Medieval Site May Mark Lost Monastery

News January 8, 2018

(Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
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Scotland medieval monastery
(Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND—BBC News reports that archaeologists have uncovered traces of what may have been a circular building as well as medieval pottery, a stone hearth, and charcoal while looking for the site of the monastery where the Book of Deer is thought to have been written in the tenth century. “The date for the charcoal is 1147 to 1260 and is extremely exciting because it is potentially the monastic period, so it is dating to the early medieval period when we know the monastery was in the area,” said archaeologist Alison Cameron. The site is located in a field near the ruins of Deer Abbey, which was founded in A.D. 1219. Later notes written in Scots Gaelic in the margins of the Book of Deer, which is thought to be the oldest surviving Scottish manuscript, suggest the monks of Deer Abbey had a view of the abandoned monastery. The Book of Deer is now housed at the University of Cambridge. To read about another recent discovery in Scotland, go to “A Dangerous Island.”

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