Often stereotyped as tattooed barbarians, the Picts had a talent for war.
But it turns out these 'lost' ancient people of Scotland also a talent for carving stone and shaping silver.
Archaeologists have surveyed a field in Northern Scotland and uncovered a hoard of 100 more silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times.
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
Jewellery crafted by 'lost' ancient people of Scotland unearthed: 1,500-year-old trove of silver discovered at Roman-era stone circle
Three pieces of silver were found at the Gaulcross site in Scotland in 1838
Site was then turned into a farm and no more artefacts were searched for
Now scientists have re-investigated the site and found over 100 pieces
Trove includes late Roman coins, military equipment, personal ornaments
By Abigail Beall For Mailonline
28 June 2016
Often stereotyped as tattooed barbarians, the Picts had a talent for war.
But it turns out these 'lost' ancient people of Scotland also a talent for carving stone and shaping silver.
Archaeologists have surveyed a field in Northern Scotland and uncovered a hoard of 100 more silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times.
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity. The researchers were surprised when they discovered more than 100 silver items (shown)
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
'We set out, not really thinking we would find more silver,' Dr Noble said.
'We just wanted to learn more about the context' of the original find.
The researchers were surprised when they discovered more than 100 silver items.
The finds included late Roman coins and military equipment, personal ornaments including brooch and bracelet fragments, ingots and Hacksilber parcels - pieces of cut, bent and broken silver.
Originally, there were also two man-made stone circles, one dating to the Neolithic and the other the Bronze Age (B.C. 1670 to B.C. 1500), the researchers said.
Gaulcross is now an intensively-farmed field in rural Aberdeenshire, and there is no evidence left showing the stone circles.
The finds included late Roman coins and military equipment, personal ornaments including brooch and bracelet fragments, ingots and Hacksilber parcels - pieces of cut, bent and broken silver. The items belonged to a group of people called the Picts
A lunate/crescent-shaped pendant with two double-loops, shown left, and silver hemispheres shown right. Some of the objects in the Gaulcross hoard were themselves almost certainly connected to elites
Three silver objects were first unearthed at the stone circle site over 170 years ago, before it was turned into a field.
The silver dates back to the sixth or seventh century AD, according to the paper, after the Romans decamped and before the Vikings stormed onshore.
In spring 2013, two projects in Scotland came together to revisit the site, and began to find more and more silver objects.
The items belonged to a group of people called the Picts.
The Picts were a group of tribes who lived north of the Forth and Clyde during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval period.
'It's a real melting pot of different objects and different cultural origins,' Dr Noble said. 'It's a really fascinating hoard.'
'The new fieldwork has revealed that the Gaulcross hoard was much larger than previously thought and is now the northernmost (pre-Viking Age) Hacksilber hoard in Europe and one of only two comparable hoards known in Scotland,' the authors said.
'This hoard shows that the Picts had access to quantities of silver and were, not surprisingly, carefully managing what was a precious resource,' Dr Alice Blackwell, Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland, who was involved in the study, told MailOnline.
'Many of the objects have been cut up ready to be melted down and made into new things. Until now, we’ve had only one other hoard, from Fife, that could shed light on this process of making and remaking, and many of the objects within that hoard were unique.
'Now we have an additional 100 objects with which to ask questions about the range of contacts the Picts had, about how they acquired Roman silver in the first place, about the sorts of new power symbols they made from it.
'The theme of recycling is so important to understanding the Gaulcross hoard. It explains why so many of the objects are rare – most other examples would have been melted down, but luckily for us, for some reason, this hoard was buried until now.'
A small, zoomorphic penannular brooch, shown left and one of the bracelet fragments with a Late Roman siliquae pinched inside, shown right
At a prehistoric stone circle in Scotland, three silver objects were discovered over 170 years ago. But instead of looking for more treasures after finding these three, they were ordered to turn the field into farmland, keeping the buried artefacts hidden. Gaulcross is now an intensively farmed field in rural Aberdeenshire, pictured on map
By the late 200s AD the Picts had overrun the northern frontier of the Roman empire more than once.
Like other hoards, the Gaulcross treasure has 'preserved fashions (from) what we think of as the darkest bits of the dark age after the fall of the Roman Empire,' says study co-author Martin Goldberg of National Museums Scotland. 'It's like a little snapshot in time.'
The Roman name for the people - Picti - means 'painted people'. It is not known what they called themselves.
The habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, didn't harm the tribe's reputation for ferocity.
Picts were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer the area.
These included small fragments of sheet silver, hacked fragments of objects and some intact objects that might have belonged to important members of society at the time.
'Some of the objects in the Gaulcross hoard were themselves almost certainly connected to elites,' the authors wrote in the study.
'Items such as silver hand-pins and silver bracelets...are uncommon finds.'
