Dig volunteer finds rare Pictish ring

A volunteer in an excavation of the site of a Pictish fort in Burghead, northeastern Scotland, has discovered a rare Pictish ring. It is kite-shaped with a central oval red gem, possibly a garnet or red glass, and is one of very few Pictish rings known.

The enclosed promontory fort was one the largest and most important Pictish centers during the kingdom’s heyday (4th-9th centuries), but was believed to have been stripped of its archaeological materials when the town of Burghead was built in the early 19th century. Most of its surviving stone walls were dismantled and reused in the new construction, leaving only a few ramparts and an underground well. Even 5th century stone panels carved with images of bulls believed to have been part of a frieze on the ramparts were just built into the harbor wall like any other rock, only six of 30 making it to safety in museums.

For the past three years, the University of Aberdeen Professor of Archaeology Gordon Noble had led excavations of the site to explore the surviving remains and create accurate 3D reconstructions of the fort’s original structure. John Ralph, a retired engineer and alumnus of the University of Aberdeen whose family was among those who settled the new town of Burghead in the 19th century, volunteered to join the digs. He found the ring on the last day of his third dig.

Professor Noble says that what he was presented with was ‘truly remarkable’. “John was digging and then came over and said ‘look what I’ve found’. What he handed over was incredible,” he added.

“Even before the conservation work we could see it was something really exciting as despite more than a thousand years in the ground we could see glints of the possible garnet setting.

“There are very few Pictish rings which have ever been discovered and those we do know about usually come from hoards which were placed in the ground deliberately for safekeeping in some way. We certainly weren’t expecting to find something like this lying around the floor of what was once a house but that had appeared of low significance so, in typical fashion, we had left work on it until the final day of the dig.”

The ring is undergoing analysis by the National Museum of Scotland’s Post-excavation Service. They hope to narrow down its date and whether it was made at the fort for a prominent individual.

Professor Noble added: “We will now look at the ring, evidence of buildings and other artefacts to consider whether the ring was crafted on the site and who such an important piece of jewellery might have been made for.

“We have some other evidence of metalworking and the number of buildings we have uncovered is quite striking. This further indicator of the high-status production of metalwork adds to the growing evidence that Burghead was a really significant seat of power in the Pictish period.”

* This article was originally published here