In 1822 Professor Stuart of Aberdeen communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland an interesting account of the opening of a tumulus at Fetteresso, Kincardineshire.[394] Within it was found a stone cist about four feet in length, containing a skeleton, with the legs so bent back that the knees almost touched the lower end of the cist. The bottom was strewed with round sea pebbles from the neighbouring beach. Above this appeared some vegetable substance, in which the body had been imbedded, and over that, covering the whole, a tissue of wrought net-work, beautifully executed, but which, along with all the other contents, crumbled to dust soon after being exposed to the air. A great number of small black balls were found surrounding the body, plainly vegetable, and described as closely resembling acorns. At the top of the cist there seemed to have been placed a fresh sod or turf, which still retained the impression of the head that had been pillowed on it ages before, though no parts of the skull, nor even any of the teeth, were found. Some of the hair, however, four or five inches long, and of an auburn colour, still remained, and over the breast were seen the remains of a small box of an oval shape, apparently of wood elegantly carved; but this also speedily crumbled to powder. In the month of November 1847, another cist was discovered about an hundred yards to the south of the Fetteresso tumulus, which may with much probability be assumed as a female grave; and if so, adds another to the examples already noted of the occurrence of the Scottish sepulchral urn accompanying female remains. The cist measured only three feet in length, by two feet in breadth, and contained a human skeleton which appeared to have been laid on the right side with the face to the south. The limbs were bent according to the usual disposition of the body in the circumscribed cist, and one of the leg bones seemed to have been broken. A rude urn, about six inches deep, lay as if it had been folded in the arms of the deceased, and upwards of a hundred jet beads, which had no doubt formed a necklace, were found beside the breast.
FOOTNOTES:
[338] Solinus, c. xxii. Bede Hist. lib. i. c. 1. Collectanea Antiqua, C. R. Smith, vol. i. p. 174.
[339] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. i. p. 330.
[340] Ibid. vol. xvi. p. 482.
[341] Ibid. vol. v. p. 392.
[342] Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 49.
[343] New Stat. Acc. vol. xi. p. 147.
[344] Ancient Wiltshire, Plates XII. and XXXIV.
[345] Journal of Archæol. Assoc. vol. ii. p. 234.
[346] Vol. ii. p. 235.
[347] Vide John Sydenham "On the Kimmeridge Coal Money," Archæological Journal, vol. i. p. 347; and Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. i. p. 325, where accurate engravings of the "coal money" are given.
[348] New Statistical Account, vol. iv., Wigtonshire, p. 142.
[349] "Fugat serpentes ita, recreatque vulvæ strangulationes. Deprehendit sonticum morbum, et virginitatem suffitus. Hoc dicuntur uti Magi in ea, quam vocant axinomantiam: et peruri negant, si eventurum sit, quod aliquis optet."—Pliny, lib. xxxvi. cap. 34.
[350] Communication by Mr. Joseph Train to the New Statist. Acc. vol. iv., Kirkcudbrightshire, p. 196.
[351] Ure's Hist. of Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 219.
[352] Portes, Coloniæ, &c. Append. 18, and Plate III.
[353] Sinclair's Statistical Account, vol. ix. p. 53.
[354] Ure's Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 217, and Plate I.
[355] Sinclair's Statistical Account, vol. ix. p. 52.
[356] New Statist. Acc. vol. v. p. 454.
[357] Collectanea Antiqua, C. R. Smith, vol. i. p. 174.
[358] On the Tings of Orkney and Shetland. Archæol. Scotica, vol. iii. p. 120.
[359] Boece gives the following quaint description of amber, affording evidence of the mode of its introduction, though sufficiently extravagant in the style of its theorizing:—"Amang the rochis and craggis of thir ilis growis ane maner of electuar and goum, hewit like gold, and sa attractive of nature, that it drawis stra, flox, or hemmis of claithis to it, in the samin maner as dois ane adamont stane. This goume is generat of see froith, quhilk is cassin up be continewal repercussion of craggis againis the see wallis; and throw ithand motioun of the see it growis als teuch as glew, ay mair and mair; quhill, at last, it fallis doun of the crag in the see.... Twa yeir afore the cumin of this buke to licht, arrivit ane gret lomp of this goum in Buchquhane, als mekle as ane hors; and wes brocht hame be the hirdis quhilkis wer kepand thair beistis, to thair housis, and cassin in the fire. And becaus thay fand ane smelland odour thairwith, thay schew to thair maister that it wes ganand for the sens that is made in the kirkis. Thair maister wes ane rud man as thay wer, and tuke bot ane litill part thairof. The maist pairt wes destroyit afore it come to ony wise mannis eris; of quhome may be verifyit the proverb,—'The sow curis na balme.' Als sone as I wes advertist thairof, I maid sic diligence, that ane part of it wes brocht to me at Abirdene." Bellenden's Boece. The Cosmographie, chap. xv.
