MORAY, SCOTLAND—According to a report in The Scotsman, a section of eighth-century defensive wall has been uncovered in northern Scotland, on the coast of a peninsula that projects into the Moray Firth, by a team of researchers led by Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen. Preserved pieces of timber lacing were found in the ten-foot-long section of Pictish rampart. “It really reinforces the huge investment in resources that was undertaken to construct the fort at Burghead,” Noble said. “The timber lacing is one of the best preserved in Europe.” Beam slots in the wall supported the fort’s wooden structure, he added. The abundance of charcoal at the site indicates the fort was destroyed by fire. A Pictish longhouse, coins, and pottery have also been uncovered. Coastal erosion now threatens the site. To read in-depth about archaeology in northern Scotland, go to “Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart.”
