GENERAL NATURE OF THE MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ART OF THE BRONZE AGE IN BRITAIN, AND THE DECORATIVE MOTIVES EMPLOYED
As we have already observed, the Goidelic Celts were in the Bronze Age stage of culture when they landed in Britain. Let us now inquire into the nature of the materials available for the study of the Pagan Celtic art in the Bronze Age.
The remains of this period may be classified, according to the nature of the finds, as follows:—
The art of the Bronze Age in Europe is both of a symbolical and decorative character. The principal symbols employed are:—
| The Swastika. | The Ship. |
| The Triskele. | The Axe. |
| The-Cup-and-Ring. | The Wheel. |
CINERARY URN OF BRONZE AGE FROM LAKE, WILTS;
NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
HEIGHT 1 FT. 3¼ INS.
It is probable that most of these were connected with sun-worship.[51]
The chief decorative art motives which were prevalent during the Bronze Age are as follows:—
With the introduction of bronze into Britain an entire change took place in the burial customs of the people. The long barrows with their megalithic chambers and entrance passages gave place to round barrows containing cists constructed of comparatively small slabs of stone, and having no approach from the exterior.
Although burial by inhumation still continued to be practised, cremation was adopted for the first time. The proportions of unburnt to burnt bodies found in opening barrows in different parts of England vary according to Thurnam[52] thus:—
| Unburnt. | Burnt. | ||
| Wilts | 82 | 272 | |
| Dorset | 21 | 91 | |
| Derbyshire | 150 | 121 | |
| Staffordshire | |||
| Yorkshire | |||
| Yorkshire | 58 | 53 |
The survival of the practice of inhumation to so large an extent would seem to indicate that the bronze-using Goidels amalgamated with the Neolithic aborigines rather than exterminated them.
The unburnt bodies were usually buried in a doubled-up position, and sometimes an urn was placed near the deceased. When the body was cremated the ashes were placed in a cinerary urn, and the grave-goods most commonly consisted of smaller pottery vessels, a bronze dagger or razor, and a stone wrist-guard. Occasionally flint implements and polished stone axe-hammers have been found with burials of this type, but it does not necessarily follow, in consequence, that bronze was unknown at the time.
The sepulchral pottery derived from the round barrows of the Bronze Age supplies us with ample material for studying the art of the period.
The principal collections are to be seen in the British Museum and the museums at Devizes, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Dublin. These have been derived from the barrows opened by Sir R. Colt Hoare in Wiltshire, T. Bateman in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, Rev. Canon Greenwell and the Rev. J. C. Atkinson in Yorkshire, C. Warne in Dorsetshire, and W. C. Borlase in Cornwall.
The pottery from the round barrows exhibits an endless variety of form, but as regards their suggested use, they may be divided into four classes, namely:—
There is no doubt as to the use for which the cinerary urns[53] were intended, because they are found filled with burnt human bones, sometimes placed in an inverted position upon a flat stone, and sometimes mouth upwards. The cinerary urns vary in height from 6 inches to 3 feet, and the most common shape resembles that of an ordinary garden flower-pot, with a deep rim round the top, probably to give the vessel greater strength.
BRONZE AGE URN OF “INCENSE-CUP” TYPE
FROM ALDBOURNE, WILTS;
NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
HEIGHT 3½ INS.
BRONZE AGE URN OF “FOOD-VESSEL” TYPE
FROM ALWINTON, NORTHUMBERLAND;
NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
HEIGHT 5 INS.
The so-called food-vessels[54] have received this name because they are believed to have contained food for the deceased in the next world. In support of this theory it may be mentioned that remains of substances resembling decayed food have been found in some of the vessels in question. Urns of the food-vessel type are shaped like a shallow bowl, and they vary in height from 3 to 8 inches. They are usually found placed beside the deceased.
