Antiquities from the Stewartry. 41 



showing', however, but little signs of secondary working ; some 

 curious and uncommon handle-like implements of bone, mostly 

 ornamented with diagonal incised lines, their use problematical ; 

 bone combs of the long-handled, long-toothed type, probably used 

 in teasing wool, as are similar combs but of metal used at the 

 present day in North India ; pins and spoons of bone and a highly- 

 polished long, slender marrow-scoop of bone with a ring cut in its 

 handle. There are also eleven fragments of bronze, including a 

 thin circular brooch 1^ in. diameter, upon which there are very 

 faint traces of enamel, and one fragment of the lustrous red ware 

 usually called " Samian," and so frequently found among the 

 refuse pottery at Roman stations. The Borness Cave as a human 

 habitation is not even of Neolithic Age. Indeed, the cave itself is 

 not, in the opinion of the experts who explored it, old enough for 

 deposits of the Neolithic Period, but belongs to the later remains 

 of the Post Glacial Period. The presence of even one minute 

 fragment of red " Samian " ware is " a world of evidence " alone ; 

 " and it appears," say the authors of the account, " that we must 

 fix the state of this cave as most probably between the year 

 409 A.D., when the Roman legions were withdrawn, and 650, the 

 date of the Saxon conquest of these parts." At the conclusion of 

 the paper on the second exploration of the cave, the authors make 

 the following suggestive remark : " In eveiy one of some six or 

 seven caves along the Muncraig shore some sheep or ox bones 

 similar to those from the Borness Cave have been found. It needs 

 but five minutes' examination to assure one's self that they, like 

 the Borness Cave, were formerly the home or refuge of some 

 ancient Scottish family." 



Archaic Sculptured Stones. — In this section, lA 16-19, worthily 

 represent some of the best Cup-and-Ring- Marks in Kirkcudbright- 

 shire. They are the four excellent casts made from the famous 

 High Banks rock by our friends, the late George Hamilton of 

 Ardendee and Mr E. A. Hornel. One of these portions of rock 

 displays groupings of many scores of cups as closely put together 

 as possible, surrounding triple concentric circles which enclose one 

 large cup, a grouping we may certainly call unique. Another is 

 specially interesting because it shows many spaces of the rock 

 surface only begun to be worked on. We have here caught the 

 primitive sculptor in the midst of his labour. Was it a flint 