'I think one of the most exciting objects is a piece of a bangle that has been folded into a parcel, and a late Roman coin (late 4th – early 5th century AD) sandwiched between the folds,' Dr Blackwell told MailOnline.
'This type of bangle is, like most of the hoard, extremely rare but what makes it particularly exciting is that in this parcel we have the meeting of Roman and local objects, both more valued for their silver bullion by the time they were buried than as a coin or bangle.
'Some of the research we’re doing at the moment is looking at the weights of the parcels to see if there are any uniform sizes of parcels, perhaps conforming to the Roman ounce weight system – this is one of the parcels that might have been deliberately made to weigh 1/3 of a Roman ounce.'
The authors said the study shows the importance of using modern techniques to investigate old finds.
'During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lots of antiquities were both discovered and destroyed through processes of agricultural improvement and expansion, and their discovery was often inadequately reported,' the authors wrote.
'Here, we highlight the potential of re-investigating antiquarian finds for research purposes, using modern investigative techniques to provide information otherwise lacking for so many old finds.'
WHO WERE THE PICTS?
The Picts were a group of tribes who lived north of the Forth and Clyde during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval period.
By the late 200s AD the Picts had overrun the northern frontier of the Roman empire more than once.
Mel Gibson's blue face paint in Braveheart is a nod to the Pictish tradition of body-paint - but the real Picts fought stark naked, and there are records of them doing so up until the 5th Century.
The habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, didn't harm the tribe's reputation for ferocity.
Picts were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer the area.
THE GAULCROSS HOARD
Gaulcross is now an intensively farmed arable field in rural Aberdeenshire.
In spring 2013, two projects in Scotland came together to investigate the site.
The Northern Picts project (established 2012) at the University of Aberdeen, a field-based initiative targeting key Pictish sites in northern Scotland was one of the projects.
The second was the National Museums Scotland Glenmorangie Research Project (established 2008 ), which has been promoting material culture approaches to the study of early medieval Scotland.
NEW METHODS ON OLD FINDS
The authors said the study shows the importance of using modern techniques to investigate old finds.
'During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lots of antiquities were both discovered and destroyed through processes of agricultural improvement and expansion, and their discovery was often inadequately reported,' the authors wrote.
'Here, we highlight the potential of reinvestigating antiquarian finds for research purposes, using modern investigative techniques to provide information otherwise lacking for so many old finds.'
But it turns out these 'lost' ancient people of Scotland also a talent for carving stone and shaping silver.
Archaeologists have surveyed a field in Northern Scotland and uncovered a hoard of 100 more silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times.
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
Jewellery crafted by 'lost' ancient people of Scotland unearthed: 1,500-year-old trove of silver discovered at Roman-era stone circle
Three pieces of silver were found at the Gaulcross site in Scotland in 1838
Site was then turned into a farm and no more artefacts were searched for
Now scientists have re-investigated the site and found over 100 pieces
Trove includes late Roman coins, military equipment, personal ornaments
By Abigail Beall For Mailonline
28 June 2016
Often stereotyped as tattooed barbarians, the Picts had a talent for war.
But it turns out these 'lost' ancient people of Scotland also a talent for carving stone and shaping silver.
Archaeologists have surveyed a field in Northern Scotland and uncovered a hoard of 100 more silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times.
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity. The researchers were surprised when they discovered more than 100 silver items (shown)
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
'We set out, not really thinking we would find more silver,' Dr Noble said.
'We just wanted to learn more about the context' of the original find.
The researchers were surprised when they discovered more than 100 silver items.
The finds included late Roman coins and military equipment, personal ornaments including brooch and bracelet fragments, ingots and Hacksilber parcels - pieces of cut, bent and broken silver.
Originally, there were also two man-made stone circles, one dating to the Neolithic and the other the Bronze Age (B.C. 1670 to B.C. 1500), the researchers said.
Gaulcross is now an intensively-farmed field in rural Aberdeenshire, and there is no evidence left showing the stone circles.
The finds included late Roman coins and military equipment, personal ornaments including brooch and bracelet fragments, ingots and Hacksilber parcels - pieces of cut, bent and broken silver. The items belonged to a group of people called the Picts
A lunate/crescent-shaped pendant with two double-loops, shown left, and silver hemispheres shown right. Some of the objects in the Gaulcross hoard were themselves almost certainly connected to elites
Three silver objects were first unearthed at the stone circle site over 170 years ago, before it was turned into a field.
The silver dates back to the sixth or seventh century AD, according to the paper, after the Romans decamped and before the Vikings stormed onshore.
In spring 2013, two projects in Scotland came together to revisit the site, and began to find more and more silver objects.
The items belonged to a group of people called the Picts.
