Excavation volunteers discover rare Pictish ring – History Blog

A volunteer excavating the remains of a Pictish fort at Burghead in northeast Scotland has discovered a rare Pictish ring.Resembling an oval in shape, with a red gemstone in the centre, possibly a garnet or red glass, it is one of very few Pictish rings known.

This enclosed promontory fort was one of the largest and most important Pictish centres during the height of the kingdom (4th-9th centuries), but is believed to have been stripped of its archaeological material when the town of Burghead was built in the early 19th century. Most of the surviving stone walls were removed and reused for new buildings, leaving only a few ramparts and an underground well. Even a 5th-century stone slab with an image of a bull, believed to have been part of a frieze on the ramparts, was embedded in the harbour wall like the rest of the rock, and only six of the 30 pieces remain safely in the museum.

Gordon Noble, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, has been leading excavations at the site for the past three years, exploring the surviving remains and accurately reconstructing the original structure of the fort. John Ralph, a retired engineer and alumnus of the University of Aberdeen whose family was among those who settled in New Town Burghead in the 19th century, volunteered to join the excavation. He found the ring on the last day of the third excavation.

Professor Noble said what he received was “truly quite remarkable”. “John was digging and came over and said ‘look what I found’. What he handed over was incredible,” he added.

“It’s exciting that we can see this even before conservation work begins because even though it’s been buried for over a thousand years, we can still see flashes of what might be garnet inlays.

“Very few Pictish rings have been found so far, and the ones we know about usually come from treasures deliberately buried in the ground to be kept in some way. We certainly didn’t expect to find something like this lying on the floor of what had once been a house, but it didn’t seem to make much sense, so, as is customary, we left the excavation to the last day of the dig.”

The ring is being analysed by National Museums Scotland’s Post-Excavation Services, who hope to narrow down its age and determine whether it was made for a prominent individual at the fort.

Professor Noble added: “We will now examine the ring, building evidence and other artefacts to determine if the ring was made at the site and who such an important piece of jewellery might have been made for.

“We also have evidence of other metalworking, and the number of buildings we’ve found is quite impressive. This further suggests that metalwork was produced at a high status, and it adds to the evidence that Burghead was a very important centre of power during the Pictish period.”