Ancient tomb rewrites history

PERTH: Hidden beneath a four-tonne slab of rock and surrounded by carved symbols of prehistoric power, a spectacular high-status tomb, dating back 4000 years, has been discovered by archaeologists in Scotland.

The find is unique in Britain.

Excavations at Forteviot near Perth have yielded the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler buried on a bed of white quartz pebbles and birch bark with at least a dozen personal possessions - including a bronze and gold dagger, a bronze knife, a wooden bowl and a leather bag.

The discovery has huge implications for Scottish history. Forteviot has long been known to have been a royal centre in the early medieval period. It was "capital" of a Pictish kingdom in the 8-9th century AD. One of Scotland's earliest kings, Kenneth MacAlpin, is said to have had a palace there.

Until now nobody suspected that Forteviot's royal roots might be thousands of years older.

The excavations are revealing that around 2600BC, Neolithic people built a 250m diameter circle of 200 timber obelisks with a ceremonial way leading to its entrance and an inner timber circle at its centre. Each oak obelisk was up to a metre in diameter. By 2400BC, a massive earthwork enclosure with a 10m-wide, 3m-deep moat was built inside that.

At roughly the same time two similar earthwork enclosures - "henges" - were built north of the large timber circle. And finally in around 2000BC the tomb was built underground in what was probably the most prestigious location - the centre of the entire complex.

Uniquely, the tomb's stone wall, at the head end of the grave, was decorated with carvings of two bronze axes. The tomb's great 2m by 2m, four-tonne stone roof was decorated with a much older carving of a probable Neolithic stone battle axe or ceremonial mace head.

PREHISTORIC BRITAIN
* In 2000BC Stonehenge was in its heyday as a ritual centre.
* Society in Britain was becoming more hierarchical and the change brought a greater concentration of power in the hands of fewer people.
* It is likely that during this time Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, the world's greatest ancient man-made mound, was undergoing expansion.
* Gold extraction was in full swing in Ireland - much of it was being sent to Britain. There was a big increase in bronze production in Britain.
* Continental influence was increasing substantially in southern Britain.

- INDEPENDENT