4000 Year Old Tomb Found in Perthshire
August 20, 2009 by Martin Graham
Gently does it - a crane lifts the 4 ton capstone off the tomb at Forteviot
- The grave site with a scale stick – each black and white section shows 25cm.
A huge crane moved into place and hoisted the slab off, revealing a well preserved tomb. There were gasps of astonishment from the assembled team as they realised that the grave contained a stone coffin with a wooden coffin within. Within the coffin was a bronze dagger with a gold band, already hailed as a discovery of national significance. The coffin also contained a leather bag and wooden artefacts. This material has been taken to Edinburgh for conservation and examination in laboratory conditions. Dr Gordon Noble, dig co-director said: ‘Until the grave goods are fully analysed it will be difficult to say a great deal about the person buried here, but it is clear that this was a person of tremendous importance to the local community.’ The archaeologists later discovered that the underside of the 4 ton capstone contained intricate carvings. These pecked markings may represent an axe and are unique in Britain. Further axes may also have been pecked into the side slab of the stone cist beside where the head would have lain. This rock-art suggests that this is the grave of a significant person. This burial was placed within an extensive complex of prehistoric ritual monuments at Forteviot which go back to the Neolithic period (perhaps as early as 3000BC) and remained a centre of religious and political significance for many millennia. Most notably, the last Pictish kings, including Kenneth Mac Alpine, who died in AD 858, were drawn to Forteviot and left a legacy of exceptional Pictish sculpture. Professor Stephen Driscoll of Glasgow University said: ‘This excavation is part of a long-term project to study the link between the emerging kingdom of medieval Scotland and its ancient prehistoric remains. This burial provides the strongest evidence of the presence of ancestral graves which may have been regarded as mythological heros by the Picts who were also buried nearby in Forteviot.’
The following links provide more info about the dig, including a first hand account of the excavations.
http://serf-dig.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-08-10T14:29:00-07:00&max-results=7
The photos below record the moment when the stone was lifted and the tomb revealed.
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