Books, Prehistory, Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1866 V10 Pages 109-113
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1866 V10 Pages 109-113 is in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1866 V10.
On A Piece Of Perforated Slate Found at Aldington, Worcestershire, And Illustrative of the Ancient use of Slate discovered in Barrows in Wiltshire. By the Rev. A. H. Winnington Ingram, F.G.S., Hon. Canon.
The oblong piece of chlorite slate figured in plate vi., a. b. c. in its actual size 5⅜ inches long, 1¾ inches broad, and ¼ of an inch thick, smoothed on both faces and hollowed on one side, perforated by four holes, countersunk on the concave surface, one hole at each corner, on the convex side just large enough to allow a fine ligament to pass through, was taken from a gravel pit situated at an elevation of about one hundred feet above the river Avon, on the Parks farm, in the hamlet of Aldington in Worcestershire, at the bottom of the gravel at the depth of five feet from the top of the soil. The association of one lower and two upper dome-shaped quernstones with the article in the same pit, though these lay a foot nearer the surface, warrant the inference that the locality where they were deposited had been occupied in early times by the rude dwellings of some primitive race, the floors of whose habitations were sunk into the gravel, and that from them the piece of slate had worked down to the depth at which it was discovered. The concave form and size of the slate seem to render it a convenient appendage to the wrist, and from its adaptability to such a use it would appear to be not an improbable supposition, that it served the purpose of a brace or shield to protect the left arm of the wearer against the rap of the string in shooting with the bow, a weapon with the use of which the early inhabitants of this island were familiar, as we are aware from the flint arrow heads found deposited with their sepulchral remains. This opinion which I have formed concerning the part of the body on which the slate tablet was worn, is strengthened by observing that on the edges of its concave side opposite two of the holes a slight depression is visible, apparently caused by the friction of the ligament, whether fibre of bark, or sinew of an animal by which it was attached to the arm. As a collateral support of my theory regarding its use, may be considered the position in which an oblong flat piece of the chlorite slate 4 1/10 inches in length and 1 3/10 inches in breadth, similarly smoothed, pierced with holes at the corners the same in number, but countersunk on both sides, was discovered in a barrow on Roundway Hill near Devizes, in front of the breast of a skeleton, between the bones of the left fore arm, nearly the situation which it would have occupied on the person of the individual when living, had it been worn in accordance with my conjecture about the use of the hollowed slate as a shooting brace, (vide pi. vii. fig. 2.).
A flint arrow head deposited in the same tumulus with this body, indicating it to have been that of a person who had been a bowman in his life time, seems also to add force to the supposition that the plate had been employed for the purpose which I have suggested. The adherence however to this plate of a small bronze pin much corroded, though not on account of its proximity necessarily con- nected with the use of the slate, and the absence of convexity and of any depression similar to those opposite to the holes on the Worcestershire slate, renders it not at all surprising that its use as a wrist shield in shooting with the bow, did not suggest itself to so sagacious an antiquary as Mr. Cunnington its discoverer and described in the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, vol. iii., p. 186. He doubtless was led to or at least confirmed in his conclusion by the opinion of Sir Richard C. Hoare, concerning the use of a somewhat similar slate tablet asserted by him in his Ancient Wiltshire to have been probably suspended from the neck of a Briton, considered that the perforated flat plate found in the barrow on Roundway Hill, was worn as a brooch or ornament on the breast.
