MISCELLANEA. 367 



and were buried in these tombs. They may have been earlier 

 than the interments, as they might have been quarried from a 

 sacred inscribed stone in the neighbourhood and placed over or 

 in the cist to give a sanctity to the resting-place of the dead. 

 These inscriptions, therefore, are pre-Roman, and may date back- 

 wards not less than two thousand years or more ; because the 

 relics of the period indicate a low degree of civilisation, and 

 would carry us back to the early immigration of Celts into 

 Britain." 



(2.) " We may now inquire by what kind of tool the inscrip- 

 tions 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 in- 

 cised by such a tool as was used, in far-distant pre-historic times, 

 made of basalt, flint, homstone, trap, or jasper. Metals, how- 

 ever, were known in the district when the sculptures were in- 

 cised. It is, therefore, probable, that metallic tools had been 

 also used to inscribe the N^orthumberland rocks." 



(3.) "What then mean these sculptures? Are they merely 

 ornamental ? or are they symbolical ? When the earliest public 

 notices were given of the jtsTorthumbrian inscriptions, they were 

 supposed to be plans of camps. In 1853 I proposed a different 

 view, and advocated the notion that they were symbolical figures 

 representing religious thoughts. The numerous additional facts 

 observed, confirm, I think, the conclusions — first, that these in- 

 scriptions have been made by the Celtic race occupying Britain 

 many centuries before the Christian era ; and, second, that the 

 figures are symbolical — most probably of religious ideas." 



"The Eev. William Proctor, of Doddiugtou, says, 'I am de- 

 cidedly of opinion that they are all monumental inscriptions in 

 memory of departed friends, whose remains had hcon deposited 

 near them.' "*' 



Since Mr. Tate's paper was published our respected fellow- 

 member and Vice-rresideut, the Rev. Dr. liruce, has, in an 



• See "The Ancient BritlHli Sculptmod Hocks of Norlluinibciiaml anJ tlio Knstcrn 

 Borders," Herwlckslilrc Trunstictlons, Vol. V,, p. 106. 