The use of the so-called drinking-cups[55] is suggested more by the form, which resembles that of a mug, or beaker, slightly contracted in the middle, than by any actual facts connected with their discovery. They are generally placed near the deceased. The height of the drinking-cups varies from 5 to 9 inches. The Hon. J. Abercromby, F.S.A. (Scot.), has recently published an elaborate monograph on the drinking-cups of the Bronze Age entitled “The Oldest Bronze Age Ceramic Type in Britain; its close Analogies on the Rhine; its Probable Origin in Central Europe.”[56]
Incense-cups were conjectured by Sir R. Colt Hoare and the earlier archæologists to have been used for burning some aromatic substance during the funeral rites. The view taken by the late Mr. Albert Way, and supported by Canon Greenwell,[57] is that they were for carrying burning wood to light the funeral pile. The incense-cups are the smallest of the sepulchral vessels of the Bronze Age, being only from 1 to 3 inches high. The shape is like that of a little cup. The sides are sometimes perforated. The incense-cups are often found inside the cinerary urns.
Canon Greenwell states that the urns of the four different types were found associated with unburnt and burnt bodies in the barrows opened by him on the Yorkshire wolds in the following proportions:—
| Unburnt. | Burnt. | |
| Cinerary urns | 12 | 9 |
| (of cinerary urn type, | (containing | |
| but without ashes) | burnt bones) | |
| Food-vessels | 57 | 16 |
| Drinking-cups | 22 | 2 |
| Incense-cups | none | 6 |
The geographical distribution of the different types of sepulchral urns, as far as at present ascertained, is as follows: Food-vessels are most common in Yorkshire, and most rare in Wiltshire and the south of England generally. Drinking-cups are found all over Great Britain,[58] and it is the type of urn which varies least. Incense-cups are found with greater frequency in the south of England than in the north.
Now as to the decorative features of the sepulchral pottery of the Bronze Age in Great Britain.
The sepulchral urns are made of coarse clay moulded by hand—not turned on a lathe—and imperfectly baked by means of fire. The decoration was executed whilst the clay was moist, either by
BRONZE AGE URN OF “DRINKING-CUP” TYPE
FROM LAKENHEATH, SUFFOLK;
NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
HEIGHT 7½ INS.
Besides incised patterns produced by these methods, the ornament was sometimes moulded in relief and sometimes sunk, and the incense-cups often have ornamental perforations.
With the exception of the circles found on the bottoms of some of the incense-cups the decoration consists entirely of straight lines running more often diagonally than either horizontally or vertically. The same preference for diagonal lines will be observed in the key-patterns in the Irish MSS. of the Christian period, and led, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, to those modifications of the Greek fret which are characteristically Celtic.
Fig. 1.
Of the hundreds and hundreds of sepulchral urns of the Bronze Age that have been found in Great Britain no two are exactly the same either in size, form, or decoration. The fertility of imagination exhibited in the production of so many beautiful patterns by combining diagonal straight lines in every conceivable way is really amazing. On examination it will be found that, complicated as the patterns appear to be, the chevron or zigzag is at the base of the whole of them. We use the heraldic terms for the sake of convenience; their meaning will be understood by a reference to Fig. 1.
It will be seen that the chevron consists of two straight lines or narrow bars inclined towards each other so as to meet in a point, the form thus produced toeing that of the letter V. Now the chevron, or V, is capable of being combined in the following ways:—
By repeating the W, ◊, and X, each in a horizontal row, the patterns shown on Fig. 2 are obtained.
Fig. 2.
It will be noticed that the same pattern results from repeating a series of ◊’s in a horizontal line as from repeating a series of X’s, so that in order to distinguish the lozenge border from the saltire border, it is necessary to introduce a vertical line between each pair of Xs. The hexagon border is derived from the lozenge by omitting every other X.
It is a principle in geometrical ornament that for each pattern composed of lines there is a corresponding pattern in which bars of uniform width are substituted for lines. Another way of stating the same proposition is, that for each pattern composed of geometrical figures (squares or hexagons, for instance) there is a corresponding pattern produced by moving the figures apart in a symmetrical manner so as to leave an equal interspace between them. This principle is illustrated by Fig. 3, where a zigzag bar is substituted for the zigzag line of the triangle or chevron border.
Fig. 3.
Then, again, another set of patterns may be derived from those composed of lines or plain bars, by shading alternate portions of the design as in chequerwork. Thus on Fig. 4 are shown three different ways of shading the chevron border, and on Fig. 5 the method of shading the patterns on Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
A few new patterns (see Fig. 6) may be produced by placing the chevron with the point of the V facing to the right or left, thus, < or >, instead of upwards or downwards, thus, Λ or V.
