Deposition of the objects -- four theories.
The inquiry as to how the articles came to occupy the position in which they were found, is the most puzzling of all; for antiquities are usually procured in connection with some limited period of history. But, in this case, ranging as they do over 1800 years at least, the difficulty of accounting for them is increased. It was so great that some of the most experienced antiquiries of the 19 th century declined to hazard an opinion; so that perhaps, without any amputation of presumption, one who has less archaeological reputation to lose, may have been permitted to examine such theories as were proposed.Indeed it was absolutely necessary to do so; and without such inquiry, the investigations would have been incomplete.
Four solutions were attempted; respecting the first two of which only a few words are necessary. The whole of the theories may be briefly stated as follows:
Shipwreck
Fluvial deposit
Aquatic habitation
Destruction of an ancient settlement
Shipwreck
It had been suggested as a hypothesis or guess, but without any pretensions to the dignity of a theory, or a satisfactory explanation, that in some of the numerous wrecks that had taken place upon its coast, a collection of antiquities had been lost; and such facts are adduced to the finding of guineas of the reign of Charles II - 1660 - 85. - which were evidently deposited by the rupture of a treasure chest at one time, coins which were to be found on the 23rd September 1834 in large numbers.
There had also been several wrecks of importance, one of which was that of a ship, about 1820, portions of the material and cargo of which were occasionally found until about 1860. In reply to this it is only necessary to state, that museums of British antiquities were more of modern objects; that archaeology at that time was barely a quarter of a century old; and that the idea of a vessel being laden with any such collection was a gratuitous assumption, wholly unwarranted by the analogies of experience or the records of fact. Let us suppose, then, that such thing were known; and that ships, with museums on board, had been as common as those coveying gold from Australia or California. It is still necessary to explain how certain classes of these objects - the Roman ones, for example - were found at that particular spot, and the more modern articles in totally different places.
It will be necessary to still further show, why they are not cast out in the neighbourhood of deep water, but in that which was left dry by the receding tide; as well as how they were found buried at various depths, in that which was arable ground and not properly belonging to the sea. From the position in which they were found, such a wreck must have taken place not only within the recent historic times, but almost since the foreshore was undermined and had sunk beneath high-water mark - the date of which occurrance was known to the local inhabitants, that is to say from 1800 onward.
It will be necessary, in the like manner, to account in some way for the records of history and geography, which show that the mediaeval highway round the peninsular was to seaward of the shore line then; and why thousands of objects, cast out together, were found singly, or perhaps two at a time. Is it not necessary, however to adduce arguments in disproof of a hypothesis which had not a single fact to support it, and which scarcely ranges itself even within the category of possibility.
Fluvial deposits
On the surface of John Mackay's map of 1732, which is in my possession, he indicates as one of the following as one consequence of making the new cut: "That ye land and soyle in ye cutt is no less than six million of solid yards, ye greatest part thereof is supposed to be scoured as fast as possible toward Hoyl Lake and ye Barr."
Reasoning from these principles, it was suggested that these objects of antiquity were originally connected connected with Chester; and that they were carried down the River Dee by the force of the refluent tide and deposited in still water. The propounder of that hypothesis seems to forget the distinction between sand and mud, on the one hand, which are held in suspension by the water, and metallic objects, on the other, which would sink at once and become embedded in the yielding bottom. It is true that the tidal scour had been very great, and that, as an evidence of the force of the river, the Hoyle bank had been literally cut in two.
Not less than about 150 millions of cubic yards of sand had been removed; a mass, which one may say, is infinitely larger than all these objects united. But let us suppose that these metallic objects were capable of floating, and obeying the influences, which loosened, removed, and re-deposited the sand - the hypothesis is still untenable.
