Quern Replacement and the Origin of the Broths Seamas Caulfield”
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Quern replacement and the origin of the broths Seamas Caulfield” Ever since the broths of the Atlantic Province captured the interest of antiquarians in the last century one of the unanswered questions has been the area in which this unified building and defence tradition originated. In modern studies archaeologists such as Childe (1935) and Hamilton (1968) argued that the concentration of broths in the northern sub-Province indicated that there was the most likely area of origin. MacKie (1965; 1971; 1972) has however argued in a number of papers that the origin of the broths lies in the west where they developed under the stimulus of southern English migrants arriving in the Hebrides in the 1st~century BC. As evidence of this immigration one of the new exotic artefacts which MacKie derives from the Wessex area is the flat rotary querns which he contrasts with the Beehive querns of Southern Scotland and which he sees as clear imports from the south of England. It is intended to deal elsewhere with the absence of any link between the querns of Wessex and those of the Hebrides and the implications of this for the English migrants hypothesis. However a study of the more fundamental contrast between broths with saddle querns and those with rotary querns appears to offer a better basis for estab- lishing the claim of the western or northern area within the Atlantic Province as the area of origin of the broth. One of the merits of the quern as an object of study in this regard is that it is prob- ably the most imperishable and ubiquitous artefact associated with the broths. The use of the quern as an indicator of chronological differences between sites in Scotland goes back to the beginning of this century. The excavation report of forts on the Poltalloch Estate, Argyll, in 1904 strikingly illustrates what is one of the major technological changes of the Iron Age (Christison 1905). Two photographs (figs 11 and 29 in that report) are of the quern- stones from two of the forts excavated, namely Duntroon and Dunadd (pl 8a-b). The importance of the photographs is that all the stones from Duntroon are saddle querns while only three out of 50 from Dunadd were of this type. The significance of this contrast was not lost on the excavator who wrote: Can the vitrified forts be differentiated in date from the ordinary hillforts? . The relics found at Duntroon are suggestive. It is certainly remarkable that in the four forts in the district excavated by us . while all the thirty-six querns discovered there, were of the saddle type, of the fifty found at Dunadd, only three were of that type and all found at Ardifuar and Druim an Duin were rotary querns (Christison 1905, 279). Christison is here suggesting that the construction and occupation of Duntroon predates the other sites on the evidence of the archaic saddle quern and the absence of the more modern rotary one. It is difficult to disagree with Christison’s view for the following reasons. The rotary quern is * Department of Archaeology, University College, Dublin 130 1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1977-8 not a mere new artcfact occurring sporadically among sometimes conservative communities; it represents instead a major technological changeover in the processing of cereals. It could be looked on as one of the major technological advances of the Iron Age second only to the intro- duction of iron itself. While it replaced a process with more than a two-thousand year history in these islands it was the inception of a process which continued down to the present day (Ryan 1972, 68). The product of the rotary quern was SO superior both in control of quality and output that it is not surprising that it appears to have replaced the archaic process fairly rapidly. ‘Quern Replacement’ meaning the changeover from the saddle to the rotary quern is a a universal phenomenon of the Iron Age in these islands and is potentially of value for estab- lishing a relative chronology among monument types or within geographical regions. A question which will have to be discussed later is the Replacement Phase - the period during which both types may have remained in use together. But whether this Phase lasted a year, decades or centuries it is possible to recognise pre-Replacement and post-Replacement sites such as Christison did at Poltalloch. In Atlantic Scotland it appears at first glance that the situation is much too confused to allow for sites to be assigned pre- or post-Replacement. Stone forts and broths in this province have yielded large numbers of both rotary and saddle querns. There is a further complication that most finds of querns from this region come from old excavations where stratification was seldom closely observed and objects from many periods were not isolated. The numerous broth exca- vations of the last century are particularly at fault