Abstract
SCOTTISH BROCIIs—In Antiquity for September, Mr. Alexander O, Curle discusses the origin and structure of the broch—the characteristic defensive structur e orth and west of Scotland, consisting of a circular tower surrounding an open court, built of ry masonry without mortar or other binding material, and of which the height originally in some cases must have been as much as 60 feet. The walls at the base are usually 15 feet thick and contain series of superimposed galleries. A puzzling feature, a ledge projecting about 1.2 inches from the interior of the wall, is now explained in the light of excavations at Dun Troddan, as the resting place for beams extending to posts circling the interior and forming the roof of a closed colonnade around a central hearth open to the sky. The brochs have no relation to the Nurhagi of Sardinia, which differ from them essentially in structure and purpose. Their closest analogies are to be found in the galleried duns or promontory forts and the so-called ‘semi-brochs’ of the west of Scotland. The distribution of the broch points to its origin in the north and west of Scotland, those found outside this area being due to an extension of tribal influence from the north. In date they are to be regarded as not earlier than the Iron Age, while the occurrence of Samian ware, Roman coins, and other objects, indicates that they were occupied at the time of the Roman invasion and in the second century A.D., though probably they date back some hundreds of years before that time. They probably were occupied for some time later, but from the absence of wheel-made pottery and Viking re]ics, it cannot be asserted that they survived to the eighth century.
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Research Items. Nature 120, 563–565 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120563a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120563a0