8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Pictish ring believed to be more than 1,000-years-old found during Burghead fort dig in Scotland

A “remarkable” Pictish ring thought to be more than 1,000 years old has been unearthed by an amateur archaeologist on a dig at the Burghead Fort in Moray, Scotland.

Burghead Fort was a Pictish promontory fort on the site now occupied by the small town of Burghead in Moray, Scotland. The area was thought to have been ‘archaeologically vandalized’ in the 1800s when a town was built on top of it.

The ring, whose center is believed to be garnet or red glass, is presently being examined for analysis by the post-excavation service of the National Museum of Scotland. It is hoped to contribute to our understanding of the enigmatic Picts, whose kingdoms have been lost to time as they had no written record.

Before being found by a volunteer in a dig overseen by the University of Aberdeen, the kite-shaped ring with a garnet or red glass center had been hidden at the Burghead fort for over a millennium.

Despite being a recognized Pictish site, most people believed that its historical significance had been lost when the town of Burghead was built in the 1800s, enclosing most of the fort and removing the stone that was still needed for construction.

A reconstruction of Burghead (Alice Watterson)

Among the families encouraged to relocate to the new town to support the fishing industry were the ancestors of John Ralph – a former engineer and graduate of the University of Aberdeen who has enjoyed a 50-year association with his alma mater.  When he retired, John Ralph had signed up as a volunteer for the Burghead digs. On the last day of the dig, he found the ring.

Mr Ralph said: “It is a real thrill to dig up an artifact in the knowledge that you are probably the first person to see it for 1,000-1,500 years. It becomes a real guessing game of who owned it, what they used it for, and how it was lost.”

University’s Professor of Archaeology, Gordon Noble has led excavation work, funded by Historical Environment Scotland, over the last three years which has shed new light on the importance of the site and enabled the development of 3-D reconstructions of how it might once have looked.

Professor Noble says that what he was presented with was ‘truly remarkable’.

Photo: University of Aberdeen

“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.”

Professor Noble added: “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.

“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.”

John Ralph with the ring. Photo: University of Aberdeen

The Picts were descended from native Iron Age people who lived in what is now Scotland, north of the Rivers Clyde and Forth, between 300 and 900 AD, according to the Highland Pictish Trail.

While archaeology can reveal a great deal about these communities, information regarding their kingdoms, cultures, and beliefs has been lost to myth and mystery because none of their written records have survived to this day.

The public will be able to learn more about this find and the ongoing work at Burghead at an open day to be held at the fort on Sunday, September 8 from 10 am to 4 pm.

University of Aberdeen

Cover Image: University of Aberdeen

Related Articles

The Americas’ oldest known bead discovered near Douglas, Wyoming

9 March 2024

9 March 2024

Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known bead in the Americas at the La Prele Mammoth site in Converse County, United...

A 2000-year-old wooden figure was unearthed in a Buckinghamshire ditch

13 January 2022

13 January 2022

An extremely rare, carved wooden figure from the early Roman era has been discovered in a waterlogged ditch during work...

An artificial intelligence “Ithaca” that will improve our understanding of ancient history

11 March 2022

11 March 2022

A deep neural network trained to restore ancient Greek texts can do so with 72% accuracy when used by historians,...

Hundreds of silver coins have been found near the castle of Lukov in Moravia

4 September 2021

4 September 2021

In the forest near the Southern Moravian Fortress Lukov, two members of the Society of Friends of the Lukov Fortress...

The largest stone coffin grave found so far at the Yoshinogari Ruins -3.2 meters

30 May 2023

30 May 2023

A grave with a stone coffin around 2.3 meters long and dating to the latter part of the Yayoi Period...

Archaeologists Uncover Roman London’s First Basilica Beneath an Office Basement

13 February 2025

13 February 2025

Archaeologists have made a groundbreaking discovery beneath an office building in London, unearthing a substantial section of the ancient city’s...

Golden Tongues and Nails discovered on mummies from the Ptolemaic Period in Egypt

18 December 2024

18 December 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered tombs decorated with colorful inscriptions and ritual scenes, as well as unusual mummies and unique funerary objects,...

Egyptian mission discovered five ancient water wells in North Sinai

1 March 2022

1 March 2022

A team of Egyptian archeologists working in the Tell El Kedwa discovered five ancient wells which are believed to be...

Last Assyrian Capital “Ninive”

7 February 2021

7 February 2021

Ninive is an ancient Assyrian city located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in northern Iraq, near today’s...

Egypt Traces Relics of Ramses III to the Arabian Peninsula

7 June 2021

7 June 2021

Following various findings showing ancient Egyptian King Ramses III had a presence on the Arabian Peninsula, an Egyptian archaeological team...

The statue head of Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, found stuck between two rocks in Laodikeia

21 May 2024

21 May 2024

A 2100-year-old statue head of the Hygieia (Health) Goddess was found during the excavations in the ancient city of Laodikeia...

Evidence of a 1500-year-old Byzantine church found on the beach of Ashdod, Israel

22 February 2022

22 February 2022

Recent rain in Israel has unearthed the remains of a marble pillar dating to around 1,500 years ago on a...

An Elite Nubian Woman’s Burial, Dating Back 4,000 Years, Reveals the Oldest Evidence of Tumpline Use

15 April 2025

15 April 2025

A recent study analyzing 30 ancient skeletons from the Abu Fatima cemetery in Nubia, Sudan, has revealed that women in...

A Sunken Port Beneath the Red Sea May Have Reshaped the Map of Human Migration Out of Africa 20,000 Years Ago

26 July 2025

26 July 2025

New research suggests an ancient trade hub lies beneath Egypt’s Red Sea coast—offering clues to how early civilizations connected Africa...

1,000-Year-Old Kufic-Inscribed Tombstone Unearthed at Dowlatshahi Mosque in UNESCO-Listed Yazd, Iran

29 July 2025

29 July 2025

In a remarkable archaeological discovery, a nearly 1,000-year-old Kufic-Inscribed tombstone has been unearthed during restoration efforts at the Dowlatshahi Mosque,...