Fig. 6.
Figs. 7 to 10 give the triangular patterns, plain and shaded, produced by repeating the chevron border (see Fig. 2. a).
Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 9.
Fig. 10.
The patterns derived from the lozenge are shown on Figs. 11 to 18.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.
Fig. 13.
Fig. 14.
Fig. 15.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.
The patterns derived from the saltire are shown on Fig. 19.
Fig. 19.
The patterns derived from the hexagon are shown on Figs. 20 and 21.
Fig. 20.
Fig. 21.
The variations in the practical application of the chevron patterns, which have been described above, to the decoration of the sepulchral pottery of the Bronze Age, are produced in the following ways:—
(1) By placing the chevrons (a) horizontally, or (b) vertically.
(2) By making the chevrons of different sizes.
(3) By altering the angle of the chevrons, i.e. making the points more acute or more obtuse.
(4) By shading some parts of the pattern whilst other parts are left plain.
(5) By using different methods of shading, such as plain hatching, cross-hatching, dotting, etc.
(6) By combining the chevrons with horizontal and vertical lines.
(7) By arranging the patterns in horizontal bands of different widths.
In a few cases[59] hexagonal figures occur in the decoration of the urns, but the patterns do not belong to the true hexagonal system of ornament. The hexagons were arrived at by leaving a space between the triangles of the chevrons, as on a drinking-cup found at Rhosbeirio,[60] Anglesey.
The decoration of the urns is generally confined to the exterior, the only exceptions being the interiors of the lips of some of the examples and the crosses in relief found on the bottoms inside of cinerary urns from Wilts, Dorset, and Sussex.
The incense-cups have occasionally ornament on the bottoms of them which, like the crosses just mentioned, may have a symbolical significance.
Some of the urns from Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, are very beautifully decorated with sunk triangles and ovals.
The different types of urns are not all equally highly ornamented. The large flower-pot-shaped cinerary urns have least decoration, being sometimes quite plain, but in the majority of cases having a broad band of ornament round the top. The drinking-cups are more elaborately decorated than any other class of sepulchral pottery, although the food-vessels are also nearly as ornate.
The artistic quality of the decoration varies in different parts of Great Britain. Some of the most beautiful examples come from localities where there was a great mixture of aboriginal blood with that of the Celtic invaders, and it is not unlikely that the infusion of new blood may have had something to do with the excellence of the art.
The chevron, although it was more highly developed as a decorative art-motive in the Bronze Age than at any other period, was not unknown to the Neolithic inhabitants of Great Britain, and it is more than probable that the Goidelic Celts got the idea from them. Several shallow vessels with a band of chevron ornament round the rim were found in the chambered cairn at Unstan,[61] Orkney, which is of the later Stone Age. This particular chevron pattern occurs frequently in the Bronze Age. Each of the triangles formed by the chevron is filled in with hatched lines running diagonally, but alternately in directions at right angles to each other (Fig. 4, d, p. 30). The pattern had no doubt a structural origin, and was suggested by lashing of the description used for the hafting of stone axes, or by some similar bandaging of cords.[62]
A similar chevron pattern is to be seen on a bowl from the Dolmen du Port-Blanc, Saint Pierre, Quiberon, Morbihan, Brittany.[63] Possibly this may be the survival of a strengthening band of basketwork round the vessel.
Bronze Spear-heads ornamented with rows of dots
In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
The decoration of the bronze implements, gold lunulæ, and jet necklaces of the Bronze Age corresponds very nearly with that of the sepulchral pottery. All the designs are founded upon the chevron, and the only differences are in the methods of execution. On the objects of metal the patterns are produced by the hammer, punch, and graver,[64] and on the flat jet beads of the necklaces by a borer.
Gold Lunula from Killarney
Now in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy, Dublin
The bronze implements most frequently decorated are celts and razors, and more rarely dagger-blades and spear-heads.
