Glasgow Archaeological Society Research Articles

Archaeology in Scotland after the Second World War: The Glasgow Archaeological Society and John M Davidson

The organisation and co-ordination of local and national archaeological societies in the United Kingdom has been a matter of discussion since the late 19th Century. These efforts resulted in an initially purely English and Welsh grouping – the Congress of Archaeological Societies – formed in July 1889. Glasgow Archaeological Society was the first, and perhaps the only, Scottish Society to join in 1922. In the middle of the Second World War discussion around how archaeological work could best be structured after the War was started and this time the coverage was UK wide involving both Glasgow Archaeological Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It led to the end of the Congress and the formation of the Council for British Archaeology and its various sections. This article reports on the nature of Scottish involvement in this work, rediscovering the key role of Glasgow Archaeological Society and its then President, John M Davidson, OBE, FCIS, FSA Scot.

Presidential Address to Glasgow Archaeological Society

Presidential Address to Glasgow Archaeological Society

Ludovic McLellan Mann's place in the history of prehistoric metrology

Megalithic metrology, the notion that Neolithic monument builders employed a standard unit of measurement when setting out stone circles, has a long history. William Stukeley was the first to suggest that this standard unit was the druid cubit. He may have drawn on Isaac Newton's 1728 description of the temple of Abydos, which noted that the layout utilised cubits in the design, though the druid cubit was Stukeley's invention. This idea of a standard universal measure seemingly lay dormant for over a century until Edward Duke, Charles Piazzi Smyth and Sir William Flinders Petrie proposed other metrological systems. The subject was taken up again in 1930 when Ludovic McLellan Mann wrote a pamphlet entitled Craftsmen's Measures in Prehistoric Times in which he detailed new measures; the ‘alpha unit’ (0.619 inches) and the ‘beta unit’ (0.55 inches). A special committee formed from members of the Glasgow Archaeological Society and the Glasgow University Geological Society resoundingly disagreed, but Mann found approval from outside the archaeological community when his ideas were taken up by Major F C Tyler, who used them to elaborate on his own version of the lengths of Alfred Watkins’ old straight tracks. More famously, Alexander Thom made megalithic metrology, (the megalithic rod, yard, foot, and inch) an essential part of his thesis, ideas which received an esoteric twist in the New Age writings of John Michell. Was this an original discovery or was Thom influenced by Mann and others before him?

Pioneers in Roman Archaeology: The Antonine Wall Committee

The paper considers the origins of a Committee established by the Glasgow Archaeological Society in March 1891 to oversee an investigation of the Antonine Wall; the backgrounds and interrelationships of those involved; the methodologies and protocols adopted; the sequence in which the trenches were opened up; the slow progress to publication in 1899 of the written record, The Antonine Wall Report; and the significance of the work in the history of Scottish archaeology. Extensive use is made of the Minutes and Annual Reports of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, articles in the press and other contemporary documents. Hitherto unpublished site-drawings by the draughtsman Mungo Buchanan of Falkirk add to our knowledge of these events.

Anne S. Robertson: The Antonine Wall: a Handbook to the Surviving Remains (4th edition: revised and edited by Lawrence Keppie). Pp. 114; 64 plans and photographs, 2 end maps. Glasgow: Glasgow Archaeological Society, 1990. Paper.

Anne S. Robertson: The Antonine Wall: a Handbook to the Surviving Remains (4th edition: revised and edited by Lawrence Keppie). Pp. 114; 64 plans and photographs, 2 end maps. Glasgow: Glasgow Archaeological Society, 1990. Paper. - Volume 41 Issue 2

