Review of 'Controversy on the Clyde'

This is a charming book. It re-tells the story of a controversial Victorian excavation of an unusual type of site, a marine crannog. Records of the excavation survive in an interesting archive, much of which is now part of the collections of RCAHMS. Assembled from several sources, it consists of 'newscuttings, personal letters, photographs and glass lantern-slide copies of sketches from the original excavator's notebooks' (p.5). The authors recently re-excavated the site as part of a wider research project.

Dumbuck lies on the north shore of the Clyde, between Dumbarton Rock and Bowling harbour. The crannog was discovered by William Donnelly in the summer of 1898, and excavation was carried out in 1898–99 by Helensburgh Naturalist and Antiquarian Society, under the direction of three of its committee members. One of these was the finder, William Donnelly, a professional artist, and the Scottish correspondent for the Illustrated London News. His watercolour sketches of the excavations, its visitors, and the characters involved, bring the episode vividly to life. Marine crannogs, usually found in estuaries, seem not to have been habitation sites, like their counterparts in inland waters, but platforms enhancing natural promontories. Reached by a causeway across the estuarine muds or saltmarsh, such sites may have been for access to deeper water for the purposes of fishing, or for operating boats. Dumbuck, a wooden platform over the natural clay, had an associated 'dock', 1.2 m deep, with sides of wooden shuttering, in which was found a logboat 12.3 m long. The site has been dated to between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD.

Donnelly shared his enthusiasm for his new find with Joseph Anderson, President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and its Honorary Secretary Robert Monro, the acknowledged pioneer of Scottish crannog studies. The finds were of wood and stone, bone and horn, but no metal or pottery. The 'controversy' of the title refers to some small pieces of stone or shell. 'The surfaces of these objects are carved with lines, circles, or representations of human faces and bodies ... It was these objects rather than the crannog itself that caused most press speculation and controversy' (p.41). Similar objects had already been found on the Society's excavation of Dumbowie Dun in 1895. Monro immediately questioned their authenticity, 'tacitly accusing someone on the team of excavators of forgery' (p.50), and sparking a long-running and acrimonious debate. This came to a head in 1905 with the publication of Monro's book, Archaeology and False Antiquities, in which he restated his assertion that the finds were fakes. During their excavations in 2000 the authors found another of these mysterious objects. They discuss who might have been responsible, tending to exonerate Donnelly, but not coming to any firm conclusion about who else might have been responsible. As in the case of the objects found in 1924 at Glozel in central France, the faking is obvious, but the perpetrators and their motives remain a mystery.

What remains with the reader of this book, however, is not just the mystery, but the sheer quality of the visual record of the excavation and those involved—the directors, three paid labourers, and numerous volunteers (it took more than 30 men to lift the logboat), as well as large parties of visitors. Victorian clothes (and hats) do not seem to have hindered those hardy enthusiasts who excavated between tides on the muddy shores of the Clyde.

PAULA MARTIN
Peat Inn, Cupar, Scotland

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Review of 'Controversy on the Clyde'