The opinion alluded to as perhaps suggesting or confirming this idea formed by Mr. Cunnington, was expressed by Sir R. C. Hoare with reference to a slate perforated with three holes at each end and flat on both sides, (vide pi. vii., fig. 3) discovered by the late Mr. Cunnington of Heytesbury, at Sutton Yeney, Wilts, under the right hand and close to the breast of a skeleton. This situation, unless the left hand was also near to the breast, or unless we suppose that in his lifetime the man whose body, to which it was contiguous, used his right hand in grasping the bow, appears to favour the suppo- sition entertained by the eminent antiquary Sir R. C. Hoare with regard to the part of the body on which it was worn and to be adverse to the theory which I am inclined to adopt, that the pur- pose for which all the slate tablets were shaped and perforated, and some of them hollowed at the cost of infinite labour was that they might be fitted and fastened to the wrist. The great labour however bestowed in hollowing the latter kind of tablets, is of itself a main argument in support of my view, for surely had they been intended to be worn as brooches or suspended from the neck, the trouble would not have been taken to render them concave, when it would have answered the purpose better to have allowed them to continue flat. But to add the weight of another example to the one on which my argument chiefly depends, I must now allege the discovery at the commencement of this very year 1865, with a body and urn in a cist on the farm of Fyrish Evan town, Inverness, of a piece of slate, the exact counterpart in all but the size, of the one in my possession; hollowed on one side, smoothed on both surfaces, perforated with four holes, countersunk only on the concave side, and admirably adapted for the use for which I have suggested such tablets were employed. This plate is deposited in the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities, and has been submitted through the courtesy of the curator, Mr. Macculloch to my in- spection. Although it falls short by little less than an inch of the one figured in plate vi., and comprises only 9/10 of an inch in width, yet it would suit very conveniently as a brace or shield on the J wrist of a youth or female.
Another plate deposited in the same Museum, hollowed, and pierced with the same number of holes as the Invernessshire and Worcestershire slates, 2½ inches long, and 2 inches broad, taken from a grave under a tumulus at Broadford Bay in the island of Skye, appears also to be well adapted to be used with the same design on the wrist of a grown up person.1 (vide pi. vii., fig. 1, a. b. c.) It will be apparent then to the readers of this article, that the opinion formed by the writer concerning the probable use of such tablets both hollowed and flat ones is principally founded, first, on the adaptation of both kinds for the purpose suggested, and the utter improbability that the I hollowed plates were worn on any other part of the body but the wrist; secondly, on the position of the flat perforated slate in relation to the interred body discovered at Eoundway Hill. The force of the first argument derived from the evidence of design in the instrument to serve the purpose supposed, will at once be recognized, and the second process of reasoning founded on the position of the flat tablet in the barrow at Roundway Hill, will doubtless I also be allowed weight when its probable use is thus reconsidered by the light of the discovery of the scooped slates in Worcestershire I and Scotland. If the flat tablets had been pierced with holes only at one end, it might be then a fair supposition that they served a purpose distinct from that of the hollowed ones perforated at both ends, and had been employed as appendages to the neck or breast.
Note 1. This specimen being slightly smaller at the lower end than at the upper end, j seems still better suited for the purpose of a brace. The width of the lower end is exactly the same as that of the plate from Aldington, viz. 1¾ inches.
But when we observe them drilled through at either end, and in one instance with the same number of holes as the hollowed plates, it seems presumptive evidence that the uses of both kinds of tablets I were the same, those with a concave surface being only more ex- I pensively and elaborately wrought in order to fit easier the slight rotundity of the inner side of the wrist. The interesting result I of the process of reasoning conducted in this paper, shows the! utility of comparing specimens of antiquities from various and distant localities, and bringing that comparison to bear on the illustration of their peculiar or common uses, and it may also serve to encourage archaeologists to hope that by continued close and faithful observation of ancient interments, and articles of use and ornament associated with them, a more accurate knowledge may be eventually obtained even of the customs, extent of diffusion, and epochs of existence of the different races, which have in pre-historic ages been successively inhabitants of our island.
Description Of Plates VI. And VII.
Plate VI. Green-slate wrist-guard (actual size), found associated with two quern stones at Aldington, Worcestershire, a. Concave surface, b. convex surface, c. tranverse section, (p. 109.)
Plate VII., Fig. 1. Slate plate found in a tumulus in the island of Skye. It is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, at Edinburgh, No. 267, b, in their catalogue, a. Convex surface, b. concave surface, c. transverse section, (p. 112.)
Fig. 2. Plate of chlorite slate, found in a barrow on Roundway Hill, by Mr. Cunnington of Devizes, vide Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, vol. iii., p. 186. Actual size 4 4/10 in. x 1 3/1.
Fig. 3. Plate of blue slate, found by the late Mr. Cunnington of Heytesbury, at Sutton Veney, vide Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire, vol. i., p. 103, where it is described as a breast-plate. It is engraved in plate xii. of that work.