T r a n s a c t i o n s

OF THE

B A N F F S H I R E FIELD CLUB.

THE STRATHMARTINE

TRUST

The support of The Strathmartine Trust toward this publication is gratefully acknowledged.

www.banffshirefieldclub.org.uk

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T H U R S D A Y , A P R I L 2 0 , 1882 .

MEETING AT BANFF.

A MEETING of the Banffshire Field Club took place in t h e Academy Buildings, Banff, on Thursday. Rev. Mr Milne; Pres ident of the Club, occupied the chair, and t he re was a fair attendance.

DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT GRAVE. Mr MILNE, King-Edward, read a paper on an ancient

grave a t Bridgend, King-Edward, found Apnl 1882. H e said:— , ., , .

A few days ago Mr Edward, Bridgend, while laying ou t a garden in f ron t of his house, discovered an ancient grave two or three steps from the d o o r - so . n e a r that every one who went out or in mus t have trod upon i t . The situation is a dry, gravelly knoll, on the level of a raised sea beach, to be seen almost everywhere in the nor th-east of Scotland, a t 200 feet above the present sea level. The grave measured about 6 feet in length ; it was 15 inches broad, and 12 inches deep. A hole had been dug in the gravel, the bottom had been paved with flat pieces of old red sandstone, f rom Cook, near New Byth . The sides were built up with rounded held stones, of no great size, laid in clay, and packed with black soil a t t he back. There was no covering of slabs or a rch of stones above. The direction was east and west . The contents were charred peat and wood, mostly hazel, bu t there were some bits of oak also. At the west end there was about a quar t of charred barley and oats mixed together , and some burn t straw. There was no trace of bones, no flints, no implements, nor urn. The body of the occupant had been burned beside the grave, and then the burn t bones and the remains of the lire had been p u t into the grave. The burnt grain was not mixed with earth, and had likely been burned and put

in separately. The barley and oats retain their shape, and it can be seen t ha t t he barley had been large and plump, while the oats had been of the black oat type, long and lanky. However, some of the grains bear marks of bosom pickles, like potato oats. From the openness of the subsoil the calcined bones had been carried away particle by particle, dissolved by rain water passing through the grave, bu t the charred grain is nearly as perfect as i t had been when pu t into the grave. When

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t h e Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was making the re was found near Castlecary, if I remember r ight ly, a very large quant i ty of b u r n t whea t t h a t had been s tored up for t h e use of t h e soldiers guarding t h e Roman wall between t h e F o r t h and Clyde. Whe the r burned by acci-dent or design i t mus t have lain in i t s char red condit ion 700 years.

I t may interes t t h e meet ing t o give t h e probable age of the Bridgend grave. Such graves are regarded as t h e work of t h e t h i rd race of men who inhabi ted Wes te rn Europe. The first race was t h e Palaeolithic, o r old s tone implement race. They lived before t h e Glacial Per iod, tha t is before t h e t ime of t h e snow and ice, which covered all Europe n o r t h of la t i tude 50 degrees, and whose t races we see in the rounded s tones of t h e fields, and in the clay on ou r hillsides. The implements of t h i s first race have been found at Abbeville, in F rance ; b u t , hi therto, no t races of m a n have been found be-neath the glacial clay in Scotland. H e r e then , before the ice age, we may say men were none. The second race was t h e Neol i th ic o r new Stone Imple-ment race. Abundant t races of t hem a re found in ou r country above t h e clay. The i r implements were stone, like those of the first race, b u t t hey were fashioned wi th skill and care. Their a r row heads are beaut i ful ly formed, some hear t -shaped, some leaf-shaped, some lozenge-shaped. They are found sca t te red over t h e fields, having been lost in shoot ing birds for food r a t h e r t h a n

in fighting. Not only t h e careful ly shaped flint b u t almost all t he flattest piece of flint found in t h e fields had been used as arrow t ips . Some of t h e curved flake are sharp edged bu t b lun t a t t h e ends, these had been pocket-knives; o the rs a re no tched in t h e edge, t hese had had been hand-saws on a small scale. Some had been sharpened on a gr indstone, having been first s tuck in to a piece of wood t o hold by. Th i s second or Neoli thic race seems t o have buried t h e dead n o t extended, b u t in the cramped, contracted, crouching a t t i t ude in which those would die who did n o t make use of beds. Generally the dead are found on the i r side, and f requent ly a small dr inking urn was placed along with t h e body. The th i rd race came f rom t h e Cont inent of Europe , bringing with t h e m a much h igher civilisation. They had cat t le , they cultivated t h e land, growing b o t h oats and barley. F o r ordinary purposes t hey used s tone implements , b u t t hey had also bronze swords and ha t che t s . Some of t h e m lived in caves by t h e sea-shore ; somet imes t hey had underground houses, l ike deep t renches covered wi th long slabs of s tone, b u t usual ly t hey lived in circular h u t s paved with round or flat s tones, as many cot tages a t t h e present day are . The walls appear t o have been e i ther of s tone laid in clay or of double basket work filled between wi th ea r th . They in t roduced a new mode of disposing of t h e dead, burning t h e body, and collecting t h e bones and ashes deposited them somet imes in an u r n made on t h e spot , b u t more f requent ly in an open grave.

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Along with the aslies axe found cells of bronze—there is one in Banff Museum found in Clackmannan—flint knives — here is a specimen — and other personal proper ty of the deceased. Their idea seems to have been t ha t he would require these things in the world to which his spirit or angel had gone, and though the articles themselves could not go along with him, yet the i r ghost or shadow would accompany his ghost, and s tand in the same relation to i t in the other world tha t they bad done to him in this. For this purpose burnt grain was placed along with the burnt body.

Over another grave found recently near the same place lay, face down, a rubbing stone for making meal. This grave, quartzite, contained black ashes and some flint, but no grain. The stone is an iceworn piece of quartzi te , like Morayshire sandstone, but harder, 2 feet long, 20 inches wide at one end, and 10 at the o ther . The face is hollowed out like a saucer, corn was pu t into the hollow, and rubbed to a fine powder by a flat stone held in the hand. When the sur-face became smooth, i t had to be picked as ordinary millstones now are. This sione may be seen at the School of King-Edward. I t had become smooth by wear, bu t had been repicked with a metal implement almost certainly of bronze, apparently fresh for the oc-casion. These two graves, therefore, show that their occupants belonged to a race who cultivated the ground (here is one of their stone ploughshares), grew barley and oats, made meal, used both stone and metal implements, burned the dead, and believed in a fu ture life. The time a t which they lived may be put about t ha t of the Roman invasions, or about the time of Christ.

I t may also be noticed tha t the charred wood found consists chiefly of hazel, and perhaps also oak, no fir or beech. This indicates that , contrary to the current opinion, Scotland was not a wooded country in early t imes. The hard clay subsoil is not a t all adapted for growing trees, and apparently there were only hazel bushes by the burnsides, oaks few and far between, as we see by thei r stools in peat mosses, and very little fir. Some fir woods there were, but not many. When the monks of the Abbey of Deer were building their church in 1218, they got permission to take wood from the forest of Knock, in Banffshire. The next race of men, the four th , used iron implements. They did not practice burning the dead, though the old Pagan custom was not allowed to die out altogether a t once. Graves are found in which the dead had been interred in the newer fashion, while respect had been paid to the older, so far as to pu t a handful of burnt ashes into the grave along with the unburned body.

On the motion of Rev. Mr Davidson, Parsonage, Banff, a very cordial vote of thanks was given to Mr Milne for his interesting communication.

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