Archaeologists in Scotland shed genuine tears when they found a stone covered with geometric carvings that the Indigenous people of the region designed about 1,500 years ago.
The carved stone was found while doing a survey in the village of Aberlemno.
The stone has a number of geometric shapes with symbols of the Pictish religion. The researchers said that some of the symbols were carved in different time periods.
The University of Aberdeen.
The carvings on this stone are from the fifth or sixth centuriesCE.
Gordon Noble, excavation leader and a professor of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, told Live Science in an email that the best guess is that the symbols are a naming system for Pictish names.
James O'Driscoll, an archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said in a university video that it was the find of a lifetime.
The Latin word for painted ispicti, and it means fierce people who lived in ancient and medieval times. The Roman Empire never conquered Scotland because of them.
Stone monument discovered in Scotland.
Only about 200 such stones are known to archaeologists.
The Battle of Nechtansmere, a Pictish victory over the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, may be depicted in a slab of stones from Aberlemno, which is known for its unique standing stones.
The discovery happened in early 2020 when archaeologists were surveying the area as part of the Comparative Kingship project, a five-year investigation into the early medieval kingdoms of northern Britain and Ireland.
The team noticed anomalies while moving the equipment across the grass.
The archaeologists dug a small pit to see what was underneath their feet. They found a carved stone.
Archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen were part of the excavation and had a freakout when they found a symbol.
The University of Aberdeen.
There is a mirror carved into a stone in a field.
The team had to put their plans on hold because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. After months of waiting, they were able to remove and examine the stone, which was from the fifth or sixth centuryCE.
Most of what surrounds the carved stones has already been disturbed by the time we get to analyze them.
To find something like this while digging a small test pit is amazing, and we couldn't believe our luck.
He said that they were able to examine and date the layers underneath the rock without losing vital evidence.
According to radiocarbon dating, the slab was placed next to other pavers in a building that was built in the 11th or 12th century.
In the era of the Kingdom of Alba, the building dates to after the Pictish period.
The stone is in a lab in Edinburgh where scientists will investigate it further.
There are related content.
There are photos of Bronze Age weaponry from Scotland.
Scotland has a cave of the dead.
The sauropods were in the Scottish lagoon.
The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