in this regard. Nonetheless it is possible to glean some valuable information from the reports of these early excavations. Detailed examination of the context of the querns from modern excavations taken with general trends which emerge from the earlier works show the Quern Replacement phenomenon to be clearly recognisable in the broth context. In fact just as Christison observed for the Poltalloch forts, Quern Replacement has been identified and commented on in some broth excavation reports. Craw (1934,286) was the first to point to Quern Replacement in the excavation of Gurness broth where he noted that all the saddle querns came from the primary level while the rotary were all from the secondary level. Scott (1947, 29, n 2) however wrote that ‘the classification of the many unpublished querns from broths would be valuable for chronology’ but while he refers to the Gurness evidence and mentions rotary querns from Dun Troddan and Dun Telve he makes no attempt to establish Quern Replacement for the broths in general. In a subsequent paper (Scott 1948, 109, n 1) he concerned himself with the saddle/rotary occurrence in broths and other structures but seemed to accept that no pattern of occurrence could be recognised. It has been possible to get information from the published literature on the occurrence of querns in forty-three broths throughout the entire broth area. Much of the information is a bare reference to rotary and/or saddle querns occurring among the finds from particular broths which is all one usually gets from the earlier excavation reports. There are however a number of modern excavations such as Dun Mor Vaul (MacKie 1974) and Jarlshof (Hamilton 1956) where the fullest detail is available on the exact context of the querns. These sites, taken with overall trends apparent from the earlier excavations show clearly the reality of Quern Replacement in the broths as a whole. Broths with Querns The broths have been divided into five regions, Shetland; Orkney; North Scottish Main- land; West Coast and Hebrides; South Scottish Mainland; and they have been listed in the order of publication in the different regions. CAULFIELD : QUERN REPLACEMENT AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BROCHS 1 13 1 Shetland Levenwick (Goudie 1872) p 213 ‘A portion of a quern was found among the debris and fragmentsof bonesbut no other remains.’ Clumlie (Goudie 1889) p 253 ‘The stonesnow exhibited are the only specimensof human manufacture found with the exception of somequerns and grain rubbers discoveredcloseby someyears ago.’ Jarlshof (Hamilton 1956) Becauseof the earlier excavations(Bruce 1907),finds within the broth were rare and no quernsare recorded. One of the earliest post-broth structures, the aisled house besidethe broth, had a number of saddle querns and rubbers. One fragment of rotary quern from this building in an ambiguouscontext has causedsome controversy. Discussedmore fully below. 4 Clickhimin (Hamilton 1968) Clickhimin, like Jarlshof had occupation at many periodsfrom Bronze Age to Viking times. Large saddlequerns were found in a pre-broth fort. 4 number of saddlequern rubberscame from within the broth. The earliest occurrenceof the rotary quern at Clickhimin was in a late roadway dating to the post-broth wheelhouseperiod. Orkney 5 Hoxa (Thomas 1852) (from an account suppliedby a Mr Robert Heddle) p 121 ‘Round the interior circumferenceof the broth wall are set upright flagstonesfrom three feet and a half to sevenfeet in height. Betweenthe basesof each pair of upright flagstoneswas found a corncrusherof primitive simplicity. Each consistedof two piecesof sandstone,one slightly hollowed on the upper surface,the other smallerand horizontally convex below. Theseimplements were buried in rude boxes composedof flagstonesset together. They are various in shapeand size beinghowever more or lessoblong. The lower stonesare betweeneighteen inches and two feet in length while the upper oneswhich may be graspedin the hand do not exceedhalf that dimension’. 6 Borwick (Watt 1882) The broth had been altered by the building of a wheelhousewithin it on many feet of occupation debris. Among the linds were: A large assortmentof mullers, different sixes. A few broken mortars. Parts of querns. 7 Burrian (Trail1 1890) p 364 Finds from the tist occupation. ‘Stonesfor grinding; many. Piecesof three querns’. 8 Stirling0 (Petrie 1890) p 87 Finds: ‘Portions of a quern’. 9 Harray (Petrie 1890) p 88 ‘I have not seenall the relics found in this building but they include stonevessels of the usual rude form, remainsof stone quems and stone and bone implements.’ 10 Ayre (Graeme 1914) p 38 List of relics: Stone Five flat rotary querns. ‘Top and bottom stonesof flat rocking or saddletype.’ 11 Gurness(Craw 1934) p 286 ‘Regardingrelics, all the saddlequerns came from the primary level and the rotary all from the higher levels.’ 12 Midhowe (Callander & Grant 1934) Twelve saddleand eight rotary quemscame from this broth excavation.