The Lady From Ballaculish

I did more than eat at the weekend.

The National Museum of Scotland's a lot of fun; the more obviously accessible halls are full of design and engineering, plenty of moving parts and moving children too. At the weekend they overrun the place, enthusiastic and potentially determined to create their own cars/costumes while saving the planet from becoming the Natural History Department. For such a modern looking building it's surprisingly easy to get lost in, which suits me fine. I love labyrinthine nooks that feel like pocketworlds, each of them a door in the wall. Here's the inhabitant of one;




This is the Ballychulish figure,dated to around 600 BC and having sustained a lot of damage after her discovery in 1880. Here's an older photo of her as she was.



She's made of alder, and those are not quite pearls for her eyes, but quartzite stones. She and the wickerwork that surrounded her fell upon a gravel beach before the peat formed around and above her. The expression on her face captured my attention, I find her beautiful. Some say she was a goddess, possibly of fertility, because any female depicted in ancient times must needs be a fertility goddess on account of scholars being unable to imagine other reasons for creating the statue of a woman/girl.

One commentator on a FB page had an interesting take:

"In the sami religion there is a deity/spirit called Leib Olmai which means "the alder man". It seem to have functioned as a guardian spirit of the bear. Alder takes a central role in sami bear ceremonialism and has connotations to magical defense, menstrual blood and the blood of the bear as well. When alder bark is chewed it produces a reddish/brown substance."

Hmm. I suspect she's made of alder wood because it grows near or in watery places, and the sculptor might have been aware that alder is rot resistant. Though the lighting in the museum, the drying out, and the damage together evoke a sense of forlorn mystery, I'm going to say in lieu of facts she does not give me any sinister spine-tingle at all. I find her lovely. My first intuition was that she might have been thrown into a bog as replacement for a human - I can't express how merciful and gentle she felt to me - but that makes no sense because she's on a block so surely she was meant to stand somewhere.

I like her. In fact, if she was standing somewhere very private, I'd even say Hello. But then doubtless some child would come into the room just in time to spot a strange ancient woman whispering to a strange ancient statue; and suddenly I'd be the story.

Spooky Little Dudes and Resurrection Men

There they were, tucked away in some half corridor at the museum. They were discovered in 1836 by boys seeking rabbits on Arthur's Seat. There were 17 of these little coffins originally. No-one knows what they were for. Close-ups are behind the cut, because their lack of quality annoys me.



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My phone can't capture the details! I may have to take a decent camera back to the museum, see if I can get their little faces.

There are inevitable claims of these as cursing poppets, but 17 curses? That's one tired malefactor and a lot of resentment. Another theory is that maybe they represent a mimic burial for people whose bodies were lost, i.e sea crews. Yet another builds on this idea, looking for an event or situation where 17 people lost their lives; the most immediately applicable to this in tems of timing is the case of the West Port Murders committed by Burke and Hare who, not content to be mere body snatchers, gave the process a little help. Sixteen they murdered, one they sold had died of natural causes. Seventeen in all passed through their hands to vivisectionists. It's not hard to imagine that whoever made and placed these little coffins and their occupants did so as a mark of respect for the victims. The flaw with this is that Burke and Hare's victims were mostly women, and these little dolls seem entirely clad as male, but unless someone has photos or records of all seventeen together we can't be sure.

I like the idea of someone doing the very best they could to show reverence to those whose bodies could not be given grace. The Scotsman described the resting place of the dolls thus; The mouth of this little cave was closed by three thin pieces of slate-stone, rudely cut at the upper ends into a conical form, and so placed as to protect the interior from the effects of the weather . Much of this implies old folk beliefs, but from clothes to coffins to resting place, there's evidence of care. Perhaps this was a tender gesture, a moment's cherishing hidden on the grim-faced rock above the town.