RECENT WORK ON THE ANTONINE WALL

In this first Volume of the Glasgow Arch aeological Journal, it is fitting to look back to the publication in 1899, seventy years ago, of The Antonine Wall : An Account of the Excavations, etc. made under the direction of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, during 1890-93. It has rightly been said that the Society has produced no greater or important arch aeological publication than the 'Antonine Wall Report'. Of all the sections cut by the Society across the Antonine Wall and Ditch on Bar Hill, Croy Hill, or at Scabegs Wood, Bonnyside and Rough Castle, the section Croy No. 11 (NS 7307?3) proved to be of most outstanding importance, or as the Antonine Wall Report has it more than ordinarily interesting (p. 71). For one thing, the rampart turf was preserved above the stone base to a height of several feet. Secondly, at this point there occurred one of the six known semicircular expansions or turf platforms attached to the rear of the Wall, and now generally accepted as signalling platforms. There was another such platform about 440 feet west of Croy Section No. 11, and there were two other pairs of signalling platforms, one pair to east, and one to west of the Antonine Wall fort at

NOTES ON GLASGOW CATHEDRAL

The Medieval Treasury of Glasgow Cathedral Projecting northwards from the westernmost bay of the choir of Glasgow Cathedral, is a low building, roofed with modern flagstones, which, in the nineteenth century, served as a heating chamber and, more recently, has been adapted to form a Session Room and other offices. The original use of this building has never been satisfactorily decided and, from time to time, various assertions have been made. A lifetime ago, on 19 December, 1895, Archbishop Eyre read a paper before the Glasgow Archaeological Society, in which he argued, not very convincingly, that the building had been the Hall of the Vicars Choral of the Cathedral.1 An attempt is here made to determine the original purpose of this building. The fabric of this building, as it stands to-day, is basically thirteenthcentury, with much structural alteration, made in the nineteenth century, to adapt it to its new role as a heating chamber. The best available description of the building, while it served as a heating chamber, is contained in a note by P. Macgregor Chalmers, published by the Glasgow Archaeological Society.2 The building measures 32ft. by 17 ft. 6ins., inside, and the walls average some 4ft. 3ins. in thickness. Where this building abuts against the north wall of the cathedral, a part of the late twelfth-century wall of the Lower Church is preserved. The thick walls and the massive buttresses show that the walls were intended to be at least two storeys in height and, in fact, the internal stair, connecting the existing building with the vanished upper floor, is still preserved in the thickness of its west wall. There is an external door in the middle of the north wall but originally this chamber had a door, giving direct access to the Lower Church. This door, built up during the nineteenth century but now reopened, is at the western end of the south wall of the chamber and, within the cathedral, it opens onto the north stair, leading down from the nave to the Lower Church. The vanished upper chamber of this building communicated directly with the north aisle of the choir, where under the window in the westernmost bay are traces of a large ornamental doorway. Only the top part of the window in this bay is original: the lower part was constructed in the nineteenth century, after the top storey of the abutting building had been removed.3

The Antonine Wall, 1934–1959

The publication in 1934 of the second edition of Sir George Macdonald's Roman Wall in Scotland marked the end of an era in the study of the Antonine Wall. The interest in systematic exploration aroused by the Glasgow Archaeological Society's investigations of 1890–3 gained momentum during the years that followed; and by 1934 the structural nature of the Wall had been determined and its course for the most part accurately mapped, while excavation, often on an elaborate scale, had been carried out in the majority of the known forts along its line. With much of this activity Macdonald was personally associated, and his masterly synthesis of the results will always be an indispensable reference-work for those who labour in the same field.

J. Clarke, J. M. Davidson, A. S. Robertson, and J. K. St. Joseph. The Roman Occupation of South-Western Scotland, being reports of excavations and surveys carried out under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Edited by S. N. Miller. Glasgow: Maclehose and Co., Ltd., 1952. Pp. XIX, 246, with 66 plates and 12 text-figs., 4to. Price not stated.

