Posted on 05/16/2020 11:04:41 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A hillfort in Aberdeenshire is one of the largest ancient settlements ever discovered in Scotland, researchers have said.
University of Aberdeen archaeologists say 4,000 people may have lived in more than 800 huts perched high on the Tap O' Noth near Rhynie.
Many had thought it dated from the Bronze or Iron Age.
The team said carbon dating suggested it was likely to be Pictish, dating back as far as the third century AD.
They believe at its height it may have rivalled the largest known post-Roman settlements in Europe.
Archaeologists from the university have conducted extensive fieldwork in the surrounding area since 2011.
Prof Gordon Noble, who led the research, described the discovery that activity at the site extended into the Pictish period as the most surprising of his career...
"We took samples from the site really just to begin placing the important discoveries we have made at Rhynie over the last few years in a broader geographical context. The results of the dating were simply incredible.
"The Tap O' Noth discovery shakes the narrative of this whole time period. If each of the huts we identified had four or five people living in them then that means there was a population of upwards of 4,000 people living on the hill.
"It is truly mind-blowing and demonstrates just how much we still have to learn about settlement around the time that the early kingdoms of Pictland were being consolidated."
Aberdeenshire Council leader Jim Gifford said: "This find of historic importance will be of huge significance.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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“likely to be Pictish, dating back as far as the third century AD.”
Who writes this stuff ??? Bronze and Iron Age are FURTHER back in time (than 200-300 AD), so phrasing it with “back as far as the third century” is badly done — as it implies FURTHER BACK IN TIME rather than less old (as this reported finding).
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Probably by people who assume that the reader is well informed. No doubt that the people who came to be called Picts existed in pre-Roman Britain, but they were not so called until the Romans gave them that name. Since what became the Highlands of Scotland was never occupied by the Romans, the Pictish era coexisted with the Romans and after they left. Without a written record, what little we know about the Picts come from the Romans and from people writing several centuries after the disappearance of the Picts. That's why this discover may be so important.
Yeah, like your post.
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