548 



NATURE 



[December 22, 1921 



The Origin of the Scottish People. 



ON September 9, in the course of the meeting of the 

 British Association at Edinburgh, a discussion on 

 the origin of tlie Scottisli people was held in a joint 

 session of Sections E (Geography) and H (Anthropo- 

 logy), Lord Abercromby, president of Section H, being 

 in the chair. The discussion was opened by theses 

 maintained by Sir Arthur Keith and Prof. T. H. 

 Bryce. 



Sir Arthur Keith said that the inhabitants of the 

 Highlands and western parts of Scotland and the 

 inhabitants of the inland parts of Scandinavia were 

 branches of the same racial (Nordic) stock. Seventy 

 years ago Anders Retzius in Sweden and Sir Daniel 

 Wilson in Scotland maintained that the Highland or 

 Celtic Scot and the central Scandinavian showed the 

 same type of head and the same form of body. A 

 comparison of the results of more recent investigations 

 carried on in Scotland and in Sweden and Norway 

 made it certain that Scot and Scandinavian are trace- 

 able to a common source. Prof. Carl Fiirst, of 

 Lund, maintains that the inland inhabitants of Scan- 

 dinavia are the descendants of the people who settled 

 in Norway and Sweden on the retreat of the last ice- 

 sheet. All the evidence favours the opinion that the 

 modern Highlander is the lineal descendant of the 

 people who reached Scotland at a corresponding period. 



Scandinavian geologists estimate the beginning of 

 the emergence of Scandinavia and Scotland from 

 ice to a period of about 11,000 B.C. The North Sea 

 was then an estuary or bay open to the north, with 

 a western shore leading up to Scotland and an eastern 

 leading to Scandinavia. On the Danish, as also on 

 the Scottish, coasts are found the shell heaps of the 

 "harpoon " folk — the earliest inhabitants of the north- 

 western outskirts of Europe in post-Glacial times. The 

 culture of this people is to be traced to countries in 

 the south-west of Europe, and, although their remains 

 hav-e not been found, we may safely infer that they 

 arose from the long- and big-headed type of man 

 found in South England and on the Continent at the 

 close of the Ice age. It was thus maintained .that 

 Scot and Scandinavian were descendants of the late 

 Palaeolithic men of South-West Europe. 



The accepted opinion that the late Palaeolithic races 

 of South Europe had dark hair, e3'es, and complexions 

 is probably well founded. Fair hair, light eyes, and 

 clear complexions, which find their fullest expression 

 in the inhabitants of Baltic lands, are best regarded 

 as characters recently evolved. The darker hair and 

 eyes of the modern Scot, as compared with his Scan- 

 dinavian cousin, may not be due to a later Mediter- 

 ranean admixture, but to his retaining to a greater 

 degree the complexion of his Palaeolithic ancestor. 

 The evidence gathered in all countries round the North 

 Sea points to an increase in stature amounting to 3 in. 

 or 4 in. since Neolithic times, showing that evolution 

 as well as admixture had been at work. 



If we suppose that the northward drift of the 

 "harpoon " people took place at the beginning of the 

 Neolfthic period — some 6000 or 7000 B.C.- — we have to 

 leave about 4000 or 5000 years as a blank in the his- 

 tory of the Scottish people, for it is not until the 

 beginning of the second millennium b.c. that we have 

 trustworthy facts to guide us. At the beginning of 

 this period we find Scotland in free communication 

 with Europe by two portals. Through her eastern 

 coasts she was open to the opposite shorelands of the 

 North Sea and to Central Europe. Graves of this 

 period contain the remains of a peculiar and round- 

 headed people. Lord Abercromby has traced the 



.NO. 2721, VOL. 108] 



designs of their pottery to the upper reaches of the 

 Rhine. To this day the effects of the round-headec 

 invasion can be traced in the population of the^ 

 eastern counties of Scotland and of the coast-lands 

 of Norway and Sweden. 



It is quite feasible that the Celtic and Teutonic 

 tongues may be modifications of the speech which 

 reached western Europe in the mouths of the round- 

 head Neolithic invaders. At the same time the pul^c 

 of south-western Europe — of the Mediterranean— was 

 beating on Scotland at the western or back door, 

 along what may be called the Celtic sea-passage — St. 

 George's Channel, the Irish Sea, the western shores, 

 to Orkney and to Norway. By this route Ireland and 

 Wales received new settlers from south-western 

 countries of Europe, but did they reach Scotland? 

 Prof. Bryce is of opinion that the people buried in 

 the western megalithic tombs of Scotland represent 

 invaders of the Mediterranean type. They may 

 equally well be considered as the native Nordic people 

 of Scotland ; indeed, in such skulls as retain the face 

 there are certain features which suggest a northern 

 origin. 



There is no definite evidence of any great invasion 

 of Scotland from the second millennium to the arrival 

 of the Romans. The Roman invasion left no appre- 

 ciable mark on the Scottish people. But in the fifth 

 century, when the Romans were gone, both eastern 

 and western doorways became again open and busy 

 with visitors. The Dalriad Scots from the north of 

 Ireland entered by the western portal ; they may have 

 brought a tongue which was new to Scotland, but 

 they brought no new physical type. From the fifth 

 century onwards, for a period of 500 years, Scotland 

 received at her eastern doorway settlers from the 

 coast-lands on the opposite side of the North Sea. 

 They came from lands which, like Scotland, were 

 first settled by the "harpoon " people. They brought 

 Teutonic dialects to Scotland, other manners, tradi- 

 tions, and arts, but no physical type of manhood 

 which was new to Scotland. 



Who were the Picts? The .people of Aberdeenshire 

 were Picts in the ninth century ; there is no reason 

 to question that the bulk of the present population 

 of that county are their children. An Aberdeenshire 

 man cannot be recognised from another native of Scot- 

 land except by his speech. The Picts, Celts, and 

 Saxons of Scotland are all of one breed — the descen- j 

 dants of the pioneer race which settled in North-West I 

 Europe when the last ice-sheet lifted. There has been 

 only one intrusive element — the round-head of late 

 Neolithic introduction. 



Prof. T. H. Bryce said we now know that Scot- 

 land was inhabited as far back as Azilian times. 

 We have no direct evidence regarding the physical 

 characters of these early inhabitants, but there is a 

 strong presumption that the primitive basis of the 

 population was Nordic in character. Superimposed 

 on this came, first, in late Neolithic times, the men 

 of the chambered cairns, and second, the Beaker folk 

 of the Bronze age. These three elements, blended in 

 different proportions, made up the population of pre- 

 Roman times, since when it has been altered only by 

 the intrusion of similar elements and reassemblage. 

 In South-East Scotland there are traces of a new 

 element in the Iron age with a late La Tene culture. 

 It resembles the Gaulish, but the interments are 

 native, not Gaulish. The distribution of the cham- 

 bered cairns and burials of the Bronze age indicatet 

 a grouping of the elements which, taken in conjunc 



