
have been disinterred. Of these, however, scarcely any note has been
taken, nor can we hope to obtain sufficient data for the determination
of the interesting questions involved in the investigation till
its importance is more generally recognised. A few facts, however,
have been noted from time to time, some of which, in the absence of
more precise observations, may help to throw light on the physical
characteristics of the primitive British races. With this view,
therefore, the following additional notices are selected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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