112 Amber and Jet in Ancient Burials. 



the race who migrated through Nortl^ Africa to our islandS) 

 and were the ancestors of the Picts of Galloway. 



We will now briefly enumerate the localities where 

 Amber has been found in ancient burials of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, as well as in other parts of Europe. First, as 

 to England, it has been found in the East Riding of York- 

 shire, in Norfolk, in Derbyshire, Brighton in Sussex — where 

 a cup of solid Amber was found, ^^ inches high — at Dart- 

 moor in Devonshire, and in Wiltshire. ^^ In Wales we hear 

 of barrows in the county of Flintshire in which Amber has 

 occurred, and in many cases in several of these barrows 

 Amber and Jet have been found together. i^ In Ireland, in 

 the Cave of Ballynamintra, Co. Waterford, in -d Neolithic 

 grave, was an Amber bead with a polished stone celt and 

 the bone handle of a knife. ^^ In Scotland at Rothie in a 

 Bronze Age barrow, and at Balonashanner, near Forfar, Jet 

 and Amber beads were found. The best authentic example 

 from Scotland is the Amber necklace found with two gold 

 discs under a barrow at Huntiscarth, Orkney ; in this case 

 the beads are badly made. In Aberdeenshire Boece and 

 Pennant both vouch to finds. ^^ Dayell in his Darker Super- 

 stitions of Scotland, p. 635, says that " the virtues ascribed 

 to Amber may be collected from its universal use in our own 

 remembrance, especially among the more humble." We 

 now come to the actual finding of Amber in Galloway. Dr 

 R. de Brus Trotter has, or had, an Amber bead got from 

 Mrs Shaw, of Auchencairn, originally belonging to her 

 father, a man named Carnochan, a famous smuggler, who 

 affirmed that he took it from some adders who were busy 

 making it at the Fort of Knockintal. Although he was on 

 horseback, he was pursued by the adders, but they were 

 all drowned in trying to follow him through a ford. He 



13 Sir Richard Ck>lt Hoare records 33 cases of Amber in Wilt- 

 shire barrows, and strings of beads from 20 to 100, in one case 

 1000, mostly of red Amber. 



14 Wilson's Archceology of Scotland. 



15 Sir John Evans, Stone Implements. 



16 Dr Robei't Munro, Palceolithic and Terramara Man, p. 344. 



