198 REPORT — 1859. 



well known in connexion with the Archaeological Exhibition here, was kind enough 

 to make some investigations in this count}', and the following is his account of the 

 results of one of his diggings at Crichie, about 16 miles from this town. The circle 

 had originally consisted of six stones, of which only two are now standing. 



Sepulchral deposits were found near the site of all the stones. On digging about 

 one of them standing on the north side, an urn was found inverted, having a small 

 flat stone above it, and another below it, and filled with calcined bones. This urn was 

 about a foot in height, narrowed at the top, and having diagonal lines on the narrow 

 rim for ornament. Near the base of another stone on the same side of the circle was 

 found, imbedded in clay, a circular cist about nine inches in diameter and a foot deep, 

 filled with calcined bones. This cist was shaped like an urn, and was lined with 

 small stones, evidently broken for the purpose. Close to this pit was found a stone 

 celt perforated by a hole for the handle, and at a little distance from this, a deposit of 

 calcined bones uninclosed, and somewhat further to the south an urn. On digging 

 on the south side of the spot where a stone had formerly stood, a small stone cist, 

 nearly square, was found, being about eleven inches by nine, and about sixteen inches 

 deep, with small flat stones at bottom, and half-filled with remains of bones. Close 

 to the former site of another stone, now removed, was found an urn of better work- 

 manship than that formerly referred to, about three and a half inches in width at bot- 

 tom, and widening towards the top, where it measured about seven and a half inches. 

 At the neck, which was narrowed, there are some traces of ornament of angular pat- 

 tern, consisting of diagonal lines crossing each other like a St. Andrew's Cross. It 

 was filled with calcined bones, some of them those of animals. Close to the former 

 site of a fifth stone was found a circular deposit of bones in a clay bed, without cist or 

 urn. On digging about the spot where a sixth stone had stood, it appeared that a de- 

 posit had been buried near it also, about the usual distance of one foot and a half from 

 it. This deposit, however, had been disturbed, probably by a tree which had been 

 planted close to it. A stone had stood in the centre of the circle, and a digging at 

 this site brought to light a large underground cairn of stones covering a cist. The 

 cairn was about five and a half feet in depth, forty-five feet in circumference at the 

 surface, and thirty feet at the top. The bottom was paved with large slabs of stone, 

 of which those at the sides overlapped the edges of one large one in the centre, which 

 formed the cover of a cist, three feet eleven inches long by two feet ten inches wide. 

 The cist contained a skull at the west end. At the opposite end were the leg-bones 

 lying across the cist. In the centre of the cist were some calcined bones. Above the 

 centre of the cairn, just below the superincumbent earth, was found a deposit of cal- 

 cined bones, without any urn or flat stone above or below. All the bones found in 

 the circle appeared to be calcined. Those in the urn first referred to appeared to be 

 partly human and partly those of small animals, if not of birds. A human jaw-bone 

 in this urn was unmistakeable — small and delicate like that of a woman. 



Thus we find in almost every instance the discovery of sepulchral deposits in con- 

 nexion with these pillars. These circles may have had other meanings, though this 

 is the only one we can discover. The present paper, however, deals with sculptured 

 pillars, and these consist of two distinct classes. First, there is the rude, unpolished, 

 unhewn stone covered with figures which we call symbols. One of these pillars [a 

 figure of this pillar was given among a series of fine diagrams prepared to illustrate 

 the paper by Mr. Gibb, of Messrs. Keith and Gibb, of Aberdeen] is found at Logie, 

 in this county. It contains various symbols, including ' the spectacle ornament,' and 

 inclines in a position which Irish scholars say is peculiar to this stone. 



Mr. Stuart went on to allude to the symbols of a more elaborate character, including 

 the elephant, fish, &c, on others of these pillars, remarking as to the distribution of 

 the pillars, that by far the larger portion of the stones between the Dee and Spey are of 

 the ruder class of stones covered with symbols. In the centre of the district, there is 

 a stone with an inscription upon it which has hitherto baffled the efforts of scholars to 

 state its character ; until lately that Lord Aberdeen got it submitted to the late Dr. Mill 

 of Cambridge, who prepared a disquisition on it before his death, which is now in course 

 of being printed. In it, it will be found that Dr. Mill had satisfied himself that the 

 inscription was a Phoenician one; at all events, there can be no doubt that it is 

 Eastern. 



This stone, as already stated, is in the centre of the district between the Dee and the 





