Archaic Sculiturings, 157 



stone the two lower compartments are communicating/ w hile 

 the highest compartment is cut off from the others and may 

 represent the highest or spiritual attribute, ciifticult of attain- 

 ment and inaccessible, while the two lower compartments 

 represent the mental and physical attributes. What seems to 

 be a kindred symbolic conception is expressed by a carving of 

 a tripartite rectilinear design with centrally placed dots on 

 an ancient headstone at Cladh Bhile, Argyle.'^^ 



On the Closeburn stone the fruit is in the form of three 

 berries (Fig. 18), and this may be seen on many Scottish 

 stones, including one at lona. The trinity emblem, at least 

 in this variant, seems to have gone out of vogue at an early 

 period, for the later foliageous work such as on the Ruthwell 

 Cross does not enshrine it, the branches of fruit in that in- 

 stance being larger and not in three divisions. The motif 

 is found frequently in the Book of Kells and other early manu- 

 scripts, and must have been most popular about the eighth 

 century a.d. As well as at Closeburn, the trefoil occurs, in 

 the style of the early manuscripts, on stones at Crieff, Fori- 

 teviot, Abercorn, and Wamphray (Fig. 19), and, with birds, 

 at Durisdeer, Thornhill. 



The history and ramifications of the trinity symbol do 

 not seem to have been gone into. Long before the opening 

 of the Christian era and in every part of the Globe, man 

 believed in the triform division of the personified attributes 

 or modes of action if one universal first cause. Most primi- 

 tive peoples have had their trinity in unity. The idea of 

 three principles or attributes within the Divine nature — the 

 Soul, the Mind, and the Body — the Spiritual, the Mental, the 

 Physical — Wisdom, Knowledge, Power — was in Britain and 

 Ireland in very early times enshrined in decorative art. The 

 symbol of this theme, so often wrongly considered as merely 

 and solely a decorative feature, appears in pagan " Late 

 Celtic " work and became gradually absorbed into the art of 

 early Christian times. 



While some five variants occur in this district there were 

 throughout Scotland before the twelfth century some thirty 



51 y.N. I.N., xii.. pi. iv., No. 9. 



