STIRLING, SCOTLAND—The Herald Scotland reports that a belt buckle dating to World War I was unearthed at the site of an eighteenth-century footpath known as the Back Walk near Scotland’s medieval Stirling Castle. The buckle, which bears an image of the double-headed imperial eagle and the Austrian coat of arms, was the type issued to soldiers in the Austrian Army. During World War I, the castle was a working barracks and a military prison. The lost buckle may have been a souvenir collected by a Scottish soldier, or it may have belonged to a prisoner of war. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century clay tobacco pipes, a small knife, and a lead musket ball were also found in the area of the Back Walk. A midden closer to the castle yielded pottery and stoneware dating to the medieval period. To read about another recent discovery in Scotland, go to “Fit for a Saint.”