[360] Ure's Rutherglen, p. 164, Plate I.
[361] Vol iv. Plate XII.
[362] Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. vi. p 270.
[363] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 57.
[364] Ibid. p. 48.
[365] Archæol. Jour. vol. vi. p. 56.
[366] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. x. p. 402.
[367] Sinclair's Statist. Acc. vol. xvii. p. 238.
[368] Sir R. C. Hoare describes a somewhat similar plated relic, found in a tumulus near Amesbury, along with objects of gold.—Ancient Wilts. vol. i. p. 201, Plate XXV.
[369] This may be assumed possibly as affording some confirmation of a theory suggested to me by an ingenious friend, that these rings were used in infibulation; a practice not unknown to the Romans. Martial thus alludes to it, (lib. ix. epig. 28):—
Jam pædagogo liberatus, et cujus
Refibulavit turgidum faber penem."
The subject is treated at great length in "Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains," &c., par M. de P... London, 1771.—"Pour brider les garçons, on leur mettoit dans le prépuce un anneau d'or ou d'argent, tellement rejoint par les extrémités qu'on ne pouvoit plus l'ouvrir qu'avec une lime; et c'est ce que les Romains nommoient refibulare."—Vol. ii. p. 123. The same Recherches Philosophiques include minute details of several kindred processes under the head, La manière d'infibuler le sexe,—e.g., "Parmi d'autres nations de l'Asie et de l'Afrique, on fait passer par les extrémités des nymphes opposées un anneau, qui dans les filles est tellement enchassé qu'on ne peut le déplacer qu'en le limant," &c.—Ibid. pp. 119-121.
[370] Vol. vi. p. 56.
[371] Caledonia, vol. i. p. 129.
[372] Archæol. Jour. vol. vi. p. 59.
[373] The skeleton is described by Mr. James Drummond, surgeon, Alloa, in a letter to the Secretary of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, of date 8th March 1828, as "bearing no marks of the action of fire, but from the position of the bones, the body must have been placed neck and heels together when interred." A third urn was found a few feet from the cist, filled, like the two others, with ashes and half-burnt bones.
[374] New Stat. Acc. vol. v. Buteshire, p. 23.
[375] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 60. It is only from analogy, and the want of more appropriate terms, that these relics can be called rings, many being less than semicircles. Possibly, however, the term suggested in the text may suffice to designate them by, at least till the establishment of some theory as to their use shall supply a more precise name. The term calicinated fibulæ would be preferable, did it not assume a use still open to challenge.
[376] Bibliotheca Topog. Brit. vol. ii. p. 280. Plate VI. fig. 5.
[377] Vol. iv. p. 217, Plate X.
[378] The drawing is simply marked "a gold collar found at Braidwood Castle, Edinburghshire," but there can be little doubt of its being the same referred to in the text. The additional particulars concerning it have been communicated to me by a lady who had often heard of this discovery in her younger days, as one of the remarkable events of her native place.
[379] New Statist. Acc. vol. vi. p. 57.
[380] New Statist. Acc. vol. xii. p. 1061.
[381] Sinclair's Statist. Acc. vol. xi. p. 24.
[382] Biblio. Topog. Brit. vol. ii. Plate VI. fig. 8.
[383] Ibid. p. 299.
[384] New Statist. Acc. vol. vii. p. 206.
[385] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 54.
[386] Notes to "Lodbrokar-Quida." Rev. J. Johnstone. Denmark, 1782.
[387] Haco's Expedition, Rev. J. Johnstone, p. 65.
[388] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland. 8vo. P. 215.
[389] Archæological Journal, vol. ii. p. 379.
[390] Sinclair's Statist. Acc. vol. iv. p. 435.
[391] Nenia Britannica, p. 76. In the Guide to Northern Archæology, p. 54, reference is made to similar discoveries in Denmark; and I am informed by Dr. Ludwig Becker of a skeleton with several penannular bronze rings on the arm bones, found recently in a large tumulus near Mayence.
[392] This interesting inquiry is entered on at large by Mr. Samuel Birch, in two able articles on the Torc of the Celts. Archæological Journal, vol. ii. p. 360, and vol. iii. p. 27.
[393] Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne, p. 85.
[394] Archæologia Scotica, vol. ii. p. 462.