The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

Anthropological Society.

- ~ -

At an ordinary meeting of this society on Tues-
day evening—Dr. J. Hunt in the chair—several
pa
remp ear win the
i ns
saenr were readsten
stone
on i
mthe l
erme ceennttsl d o
ov errke h
nd e
y su m
anda n
in Caithness, with reference more particularly to the
recent work by Mr. Laing, on the pre-historic re-
mains in Caithness. Mr. Laing brought this sub-
ject before this society in a former session, and ex-
cited much interest by the statement of the discove-
ries he had made in excavating the kists and shell
mounds in Caithness, which he has since more fully
developed in his work, in which he endeavours to
prove that the bones and implements found in
the graves and shell mounds indicate the existence
of a pre-historic race of degraded cannibals in
Caithness. The inhabitants of the district have felt
some indignation at this imputation on their ances-
tors, and many have been the objectors to his facts
and deductions. Those adduced were numerous
and very difficult to be overcome, and Mr. Laing,
who was expected to have been present to meet
them, was prevexted by illness from attending.
The first paper was by Mr. John Cleghorn, of
Wick, entitled 46 A new reading of shell-mounds
and graves in Caithness," in which he entered into
an elaborate examination of Mr. Laing's book, for
the purpose of showing that its statements of facts
are not correct and the deductions erroneous. Mr.
Cleghorn commenced his attack by bringing geolo-
gical evidence to bear against the assumed great
antiquity of the kists, for many of those kists are not
far above the level of the sea, which has been re-
ceding regularly for many yea's, so that it wouldbe
impossible for them to have been made on dry
ground more than 300 or 400 years ago. The
alleged stone implements found in the graves with
the skeletons, Mr. Cleghorn contended, were
nothing more than the rounded natural stones of
the district. He denied that the skulls were of a
more degraded character than most of those of indi-
viduals of the present day; and he was of opinion
that the skeletons found were those of mariners who
had been wrecked and their bodies buried near the
shore. With regard to the Birkle hills, which Mr.
Laing regards as affording evidence of great anti-
quity, Mr. Cleghorn observed that they are hillocks
of blown sand that have been consolidated by their
having been the rendezvous of the country folks on
occasions of wrecks, from their being nearest the
scenes of such disasters. They are on the same
raised beach with the graves and the harbour mound,'
therefore cannot be older than they. "The Cyclo-
pean building of unhewn stones from the beech" (so
called by Mr. Laing) has been the place of shelter
for the night-watchers, and the " ovens," or " fire-
places," are the hearths where the crowds lighted
their fires to warm themselves during their dismal
nights. The relics found of nails of iron, charcoal,
stones split by heat, bones all charred, whorls, frag-
ments of iron, &c., were also just what such gather-
ings of men and women are expected to leave. He
conceded, in conclusion, that the view Mr. Laing has
taken of the shell-mounds and graves at Feiss are
at variance with the teachings of the geologist, the
archaeologist, and the anthropologist ; and that there
is a want of proof in his premises and of logic in his
deductions.

A paper by Mr. Petrie, of Orkney, was no less
severe in opposing Mr. Laing's facts and inferences.
Mr. A. Joseph Anderson, in a paper " On human
remains at Feiss," also differed from Mr. Laing's
views, and came to the conclusion " that the burial
mound contains two sets of interments, one pre-
sumably older than the other, but concerning either
of which we have no reliable data for determining
their age, though the one may with considerable pro-
bability be conjectured to be recent, and the other
not of very great antiquity. That the 'shell mounds'
so called, being refuge heaps of borgs or Picts'
houses, cannot be referred to what has been called
the ' early stage of the stone period ;' that they
present no general analogy with kjokken moddings
of Denmark, and in all probability belong to the
transition period when the pre-historic and the
earliest historic records of the North of Scot-
land merge into and throw light upon each other.
That the Birkle hills' are still undetermined as to
their character and contents, and that the ' moor-
land mound' is most likely the site of an early Cul-
dee settlement latterly used by the country people
as a shelling."

Mr. R. J. SHEARER also contributed a paper on
the same subject, in which he criticised Mr. Laing's
book with much severity ; and, in noticing that
portion of it relating to the moorland mound, he
observed :—" I am really astonished that Mr.
Laing did not, 'before rushing into print, take the
advice of some person in this country, who might
have hindered him publishing an account of a
sheilh3g' bothy, not yet out of use above 40 or 50
years, as a moorland mound of pre-historic date.