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ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN SKULL.
PROM CIST NEAR DUNROBIN CASTLE, SUTHERLANDSHIRE.
(UEalON EUEQTJENTED AND SOMETIMES POSSESSED BY NORSEMEN, NINTH TO THIUTEENTH
OENTimT A.D.)
Cranium from Dimrobin Cist.—Quarter-size.
IN the month of May, 1854, during the progress of improvements in the garden of Durn^bin
Castle, the ancestral d'omain of the Dute of Sutherland, some eistie sepulchres were met « t h
which ranged from south-west to north-east* The cists, sunk in the sand, were ormed hy hm
slahs of sandstone,were paved at the bottom and c o v e r e d i n with similar flags, r u d c l y l a . d o ^
top not fitted by art. The first cist opened was about eight feet long, and was cove-d - t h
th e slabs, two of which, towaa-ds the feet, were ordiua.-y flagstones; but, tl^;^ — ^ ^ ^ e ^
was larger and thicker, and, on its upper surface, had foui- figures sculptm.ed upon rt. Throu J
the M y of the Council of the Society of Anticiuaries of Scotland, and the poMeness^f n
of theix- Secretaries, John Alexander Smith, M.D.. E.S.A.S., we are able not only to figure the
c L m L before the reader, which was derived from another of the cists, but also to g.ve an
« o n of the sculptured covering stone of this. The carved ^ ^ ^
shape, without ornament on the edges, not adapted in any way to the est, but laid lengtl.
* " In tliis place, DuMobin (Robin's tower, from dm, a
tower), so highly favoured by nature as regards scenery and
fcrtiUty, the Norwegian Jarls, who ruled over Sutherland, undoubtedly
had one of their chief residences ; as, for instance,
Sigurd Jarl, a brother of Kagnvald More-Jarl, Sigurd the
27.
Stout (+1014), and his son Thorfin ( +about 1064). Norwegian
antiquities, Uke those discovered m Caithness, are
found in graves near Dunrobiu, particularly the well-kno™
bowl-formed brooches or buckles."—"Worsaae's " Danes and
Norwegians in England, Scotland and Ireland," 1852. p. 259.
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