[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
FRAGMENT OF A SCULPTURED STONE, irregular in form, about 4 feet in greatest length and 20 inches broad. It consists of sandstone, and has rudely sculptured on one surface a representation of a warrior, with his shield, in a chariot drawn by a lion and a leopard. The sculpture does not present the usual characteristics of Roman work: and a
SMALL FRAGMENT OF A SLAB INSCRIBED ‘MERCURIUS.’ These stones are said to have been discovered together ‘in Strathmore.’ They are described in Stuart’s Caledonia Romana, which states:- ‘In the Museum at Perth is preserved an object which is believed to have been found near one of the Roman Camps in Strathmore, and had for a long period been used as a hearth-stone, with the back placed uppermost, in a cottage which stood near the place of its discovery. It is a slab of freestone, about 4 feet in length by 20 inches in breadth, much mutilated, and representing in bas-relief a military figure seated on a car and drawn by a couple of what seem to be lions or leopards. On one arm he carries an oval shield, while the other is extended in the act of lashing forward his savage team. From the fragment of an inscription said to have been found along with it, and which contains the word “Mercurius,” the figure in question would seem to represent the Messenger of the Gods subduing the fiercest animals to his will, and hastening along the fields of earth, with perhaps some errand from on high. Unfortunately, however, it has been so much injured by the ravages of time, that little more than the general outline can now be distinguished.’ (See Fig. 22.)
See Caledonia Romana, by Robert Stuart, second edition, Edinburgh, 1852, p. 207, pl. vi. 7 and 8.
(93) Lent by the LITERARY AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF PERTH.
ANCIENT ROMAN BOWL, of the Red Pottery of the third or fourth century, known as Samian Ware, found 7th October 1876, at the Fleshers’ Haugh, Glasgow Green. This bowl was found 4 ½ feet under the present surface of the Green, at a distance of 200 yards from the Clyde, which is about 12 feet below the surface-level of the place where the bowl was discovered. It is an unusually perfect specimen, as those having raised figures and ornamentation are commonly found in fragments. It is probably from one of the German fabriques, as the ware of the same class made in the Auvergne or Italian factories was more highly finished and of thinner body than is this specimen. The bowl, which stands 4 ½ inches high and has a diameter of 9 inches, belongs to the third century. The find is described by John Buchanan, LL.D., in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol. xii. p. 254, and it is figured in vol. xxii. p. 352. (See Fig. 23.)
(8i) From KELVINGROVE MUSEUM.
With this were shown several fragments of a Roman Bowl of Samian Ware, found at Gartshore, Kirkintilloch. Kirkintilloch is on the line of the Wall or Barrier of Antonine. Samian pottery with raised figures was rarely deposited in tombs; hence remains of the ware are usually found in fragments which had been cast away when the vessels were accidentally broken.
(83) Lent by J. MACNAUGHT CAMBELL.
PAIR OF ROMAN BRONZE VASE HANDLES, found at Barochan. Renfrewshire. These handles were found associated with the Bronze Patera (No. 59) described below. The handles are bow-shaped, and similar to modem falling handles of drawers or lids: the ends being recurved to form hooks in rings attached to solid bosses of metal. The bosses are moulded in the form of a human face rising from a pear-shaped disc, the back being flat to permit of it being fastened to a metal vessel. The extreme width of each handle is 3 inches. (See Fig. 24.)
(58) Lent by MRS. DUNLOP, through DAVID MURRAY, LL.D.
ROMAN PATERA, of Bronze, found in 1886 at Barochan, old parish of Kilallan, Renfrewshire. The site of the find is about four miles from Dumbarton and Kilpatrick, and six miles from Paisley, at each of which places there was a Roman station. The vessel is of yellow bronze, tinned inside, and having in the centre of the bottom a raised boss or disc. It has broad lip or level rim, from which the handle projects in a horizontal direction. The handle ends in a circular expansion, with central perforation. The incised lines inside the pot, the bands on its outer surface, and the series of five bold projecting concentric rings on the bottom, show that it has been finished on a lathe. The vessel stands 6 ¼ inches high; in total diameter it is 9 ½ inches, and its breadth across the bowl (excluding the rim) is 8 ¾ inches; the flat handle, which is ornamented with a cable pattern around the edge, is 8 ¼ inches long. On the handle, part of the stamped name of the manufacturer is still legible, the letters remaining being UDIB.Y. Numerous remains of vessels similar in form have been found throughout Europe. It is, except in trifling details, the same as one found at Palace in Teviotdale in 1849, now in the Museum of National Antiquities, Edinburgh, see Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol. iv. p. 597 (1862). Another, discovered at a crannog in Dowalton Loch, Wigtownshire, in 1864, is figured and described in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol. vi. p. 109 et seq. See also Dr. Anderson’s Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age, p. 266, Fig. 246. Two such vessels are described in Ure’s History of Rutherglen (1793), p. 124, as having been obtained in 1773 at Gallowflat. They had broad handles about 9 inches long, on which was cut the name Congallus or Convallus. Numerous vessels of the same type have been unearthed in Pompeii, and one, the same in all respects as the Barochan example, except that it is slightly smaller, is in the Duke of Northumberland’s museum at Alnwick. (See Fig. 25.)
(59) Lent by MRS. DUNLOP. through DAVID MURRAY, LL.D.
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