THE CRANIOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND. 225 



Owing to the absence of grave goods it is difficult to fix the time when this 

 mausoleum was built and to associate it with a definite period. The small flagstones 

 with which it was constructed remove it from the neolithic period, as well as from 

 the short cists of the bronze age, each of which was characterised by its massive con- 

 struction ; moreover, there was no evidence of cremation. From the constructive 

 skill displayed in the superposition, without binding mortar, of the flat stones which 

 formed the walls and roof, it had probably been built on the surface of the ground, 

 and, after the bodies had been placed in it, covered by a mound of sand for its 

 protection. The size and shape of the stones reminded one of the flags employed in 

 the construction of the long cists found in many counties north and south of the 

 Forth, but they were laid horizontally, so as to form the walls of a chamber much 

 higher than that of a long cist and destined to contain not a single but several 

 bodies. The roof also, instead of having only a single row of flat stones, approxi- 

 mated to the vault shape, such as has been seen in some chambered cairns 

 and brochs. 



Whatever the period may have been, the tomb was obviously the mausoleum of 

 a family, for it contained the skeletons of four men, a woman and a child, and there 

 was no evidence of wooden coffins. The antero-posterior diameter of the chamber 

 was apparently sufficient to allow the bodies to be buried as extended. They had 

 evidently been inhumed at the same time, as if the family had died through a 

 common calamity. 



At Seacliff Mr Laidlay described, in 1870, an ancient building of stone, without 

 mortar, found at the beach on the Ghegan Rock, about 22 feet above high- water 

 mark, adjoining which was a kitchen mid ding.* A few human bones, those of Bos 

 longifrons, small sheep, goats, small horses, red and roe deer, various rodents, birds, 

 fishes and sea-shells were contained in the refuse-heap ; also implements of bone 

 and combs, but none of metal, fragments of pottery, with one vessel of considerable 

 size, a rude quern and numerous round stones which bore evidence of fire. It is 

 difficult to assign a date to this building and its original occupants, though the 

 remains point to a prehistoric habitation. 



Earlier in date than Mr Laidlay's paper a former proprietor of Seacliff, Mr 

 George Sligo, had described a cave discovered in 183 If in a cliff bounding the 

 bay in which the Ghegan Rock is situated. The floor of the cave, about 20 feet 

 above high-water mark, was paved with flat stones. A large stone, 4£ feet high, 

 stood on a mound 3 feet 1 inch in height at the middle of the mouth of the cave ; 

 the top of the stone was flat and 6| feet in diameter. Mr Sligo regarded it as 

 an altar and the cave as a place of sacrifice, for the floor of the cave was covered 

 with wood ashes mixed with bones of horse, dog, pig, sheep partially calcined, and 

 limpet shells. The skeletons of two young children were found at the base of the 

 so-called altar-stone, which was there probably for defensive purposes. 



Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. viii, p. 372, 1871. t Archxologica Scotica, iv, p. 353. 



* !■>,;, 