J. Clarke, J. M. Davidson, A. S. Robertson, and J. K. St. Joseph. The Roman Occupation of South-Western Scotland, being reports of excavations and surveys carried out under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Edited by S. N. Miller. Glasgow: Maclehose and Co., Ltd., 1952. Pp. XIX, 246, with 66 plates and 12 text-figs., 4to. Price not stated. - Volume 47 Issue 1-2

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF SOUTHWESTERN SCOTLAND, being the reports of excavations and surveys carried out by the Glasgow Archaeological Society. By John Clarke, J. M. Davidson, Anne S. Robertson and J. K. St. Joseph, edited with a historical survey by S. N. Miller. To be obtained from; The Joint Hon. Secretary Glasgow Archaeological Society, 2 Ailsa Drive, Glasgow, S. 2.

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF SOUTHWESTERN SCOTLAND, being the reports of excavations and surveys carried out by the Glasgow Archaeological Society. By John Clarke, J. M. Davidson, Anne S. Robertson and J. K. St. Joseph, edited with a historical survey by S. N. Miller. To be obtained from; The Joint Hon. Secretary Glasgow Archaeological Society, 2 Ailsa Drive, Glasgow, S. 2. Pp. XX, 246, 67 maps and plates, 12 text-figures. 45s. - Volume 28 Issue 109

The Roman Occupation of South-western Scotland, being reports of excavations and surveys carried out under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. By John Clarke, J. M. Davidson, Anne S. Robertson, J. K. St. Joseph, edited for the Society, with an historical survey, by S. N. Miller. 8¼ × 6½. Pp. xix + 246. Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Co., The

The Roman Occupation of South-western Scotland, being reports of excavations and surveys carried out under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. By John Clarke, J. M. Davidson, Anne S. Robertson, J. K. St. Joseph, edited for the Society, with an historical survey, by S. N. Miller. 8¼ × 6½. Pp. xix + 246. Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Co., The University Press, 1952. - Volume 34 Issue 1-2

The Fifth Campaign of Agricola

In September, 1938, Dr. J. K. St. Joseph, in retracing the ‘Roman way’ described by Roy as ‘leading from the neighbourhood of Lanark … towards the gorge of Loudon-hill, and so into Airshire’, identified the site of a reputed Roman ‘camp’ on a small plateau overlooking the ‘gorge’ on the south. It was at once arranged with the Glasgow Archaeological Society that trial trenches should be dug under his supervision. These proved that the enclosure was, in fact, a Roman fort, and produced some fragments of pottery which suggested that the site had been occupied in the Flavian as well as the Antonine period. There the matter had to rest for the duration of the war, and it was September, 1946, before Dr. St. Joseph's excavations for the Glasgow Society could be resumed. It is too soon yet for a coherent plan of the complicated remains to be laid down, but enough has been done to show that an Antonine fort with an interior area of between two and three acres had been preceded by at least two earlier enclosures ; and a substantial collection of datable pottery, produced partly by these excavations and partly by the encroachment of a gravel-quarry upon the north corner of the site, includes a considerable proportion of Flavian pieces—estimated at about one-third by Miss Anne Robertson, who is in charge of the small finds.The significance of this for the history of the early occupation of Scotland is dealt with in a report on various excavations and surveys which will be published soon by the Glasgow Society. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the guidance which the discoveries at Loudoun Hill seem to offer for the interpretation of Tacitus' account of one of the campaigns of Agricola which preceded the occupation.

Megalithic Tombs in Scotland and Ireland

PROF. GORDON CHILDE‘S present ideas on the Megalithic tombs in Scotland and Ireland are put on record in a paper read before the Glasgow Archaeological Society (Trans., 11; 1947). Recent discoveries have caused him to modify some details of his expose made in the same publication for 1931. No longer, for example, is "the priority of Scottish passage graves over against English or Irish" maintained. The chief discoveries made in the last ten years have been those of no less than seventy horned cairris covering segmented cists in Ulster which, allowing for local differences, can be equated with the tombs of the Clyde and Solway coasts. Beacharra ware occurs in both these series of tombs. Further, it would appear that in Megalithic tomb times, southwest Scotland, north-east Ireland and the Isle of Man formed one province, while central and western Ireland and Scotland north of the Great Glen constituted another. Lastly, Prof. Childe uses the new discoveries to suggest an explanation of the anomalous occurrence of long cairns, horned at both ends, which have been found in northern Scotland.

