DRUID TEMPLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1939, Page 9

DRUID TEMPLE

UNEARTHED IN SCOTLAND. RELICS OF ANCIENT WORSHIP. Many visitors to Glasgow for the Empire exhibition must have motored along the Dumbarton Boulevard, the western exit, and passed by the famous sand pit that has yielded one of the most important archaeological discoveries of recent years, a large sign reading “Druid Temple,” making it easy to find. Many must have stopped and paid a visit to the spot, as it is right alongside the highway. Here an ancient worshipping place has been gradually uncovered and reconstructed.

In 1937 workmen in the sand pit found what were apparently ancient graves, and this led to the investigations of the site. Mr Ludovic Mann, the well-known archaeologist, then took over the supervision of the work, and soon realised that here was a discovery of major importance. Preparations were made for a careful excavation, and soon it became apparent that there lay buried the remains of a huge temple, circular in shape and ranged round a central sun altar. Great care had to be taken while the delicate task of excavation was progressing, for timber had been largely used in the construction of the concentric circles of reptilian shapes which were ranged round the central shrine, and the dusty, crumbled wood which remained had to be carefully preserved until the exact shapes were ascertained. Earlier work on the sand pit had destroyed one section of the circle, the steep sand-face seen from the road showing where the ground had fallen away, but more than sufficient was left to indicate the complete plan beyond all doubt.

The original shapes were made of basket work, but they have now been faithfully reproduced in earth mounds, so that visitors get an excellent idea of how this early shrine appeared. In the centre is the sun altar, while twined round it is a black serpent, representing the “Powers of Darkness" which overcome the sun. The head of this serpent shape covers the altar, following the story which is based on the solar'eclipse, when darkness overcomes light. The surrounding ser-pent-like shapes represent the allies of the sun, summoned to fight the aggressor, and are the planets Mercury, Venus. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. On a wider circle lie other strange shapes, coiled water serpents and tad-pole-like reptiles, all faithfully outlined by the earthen banks.

Innumerable graves lay among the serpent shapes, showing the faith these primitive races had in the burial place ordained by their religion, and quantities of ancient pottery and articles of flint and stone have been excavated.

Originally there were 12 large standing stones on the outskirts of the circle; now only one remains, and’ it has been employed as a gate post by some early tiller of the soil, the notches for the gate bars being plainly visible. It is seldom that such an important discovery lies so accessible at the side of an arterial road. The Druid Temple must be the easiest excavation to reach in the annals of archaeology.