Of the three classes of bronze celts, namely,[65]
it is only the first two that are decorated with chevron patterns in the same way as the sepulchral pottery. The socketed celts, which are later than the others, are ornamented with concentric circles resembling those on certain Gaulish terra-cotta figures.[66]
On some of the bronze spear-heads in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy the ornament consists of lines of small dots. The dotted patterns in the Irish MSS. of the Christian period may possibly be traced to this source.
The greatest number of gold lunulæ, most of which exhibit the characteristic chevron-motive decoration of the Bronze Age, have been found in Ireland. Dr. W. Frazer has compiled a list of known examples, which will be found in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.[67] The numbers are as follows:—
| Museum of the Royal Irish Academy | 32 |
| British Museum | 11 |
| Edinburgh Museum | 4 |
| Belfast Museum | 1 |
| Private Collections | 3 |
| Present owners unknown | 9 |
| Found in France | 2 |
The decoration consists of very fine lines executed with chisel-edged punches,[68] and it is concentrated on the edges and the two horns of the crescent, the broad part of the crescent in the middle being quite plain, as will be seen in the specimen illustrated on page 40 from Killarney, now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.
The lunulæ were probably worn as head-dresses or else round the neck, and the contrast between the large expanse of burnished gold and the delicately engraved patterns must have been very effective when seen flashing in the bright sunlight.
Some of the finest examples of jet necklaces have been found with Bronze Age burials in Scotland, as at Balcalk, Forfarshire; Tayfield, Fife; Torrish, Sutherlandshire;[69] Assynt, Ross-shire;[70] Melfort, and Argyllshire. They have also been found occasionally in England, as at Middleton Moor,[71] Derbyshire.
The beads of which the necklaces are composed are of three different shapes, ovoid, flat triangular plates, and four-sided flat plates. The flat beads are decorated with chevrons, triangles, and lozenges produced by rows of dots. Here again we have an instance of a kind of decoration which survived in Christian times.
The last class of remains exhibiting Bronze Age decoration are the sculptured rocks and stones. Some of the carvings are found on natural rock surfaces and boulders; others on such megalithic monuments as stone circles, dolmens, and chambered cairns; whilst numerous examples are on the slabs forming the covers or sides of sepulchral cists.
Although the megalithic structures called by the late Mr. James Ferguson “rude stone monuments” undoubtedly belong as a class to the Neolithic period, yet some of them exhibit decorative forms which are characteristic of the Bronze Age. This suggests the interesting speculation whether the ornamental patterns used by the Celts in the Bronze Age may not have been to a large extent borrowed from the Neolithic aborigines, and also whether the absorption of the Iberian peoples by the conquering Goidels may not have had a stimulating effect on decorative art.
However this may be, it is a curious fact that the best specimens of Bronze Age ornament sculptured on stone exist in the Co. Meath, in Ireland, where such an admixture of race would be most likely to occur, and the type of monument on which the carvings are found belongs to the Neolithic period. In Ireland, therefore, either the erection of dolmens, chambered cairns, and other similar structures must have survived during the Bronze Age, or else the characteristic patterns of the Bronze Age must have been derived from a Neolithic source.
The wonderful series of chambered cairns at Newgrange, near Drogheda, and at Sliabh na Calliaghe, near Oldcastle, both in the Co. Meath, have been well known to archæologists for many years, but it is only quite recently that their decorative sculpture has been studied scientifically by Mr. George Coffey, M.R.I.A., the Curator of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The following account has been compiled chiefly from Mr. Coffey’s admirable monographs on the subject, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.[72]
The great prehistoric cemetery, which has been identified with the Brugh na Boinne mentioned in the Leabhar-na-h-Uidhri and in the Book of Ballymote, is situated five miles west of Drogheda, extending thence about three miles along the northern bank of the Boyne towards Slane. Amongst the most important of the sepulchral remains are the three great tumuli of Dowth, Newgrange, and Knowth, taking them in order from east to west. Two of the tumuli certainly contain chambers, access to which is gained by a passage leading from the exterior, and the third, judging from analogy, probably is also chambered. The Boyne tumuli are recorded in the Annals of Ulster to have been plundered by the Danes in A.D. 862. The chamber of the Dowth tumulus has been open since 1847; that of Newgrange since 1699, when it was first entered in modern times by Edward Lhuyd, the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; and that of Knowth still remains to be explored.
Longitudinal section of Chamber and Passage of Tumulus
at Newgrange, Co. Meath.
The sculptures at Newgrange are of such exceptional interest that it is desirable to give a brief description of the structure upon which they are found. The tumulus stands less than a quarter of a mile north-east of Newgrange House, the Dowth tumulus being 1¼ to the north-east, and the Knowth tumulus three-quarters of a mile to the north-west. The Newgrange tumulus is surrounded by a circle of stones originally consisting of thirty-five upright monoliths, twelve of which may still be traced. Four of the standing stones near the entrance are from 6 to 7 feet in height, but the remainder are of smaller size. Between the circle and the base of the mound is a ditch and a rampart of loose stones. The tumulus is also of loose stones, surrounded at the base by a continuous curb of great slabs of stone from 8 to 10 feet long, laid on edge, above which is a retaining wall of dry rubble 5 or 6 feet high. The tumulus is approximately circular in plan, 280 feet in diameter, and 44 feet high. The area occupied by the mound alone is at least an acre. The entrance to the passage leading to the chamber is on the S.E. side of the mound, and the passage runs in a N.W. direction. The chamber is not in the centre of the mound, but to the S.E. side of the centre. The plan of the passage and chamber is irregularly cruciform, the dimensions being as follows:—
| Feet. | Inches. | |
| Length of passage | 62 | 0 |
| Length from end of passage to back of N.W. recess | 18 | 0 |
| Average width of passage | 3 | 0 |
| Width of chamber from back of N.E. recess | ||
| to back of S.W. recess | 21 | 0 |
| Height of passage varies from 4 ft. 9 in. to | 7 | 10 |
| Height of chamber | 19 | 6 |
| Depth of N.E. recess | 8 | 8 |
| ”N.W. ” | 7 | 6 |
| ”S.W. ” | 3 | 4 |
The side walls of the passage and chamber are constructed of tall upright stones, having the interstices filled in with rubble work. The passage is roofed over with single lintel stones. The roof of the chamber is in the form of an irregular six-sided truncated pyramid composed of stones corbelled out until they meet sufficiently near together at the top to be covered by a single slab. The floor was originally paved with carefully selected, water-rounded pebbles. These with equal originality and care have been removed by the Irish Board of Works, and placed in the bottom of the pit dug in front of the carved stone at the entrance.
There are on the floor four rudely made shallow stone basins, one in each of the three recesses, and the fourth in the centre of the chamber. The one in the middle of the chamber was taken from the position it formerly occupied on the top of the basin in the N.E. recess (where it was seen by Edward Lhuyd in 1699), and placed where it now is by the over-officious zeal of the Irish Board of Works. The large stones used in the construction of the chamber are of the lower silurian grit of the district.
The following stones of the Newgrange Tumulus are sculptured:—
Plan of Chamber and Passage of Tumulus
at Newgrange, Co. Meath
In Chamber.
Seventeen uprights—Nos. 2, 3, 4, 10, and 16 sculptured, commencing at end of passage S.W. side, and counting round from right to left. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are in S.W. recess, where there is also a horizontal stone above No. 3 sculptured. No. 10 forms the N.E. jamb of the N.W. recess. No. 16 forms the S.E. jamb of the N.E. recess, which has also a sculptured roofing-stone. The horizontal lintel-stone over the opening of the passage into the chamber is sculptured.
Spiral Ornament at Newgrange, Co. Meath.
Scale ⅙ linear
Analysing the sculptured decoration of the Newgrange tumulus, we find it to consist partly of chevron patterns and chevron derivatives (such as combinations of the triangle and lozenge), and partly of spiral ornament, together with a few designs formed of circles grouped round a lozenge, and some cups and rings. The chevron patterns have already been noticed on sepulchral urns, bronze implements, and jet necklaces of Great Britain, and concentric circles on socketed bronze celts, but spiral ornament is conspicuous by its absence on any of these classes of objects. Spirals are only known to occur on sculptured stones and rock-surfaces in Great Britain, and on a few of the remarkable stone balls with knobs found in Scotland. The following examples have been recorded:—