Archaic Scuhturings. 13'J 



design. The other face is etched with a figure hke a boat 

 with sails set. An enlarged photograph of this object has 

 been submitted to various authorities, but no suggestion has 

 been made as to the meaning (if an\) of the script-like 

 design. 8 



Another relic of the same material found in this district 

 bears the figure of a boat and crew. These two objects pro- 

 bably belong to the early Iron Age or to some early century 

 in this era. 



IV. 



Of much about the same period arc the well-known 

 Carved Balls about the size of an orange, found (with one 

 exception) only in Scotland, though but rarely in the south- 

 west. They were probably used as movable poises on ancient 

 weighing-beams, as I have cndeaxourcd to show elsewhere.^ 



\'. TO VIII. 



Leaving aside the Roman sculpturings in the district, 

 confined to its eastern section, there now fall to be reviewed 

 the early Christian monuments and rock-carvings. These 

 fall easily into a chronological order, beginning with the 

 famous Kirkmadrine slabs belonging to about the fifth cen- 

 tury A.D. and finishing about the late loth or nth century 

 with the great monument at Ruthwell. 



These stones, and those of the inter\ ening centuries, 

 ha\e been described and discussed exhausti\ely by more than 

 a dozen authorities, and I shall refer here only to the features 

 which have not hitherto been touched upon or which present 

 the greatest difficulties in their interpretation. 



Of the Christian sculpturings belonging to the period not 

 later than the 12th century a.d. — that is, those commonly 

 styled pre-Xorman, there are thirteen recorded from Dum- 

 friesshire, nine from Kirkcudbrightshire, and forty-seven 

 from Wigtownshire, or sixty-nine in all. The earliest are at 



8 Id., p. 870, item 9. 



9 The Curved Stone BtiJU of Scothmd: A New Theory as to 

 their use (P.S.A.S., vol. xlviii., 1914, pp. 407-420). 



