EAST LOMOND, SCOTLAND—The University of Aberdeen announced that an incredibly rare carving depicting a human face was recently unearthed at the ancient hillfort site of East Lomond in Fife. The five-inch-long object was originally dismissed as insignificant, but closer examination by University of Aberdeen archaeologist Gordon Noble identified faint details, including two eyes, a nose, and even a small bit of hair, that resembled characters from medieval manuscripts. Noble believes that it may not be a depiction of just any ordinary figure but the portrait of an ancient Pict. The Picts were a somewhat mysterious people that inhabited parts of Scotland between a.d. 300 and 900. They were often portrayed by the Romans as blue-painted barbarians of the North, although recent archaeology has frequently contradicted these stereotypes. “It is incredibly rare to have a representation of a human face in this time period,” Noble said. “We’ll have to look at all the parallels, but if it really is a human face it’s nice to think it could be a rudimentary portrait of a local Pict who lived at East Lomond.” The object was found within a house dating to between the fifth and seventh century a.d., a period when East Lomond may have been home to a major hillfort and settlement within the southernmost part of the Pictish kingdom. To read about a stone unearthed in eastern Scotland that is carved with geometric symbols, go to "Pictish Pictograms."
