A N C I E N T CALEDONIAN SKULL.
PEOM STONE CIST NEAR KINALDIE, ABEEDEENSHIRE.
(REAION OP THE TAIXAII, TEMP. PTOLEMIEI, A.D. 120. )
IK the month of AprU, 1855, three cists were opened near Kinaldie, on the lands of Caskyben,
Aberdeenshire,—a fourth having been discovered about twenty years previously. The spot is
about ten miles from Aberdeen, and half a mile from the right bank of the river Don. On
the farm of Bendaugh, some 200 yards south of the mound in which these cists were met with,
stands, on the top of a hill, one of the ancient " standing stones," which has not any sculpture
upon it. This is called the " Gauk Stone of Bendaugh." The entire district is rich in primeval
remains. On the recent removal of the Castle HUl of Kintore, eleven large blocks of granite
were disinterred; and a number of house-pits, indicating the dwellings of the aborigines, were
found scattered over the mound*.
It is a natural sandy hillock in which these cists were deposited. They were placed lengthwise
in a line, at about 10 yards apart, and running east and west. The eastern one, formerly
opened, contained human bones and a vase. Such also were the contents of the two met with on
the removal of the mound in April 1855. The fourth, or westerly cist, fi-om which our
cranium was derived, was excavated under the eyes of Mr. At. Watt of Kintoret. This cist was
composed of five slabs of white granite, the bottom not being paved. Such also was the construction
of the two middle cists. These stones were natural flags, not dressed with any tool,
and were from 9 to 12 in. thick. The covering-stone was 5 ft. 8 in. long, and 3 ft. 3 in. wide.
The cist beneath was about 10 in. less each way, and 1 ft. 11 in. deep. On the covering-stone
being removed, a skeleton was brought into view, placed, with the back towards the north, in
the contracted or crouching position. The skuU, upon its crown, with the lower jaw in situ, lay
between the thigh-bones; and an earthen vase stood close by its left side, towards the eastern
end of the cist. In the course of decomposition the head had dropped into this position, before
the ligaments attaching the lower jaw had given way. A vase—for it was not a cinerary urn,
and did not contain ashes—was found in each of the cists; which is a very usual occurrence in
the short cistic sepulchres of Scotland, whether the bodies interred in them have been burned or
simply buried J. These earthen vases were pretty well burned, reddish, black in their fracture,
* Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, ii.
230.
t To this gentleman, and to the Council of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, we are obliged for permission to figure
the Kinaldie skull in the " Crania Britannica."
t The writer has received from a kind friend to whom he
owes many favours, Dr. Thomas A. Wise, F.S.A. of S., of
Belmont Castle, Meigle, Perthshire, a vase of the same description,
found in February, 1859, in that neighbourhood, in
a short stone cist, which contained the skeleton of a young
woman of about 17 years of age. The beautiful regular skull
of this Caledonian maid is quite brachy-cephalic. The vase,
25.
5-2 in. high, and 6 in. in diameter over the top, is ornamented
with zigzag at the bottom, and two series of horizontal lines
above, having indented patterns between them and above the
higher, and is made of a clay containing micaceous scales. When
the cist was opened, this vase still retained at the bottom a
black greasy deposit, of an animal nature ; no doubt the remams
of food which it contained when originally placed in this
narrow sepulchre.
The writer has another example of very similar form and size,
but much more elaborately ornamented, from a short stone cist,
discovered in 1857 at Kirkhall, near Ardrossan, Ayrshire ;
when two or more cists were met with, each holding a vase, but