The Picts were a group of tribes who lived north of the Forth and Clyde during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval period.
'It's a real melting pot of different objects and different cultural origins,' Dr Noble said. 'It's a really fascinating hoard.'
'The new fieldwork has revealed that the Gaulcross hoard was much larger than previously thought and is now the northernmost (pre-Viking Age) Hacksilber hoard in Europe and one of only two comparable hoards known in Scotland,' the authors said.
'This hoard shows that the Picts had access to quantities of silver and were, not surprisingly, carefully managing what was a precious resource,' Dr Alice Blackwell, Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland, who was involved in the study, told MailOnline.
'Many of the objects have been cut up ready to be melted down and made into new things. Until now, we’ve had only one other hoard, from Fife, that could shed light on this process of making and remaking, and many of the objects within that hoard were unique.
'Now we have an additional 100 objects with which to ask questions about the range of contacts the Picts had, about how they acquired Roman silver in the first place, about the sorts of new power symbols they made from it.
'The theme of recycling is so important to understanding the Gaulcross hoard. It explains why so many of the objects are rare – most other examples would have been melted down, but luckily for us, for some reason, this hoard was buried until now.'
A small, zoomorphic penannular brooch, shown left and one of the bracelet fragments with a Late Roman siliquae pinched inside, shown right
At a prehistoric stone circle in Scotland, three silver objects were discovered over 170 years ago. But instead of looking for more treasures after finding these three, they were ordered to turn the field into farmland, keeping the buried artefacts hidden. Gaulcross is now an intensively farmed field in rural Aberdeenshire, pictured on map
By the late 200s AD the Picts had overrun the northern frontier of the Roman empire more than once.
Like other hoards, the Gaulcross treasure has 'preserved fashions (from) what we think of as the darkest bits of the dark age after the fall of the Roman Empire,' says study co-author Martin Goldberg of National Museums Scotland. 'It's like a little snapshot in time.'
The Roman name for the people - Picti - means 'painted people'. It is not known what they called themselves.
The habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, didn't harm the tribe's reputation for ferocity.
Picts were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer the area.
These included small fragments of sheet silver, hacked fragments of objects and some intact objects that might have belonged to important members of society at the time.
'Some of the objects in the Gaulcross hoard were themselves almost certainly connected to elites,' the authors wrote in the study.
'Items such as silver hand-pins and silver bracelets...are uncommon finds.'
'I think one of the most exciting objects is a piece of a bangle that has been folded into a parcel, and a late Roman coin (late 4th – early 5th century AD) sandwiched between the folds,' Dr Blackwell told MailOnline.
'This type of bangle is, like most of the hoard, extremely rare but what makes it particularly exciting is that in this parcel we have the meeting of Roman and local objects, both more valued for their silver bullion by the time they were buried than as a coin or bangle.
'Some of the research we’re doing at the moment is looking at the weights of the parcels to see if there are any uniform sizes of parcels, perhaps conforming to the Roman ounce weight system – this is one of the parcels that might have been deliberately made to weigh 1/3 of a Roman ounce.'
The authors said the study shows the importance of using modern techniques to investigate old finds.
'During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lots of antiquities were both discovered and destroyed through processes of agricultural improvement and expansion, and their discovery was often inadequately reported,' the authors wrote.
'Here, we highlight the potential of re-investigating antiquarian finds for research purposes, using modern investigative techniques to provide information otherwise lacking for so many old finds.'
WHO WERE THE PICTS?
The Picts were a group of tribes who lived north of the Forth and Clyde during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval period.
By the late 200s AD the Picts had overrun the northern frontier of the Roman empire more than once.
Mel Gibson's blue face paint in Braveheart is a nod to the Pictish tradition of body-paint - but the real Picts fought stark naked, and there are records of them doing so up until the 5th Century.
The habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, didn't harm the tribe's reputation for ferocity.
Picts were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer the area.
THE GAULCROSS HOARD
Gaulcross is now an intensively farmed arable field in rural Aberdeenshire.
In spring 2013, two projects in Scotland came together to investigate the site.
The Northern Picts project (established 2012) at the University of Aberdeen, a field-based initiative targeting key Pictish sites in northern Scotland was one of the projects.
The second was the National Museums Scotland Glenmorangie Research Project (established 2008 ), which has been promoting material culture approaches to the study of early medieval Scotland.
NEW METHODS ON OLD FINDS
The authors said the study shows the importance of using modern techniques to investigate old finds.
'During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lots of antiquities were both discovered and destroyed through processes of agricultural improvement and expansion, and their discovery was often inadequately reported,' the authors wrote.
'Here, we highlight the potential of reinvestigating antiquarian finds for research purposes, using modern investigative techniques to provide information otherwise lacking for so many old finds.'