For, the sand had been deposited within the ancient Hoyle lake, where none of these objects are procured; and on the sheltered sides of some of the numerous banks that existed then, a position in which none of them were known to exist. On the contrary, they were found where the tidal action possessed great force from the sea; where sand had not been borne in suspension and deposited; and in a position where some of them might have been uncovered by high water, but could never have been left by an ebb tide. In short, the sea did not place the objects there, but it displaced them; Neptune did not hide them, but he assisted at their finding, by disintegrating the turf bog in which hundreds more probably lie buried, and washing them out form the particles of earth, like the nuggets of the gold-digger of the Clondyke.
Aquatic Habitation
This theory supposes that in the unsettled condition of several of the earlier ages, the huts of the inhabitants were erected over water, and at some distance from the land; there was thus a tidal moat interposed between them and the enemies from the land, while attack from the sea was less probable. To a modified extent, as we shall see, this supposition may be correct, but in general it is erronous. It is, however, associated with facts of such deep interest that the whole of this will be devoted to its discussion
The destruction of an ancient settlement
Every circumstance tends to show that is the correct explanation of the facts as I see it. The reader will have anticipated this inference from my previous bulletins; especially those of part one. yet it is desirable to treat the subject specifically.
Aquatic Habitations
A century and a half or more ago, one would have been surprised to hear such a subject mentioned, yet we begin to wonder in what countries these habitations have not existed. Their remains were found abundant in Ireland and not infrequently in Scotland. The lakes of Banchory, in Kincardineshire, close to Aberdeen, may be mentioned, and St Margaret's isle, in the lake of Forfar. The crannoges of Cluny, in Perthshire, and of Clyne, in Sutherland, were of the same kind; and those of North Uist, Loch Lochoy, and Loch Lomond. The lake of Yetholm, which furnished the idea of the Castle of Avenel, had a jetty between the island and the mainland; and the practice was noticeable at a few other places.
They were also known in Syria, in a lake formed by the expansion of the Orontes; and in portions of the Polynesia they existed at least until the middle of the 19th century. Something analogous was found in the fisherman's huts in the Bosphorus, nestling among the tops of piles which were fastened to the bottom; and in numerous boat-houses of Chinese rivers. I will note them very briefly in connection with the two countries where they were best known -- ie, Ireland and Switzerland. With much that is very unlike, these countries always possessed two features in common, (1) they were isolated, the one by its western situation and the other by lofty mountain barriers; and (2) each abounded in lakes. In Ireland many of these have been drained, though a large number still exist; in Switzerland they were still in existence up to the middle of the 19th century.
1. The Crannoges of Ireland
These were the lake fortresses constructed on artificial islands, for greater security during troubled times. In the annals of Ireland they are noticed at least a thousand years ago, and records respecting them continued until nearly the year 1700.
Not unfrequently the crannoge was erected on a hill within the lake, thus taking for its basis the subaqeous mound not quite high enough to be called an island. Around the sides of this, strong oak piles were driven in a circle about two hundred feet circumference. These piles, the lower part which were noted to bear the marks of the axe, projected above the water, and were probably interlaced with branches of trees.
The surface within was usually covered over with a series of short logs, on the top of which stones, clay, and other earthy matters were placed. Large flat stones were deposited in the centre, as the hearth on which the fire was erected; and sometimes two or three such places are shown to have existed. There were one or two pairs of quernstones found, and numerous bones of cattle, deer and swine. Thus, we see something of the dietry of these secluded people.
In Ireland inthe 19th century, the Board of Works as it was called, who, by draining a lake had uncovered many of these, presented a report giving a minute account of their construction? In general, communication was held with these crannoges by means of a boat, though very narrow causeways reached few. Canoes of rough construction were disintered from time to time, of the sort that the people are supposed to have generally employed. It was supposed that bridges were not known.
2. Lacrustrine habitations of Switzerland
In the beginning of the year 1854, the water in several Swiss lakes were unusually low, so that the neighbouring proprietors at Meilen, on Lake Zurich, endeavoured to claim portions of land from the lake. They discovered that, at a certain depth in the mud, there were remains of numerous wooden piles; and that among these were a very large number of implements in stone and flint, some of them were mounted in stag's horn. Some time after, another set of piles was discovered at Mooseedorf lake, in Berne; but in this case the piles projected a little above the mud,in this case, also, the area of the artificial structure was seen, and it was about seventy five feet long by fifty wide, The objects discovered were of the same kind; portions of pottery, and numerous implements in bone, flint and stone.
In the lake of Neufchatel, there was a place where the land had gained on the lake, and a bluff or hill appears at the extremity of a dead level, more than a mile direct from the side of the lake. The intervening land had been gained inch by inch, and it was evident that the lake has at some remote period washed the base of the hill, which appeared like an island on the grassy level.
About midway between the hill and the lake, the remains of a Roman city were found; and, digging in the wet mud at the base of the hill, other sets of piles were found. Thus there is prima facie evidence that the habitations erected on piles were about twice as old as the Roman occupation. The houses of these people were built over lakes by piles driven into the bottom, where it sloped gradually into the water; and on the tops of these a flooring was laid, on which wicker cabins or huts were erected. In some places where piles were found, the water was twenty feet deep; it is clear therefore, that the piles, making allowances for the tops and points, must have been thirty feet in length. It need not be surprising that several Swiss towns are found to be erected on alluvial deposit, and actually over the sites of these piled residence -- something for future archaeology to get thier trowels into.
In other instances, here large portions of the piles remained in the water, implements of bronze had been found, evidently showing a more recent occupation, and at the same time an advance in the arts. The period of stone and bone preceded that of metal, and that the bronze period preceded that of iron. There is laso unquestionable evidence, derivable from the proportions in which certain materials are found, that some places exibit a transition state between the first and second, and others a transition between second and third.
The manner in which these impotant conclusions have been reached, may be seen from the following mode of induction: The stone in which implements were made would commonly have been native, but a kind of flint was assumed not to have been found nearer that France or Germany.It is, of course, well known in this time that the polished axes of Pemaenmawr, North Wales, are of superior workmanship than any that has been imported from those countries.
There is no doubt that the quality of manufacture from the continent was excellent, and that the people had some slight traffic with these Neighbouring parts. They comprised of Knife-blades, arrow and lance heads, saws, hammers, borers, needles, above all, hatchets and axes, of various size and shape, and prepared to be fitted to handles by sundry ingenious devices. Now where these alone are found, the conclusion is that the village belonged to the people unacquainted with the use of metals; that they were of what is familiarly denominated "STONE-AGE". But here and there, amongst the multitude of stone and bone objects, there was some fragment of an implement of metal, or an ornament of coral or amber.
The size of a village, or the extent of the platform, was ascertained by the number of piles, or over the area in which they ranged. From the degree of concavity exhibited by the wicker-work and casing that remained, the size of the circle which formed an ordinary hut can be judged; and from the area of the village and the size of the hut so determined, an inferance could easily be drawn as to the number of population who inhabited it. Not infrequently the remains of an older deposit were found directly underlying those of a modern one; and the inference is, that the habitations were occupied, in a more civilised condition, by the descendants or the conquerers of those who had occupied them in a less civilised condition.
It is not improbable that many of the older remains may yet be recovered, either apart or lying under implements of iron and of bronze. These remarks will afford a specimen of the facts that had come to light, and the mode in which they have been compelled to tell their story. They are intended to be merely suggestive, however, and to induce readers to turn to other works in which they may find fuller information.
The theory which must be considered supposes the habitation on the seacoast of Cheshire to have been formed in the same way; but it must not be forgotten that it applies only to inland lakes, and not of maritime situations. Those structures were also in shelterd situations; for basins of water are surrouded by hills more or less elevated; whereas such habitations on the seashore would be exposed to the fury of the two elements, wind and water, beside the treachery of the land; and neither they nor even their subaqueous foundations could survive few of our usual winter storms. Thus the theory is set aside, as not coming within the usual conditions, and as being practically impossible.
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