Bronze Age Cemetery near Glasgow

AN important addition to the record of recent finds of prehistoric age in the neighbourhood of Glasgow is a bronze age cemetery site at Springhill Farm, Baillieston, identified and examined by Mr. J. Harrison Maxwell and other members of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. The first indication of the site was the unearthing of two food vessels in May last by workmen, when excavating a hillock for sand and gravel. Of these two vessels, one, according to a description in The Times of December 21, was in perfect condition. It was hand-made and of reddish brown clay, with two zones of decoration made by string impression, the upper zone in horizontal, the lower in vertical or slightly oblique lines. The second vessel, unfortunately broken by the workman in digging, but now skilfully restored, is of a more elaborate and beautiful character. Its rim is bevelled inward, and for ornament it has an upper zone of decoration formed by horizontal rows of impressions of barley ears, while elsewhere are impressions or punch marks made by the end of a hollow bone, stick or reed. This discovery led to a careful watch on the progress of excavation, and a number of burials, seven cremated and two inhumed, were recorded. The most important discovery, however, was that of a bronze age cist of unusual type in that instead of two long and two short stones, it is built of a large number of small stones and is tongue-shaped, about four feet long and two feet broad at its greatest breadth. The cover consisted of two large stones, that to the south being very, thick, while that to the north had an oblong cut-out on the east side. The floor was a pavement of water-rolled pebbles. There were two cremation burials on top of, and two inside the cist. Discoveries of bones and a burial were made in November and December, of which the latest has not yet been excavated. The bones are under examination. Two square-shaped pits containing iron slag point to the existence of a later ‘bloomery’ or forge.

John Clarke, The Roman Fort at Cadder (Near Glasgow), being an account of excavations conducted under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Glasgow: Jackson Wylie and Co., 1933. Pp. xii + 93, with 10 plates and 19 figures. 12s. 6d.

John Clarke, The Roman Fort at Cadder (Near Glasgow), being an account of excavations conducted under the auspices of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Glasgow: Jackson Wylie and Co., 1933. Pp. xii + 93, with 10 plates and 19 figures. 12s. 6d.

The Roman Fort at Old Kilpatrick. By S. N. Miller. Being an account of excavations conducted on behalf of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie & Co., 1928. 12s. 6d.

The Roman Fort at Old Kilpatrick. By S. N. Miller. Being an account of excavations conducted on behalf of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie & Co., 1928. 12s. 6d. - Volume 18 Issue 2

XXXIII. The Geology of the Clyde “Crannogs.”

Introduction.—After some hesitation I have decided to call this paper by the above title, as it owes its origin to the problem of the geological conditions which existed about the time when Crannogs were being built, though many of the questions raised have much wider issues than those affecting the first erection of those interesting structures. The Dumbuck “Crannog” has been brought very prominently before the public of late by a long series of letters and articles (probably not far short of two hundred) which, during a period of about four years, have appeared in the Glasgow Herald and the Glasgow Evening Times . Many of these were very bitter and personal, and some even contained what almost amounted to charges of forgery or fraud against persons known or unknown in connection with the Dumbuie and Dumbuck investigations. Believing that these attributions and accusations arose very much from the fact that the Dumbuck “Crannog” and all its contents were largely unique, therefore to some extent incomprehensible, my intention in writing the present paper has been to try to offer a scientific explanation of some of the difficulties which have been advanced by the different writers on the subject.* The Langbank “Crannog,” which is placed on the south bank of the river, was only discovered some years later than the Dumbuck one. [It has to a considerable extent been investigated by a Committee of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, and a Report by Mr. John Bruce, F.S.A.Scot., is given in that Society's Transactions This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract