Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
January 7, 1807
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 20
Additional Source Text:
"The whole foundation is vitrified together by fire, in times of the earliest Antiquity; as not even a tradition remains of it -- It is however shewn by the inhabitants as a great Curiosity as they cannot account for the fire having such power in the open air. -- I broke this piece off with considerable difficulty, while on a tour in that Country last Feb[r[uary."
Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 22 Apr 1807 spells the donor's name "Cumins."
Notes:
The Isle of Bute in western Scotland is not in the Hebrides. Dunagoil is a vitrified fort or dun on the Isle of Bute – an Iron Age hill fort whose ramparts have been melted by intense heat. It stands on a volcanic headland and gives its name to the bay that it overlooks. An example of vitrified stone is pictured here.
