Volunteer Discovers 1,000-Year-Old Ring on the Last Day of an Excavation in Scotland

During an archaeological dig in Scotland, a volunteer discovered a 1,000-year-old kite-shaped ring decorated with a garnet or red glass center. Experts think the artifact belonged to the Picts, a group that inhabited the region during the early Middle Ages.

The ring surfaced on the last day of a two-week excavation of a fort in Burghead, a town in northeastern Scotland. Volunteers were examining the floor of what was once a house, which “had appeared [to be] of low significance,” as dig leader Gordon Noble, an archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen, says in a statement. Then, one volunteer stumbled upon an intriguing object.

“I was just clearing the floor of a building, and at first I saw a metal pin—and then, lo and behold, there was the ring,” Ralph tells BBC Scotland News. “It was only when I showed it to the volunteer next to me and he got excited that I thought it might really be something. You are always a bit surprised when you get something like that.”

When Ralph showed the artifact to Noble, the archaeologist knew immediately that it was something special.

“What he handed over was incredible,” says Noble in the statement. “Even before the conservation work, we could see it was something really exciting, as despite more than 1,000 years in the ground, we could see glints of the possible garnet setting.”

The Picts, or “Painted People,” lived in parts of present-day northeastern and eastern Scotland between roughly the fourth and tenth centuries. The Romans labeled them “Picts,” which comes from the Latin word for “painted,” because they decorated their skin using body paint (or possibly tattooing). They resisted Roman attacks for centuries, and Roman historians often characterized them as a violent group of barbaric warriors.

The Picts occupied the fort at Burghead—their largest known settlement—between the sixth and tenth centuries, after which their society appears to have collapsed. In the 1800s, the town of Burghead was built atop the site of the Pictish fort, repurposing its remaining stones. Per the statement, many historians assumed this construction destroyed the site’s archaeological record. But in recent years, research led by Noble and others has revealed vital information about the Picts from the settlement’s remains.

3-D reconstructions reveal Scotland's largest Pictish fort

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As a 2021 digital reconstruction shows, the fort was composed of massive defensive ramparts surrounding houses and other structures. The recently discovered ring could provide new insights into the lives of the site’s inhabitants.

“There are very few Pictish rings which have ever been discovered,” says Noble in the statement. “We will now look at the ring, evidence of buildings and other artifacts to consider whether the ring was crafted on the site and who such an important piece of jewelry might have been made for.”

The team sent the ring to the National Museum of Scotland’s post-excavation service, where experts will conduct an in-depth analysis.

Ralph, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen, found the ring during his third dig at the site. He had joined the excavation after seeing a call for volunteers on social media.

“I always had an interest in archaeology, and having recently retired and coming out of Covid, I was looking for something interesting to do,” he tells Fox News Digital’s Ashlyn Messier. “I saw a call on Facebook for volunteers for the dig at Burghead, and since it was the town I was raised in and my sister stays there, I just thought, ‘Why not?’”

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.