The Clyde Mystery

Оглавление

Lang Andrew. The Clyde Mystery

PREFACE

I – THE CLYDE MYSTERY

II – DR. MUNRO’S BOOK ON THE MYSTERY

III – THE CLYDE CONTROVERSY

IV – DUNBUIE

V – HOW I CAME INTO THE CONTROVERSY

VI – DUMBUCK

VII – LANGBANK

VIII – THE ORIGINAL DATE AND PURPOSE OF DUMBUCK AND LANGBANK

IX – A GUESS AT THE POSSIBLE PURPOSE OF LANGBANK AND DUMBUCK

X – THE LAST DAY AT OLD DUMBUCK

XI – MY THEORY OF PROVISIONAL DATE

XII – THE DISPUTED OBJECTS

XIII – METHOD OF INQUIRY

XIV – THE POSSIBLE MEANINGS OF THE MARKS AND OBJECTS

XV – QUESTION OF METHOD CONTINUED

XVI – MAGIC

XVII – DISPUTED OBJECTS CLASSIFIED

XVIII – CUP MARKS IN CRANNOGS

XIX – PARALLELISM BETWEEN THE DISPUTED OBJECTS AND OTHER OBJECTS ELSEWHERE

XX – UNMARKED CHARM STONES

XXI – QUALITY OF ART ON THE STONES

XXII – SURVIVAL OF MAGIC OF STONES

XXIII – MODERN SURVIVAL OF MAGICAL WOOD CHURINGA

XXIV – CONCLUSION OF ARGUMENT FROM SURVIVALS IN MAGIC

XXV – MY MISADVENTURE WITH THE CHARM STONE

XXVI – EUROPEAN PARALLELS TO THE DISPUTED OBJECTS

XXVII – PORTUGUESE AND OTHER STONE PENDANTS

XXVIII – QUESTION AS TO THE OBJECTS AS ORNAMENTS OF THE PERSON

XXIX – WEAPONS

XXX – THE FIGURINES

XXXI – GROTESQUE HEADS. DISPUTED PORTUGUESE PARALLELS

XXXII – DISPUTED OBJECTS FROM DUNBUIE

XXXIII – DISPUTABLE AND CERTAINLY FORGED OBJECTS

XXXIV – CONCLUSION

Отрывок из книги

The reader who desires to be hopelessly perplexed, may desert the contemplation of the Fiscal Question, and turn his eyes upon The Mystery of the Clyde. “Popular” this puzzle cannot be, for there is no “demmed demp disagreeable body” in the Mystery. No such object was found in Clyde, near Dumbarton, but a set of odd and inexpensive looking, yet profoundly enigmatic scraps of stone, bone, slate, horn and so forth, were discovered and now repose in a glass case at the National Museum in Queen Street, Edinburgh.

There, as in the Morgue, lies awaiting explanation the corpus delicti of the Clyde Mystery. We stare at it and ask what are these slate spear heads engraved with rude ornament, and certainly never meant to be used as “lethal weapons”? What are these many-shaped perforated plaques of slate, shale, and schist, scratched with some of the old mysterious patterns that, in almost every part of the world, remain inscribed on slabs and faces of rock? Who incised similar patterns on the oyster-shells, some old and local, some fresh —and American! Why did any one scratch them? What is the meaning, if meaning there be, of the broken figurines or stone “dolls”? They have been styled “totems” by persons who do not know the meaning of the word “totem,” which merely denotes the natural object, – usually a plant or animal, – after which sets of kinsfolk are named among certain savage tribes. Let us call the little figures “figurines,” for that commits us to nothing.

.....

Either the disputed objects at the Museum are actual relics of life lived in the Clyde basin many centuries ago; or the discoverers and excavators of the old sites are dogged by a forger who “dumps down” false relics of kinds unknown to Scottish antiquaries; or some of the unfamiliar objects are really old, while others are jocose imitations of these, or – there is some other explanation!

The modern “Clyde artists” are credited by Dr. Robert Munro with “some practical artistic skill,” and some acquaintance with the very old and mysterious designs on great rocks among the neighbouring hills. 1 What man of artistic skill, no conscience, and a knowledge of archaic patterns is associated with the Clyde?

.....