Mr. George Tate on Ancietit Sculptured Itocks, 8fc. 171 



the Celtic Kings of Britain have been found ; proving that 

 such forts have been in use at the time of the Roman invasion, 

 though their original construction may have been earlier by- 

 many centuries. 



A people so numerous as the Celts were, when Csesar in- 

 vaded Britain — he calls them an infinite multitude — would 

 surely leave some traces of their occupancy of the island ; 

 but if the forts, oppida, barrows, and stone circles, which we 

 have in Northumberland, are not their remains, it may be 

 asked, where are they to be found ? for if we attribute these 

 remains to an earlier race, we would blot out the records of 

 many centuries from our annals. Taking, therefore, into 

 account various kinds of evidence, we may conclude that the 

 old remains in Northumberland, our sculptures included, 

 belong to the Celtic race, though they may tell the history 

 of many centuries prior to the Christian era. The apparent 

 discrepancy of ethnology with this conclusion is suggestive of 

 further inquiry. May not the type of cranium have gradually 

 changed through long ages of advancing civilisation ? or may 

 not the effect have been produced, even by a slight admixture 

 of a new and dominating race ? 



X. THE KIND OF TOOL BY WHICH THE INSCRIPTIONS 



HAVE BEEN MADE. 



We may now enquire by what kind of tool the inscriptions 

 were made — whether by stone or metal? The markings 

 have been chipped or picked out, and not made by rubbing ; 

 the best preserved figures show that the tool was bluntly 

 pointed. All our sculptures are in sandstone, which could have 

 been incised by such a tool as was used, in far distant pre-historic 

 times, made of basalt, flint, hornstone, trap, or jasper. Metals, 

 however, were known in the district when the sculptures 

 were incised ; bronze and copper objects have been found in 

 their neighbourhood; and in some parts of North Northumber- 

 land considerable numbers of bronze celts have been discov- 

 ered, as well as bronze daggers, spear heads, and swords. 

 Querns made of hard intractable porphyry have been taken 

 from the forts about Yevering, and one from the Weetwood 

 Camp; but as these could not have been fashioned by any 

 stone tool, it is therefore probable, that metallic tools had been 

 also used to inscribe the Northumberland rocks. This con- 

 clusion is corroborated by the character of the Argyleshire 

 rocks, which are so hard that stone tools could not have 



