Digital copy of a watercolour drawing of three artefacts (a crucible, bone needle and tusk or horn) from unidentified excavations by John Nicolson or Sir Francis Tress Barry. Annotated 'Bone', 'Tusk o ...

Description Digital copy of a watercolour drawing of three artefacts (a crucible, bone needle and tusk or horn) from unidentified excavations by John Nicolson or Sir Francis Tress Barry. Annotated 'Bone', 'Tusk or horn' and 'Clay cup with remnants of burnt metal, like copper'.

Date c. 1895 to 1920

Collection Papers of John Nicolson, antiquarian, Keiss, Caithness, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 876456

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Watercolour of bone pin, antler and crucible from brochs, Caithness, Highland Between 1890 and 1904, Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907) excavated a number of sites in north-east Caithness, including numerous brochs around his Keiss estate. Barry relied on local people to carry out the work including John Nicolson (1843-1934) who produced this watercolour. This watercolour by Nicolson shows three artefacts. The top two comprise a bone pin (left) and a piece of antler (right). These are common finds on broch sites. The bone pin would have been used for fastening clothes together. The third object is a ceramic crucible that was recovered from Keiss broch during excavations between 1890-3. The crucible would have been used for metalworking. Nicolson was born in Stemster, John O' Groats and lived at Nybster for most of his life. He was a skilled sculptor and artist with a keen interest in the archaeology of the area and assisted with many of Barry's excavations. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/876456

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap