Celtic art in Pagan and Christian times — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Celtic art in Pagan and Christian times
John Stuart Mill · en
A third barrow explored by the Rev. W. Stillingfleet also covered
the skeleton of a warrior with the remains of his martial equipment,
consisting of the bosses of his shield, one wheel of his chariot, two
of his horses’ bridle-bits. Two wild boars’ tusks (one of which was
perforated with a square hole, and enclosed in a case of thin brass)
were associated with this burial; indicating, perhaps, some religious
or superstitious belief connected with this animal.[112]
[112] A Late-Celtic boar’s head of bronze was found at Liecheston,
in Banffshire, in 1816 (see Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan
Times: Iron Age_, p. 117). Three little bronze figures of boars, from
Hounslow, now in the British Museum, are illustrated in the _Proc.
Soc. Ant. Lond._ (2nd ser., vol. iii., p. 90); and the splendid bronze
shield from the Thames at Battersea, in the same collection, has a boar
represented upon it (see Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, pl. 14). The boar
also occurs on one of the Scotch symbol-bearing slabs at Knock-na-Gael,
near Inverness (see Stuart’s _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, vol. i.,
pl. 38). For a boar on a helmet, see account of Benty Grange tumulus on
p. 67.
A portion of the antiquities mentioned are now in York Museum, and the
Rev. W. Stillingfleet’s manuscript notes on his diggings in 1815-17 are
preserved in the Library of the York Philosophical Institute.
The barrow at Arras, opened by the Rev. Canon W. Greenwell, covered
a circular grave, 12 feet in diameter, sunk in the chalk to a depth
of 3 feet, on the floor of which was laid the skeleton of a woman,
resting on the left side, with her left hand up to the face, and the
head to the west. Two tame pigs were buried with the deceased, and the
grave-goods comprised an iron mirror, a bronze harness-ring, a pair
of iron chariot-wheels, two snaffle-bits, and what may have been a
whip-shank.
In 1875 Canon Greenwell explored a tumulus near Beverley, in Yorkshire,
which yielded two chariot-wheels and a bridle-bit, but no human or
other bones.