All posts by Archaeology World Team

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Possible Image of Roman God Unearthed at Vindolanda

Possible Image of Roman God Unearthed at Vindolanda

BBC News reports that two volunteers discovered a piece of sandstone carved with an image of a donkey or horse and a naked man holding a spear at Vindolanda, a Roman fort along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. 

It was found intact near a 4th Century cavalry barrack and it is believed to depict either the Gods Mars or Mercury, although there is no inscription.

The artefact will be on display at the fort’s museum from Thursday.

It was unearthed by volunteers Richie Milor and David Goldwater who have taken part in annual digs at the fort for the past 15 years

Site archaeologist Marta Alberti is now piecing together clues to try to establish who the carving represents.

Ms Alberti said: “We are looking at something we have never seen at Vindolanda before and we might not see again.

“The nakedness of the man means he is probably a god, rather than a mere cavalryman, he is also carrying a spear in his left arm, a common attribute of the God of War Mars.

“However, when you look at his head, the two almost circular features could be identified as wings, a common attribute of Mercury – god of travel.

“Horses and donkeys are also often associated with Mercury as a protector of travellers.”

The Vindolanda Survival Appeal has so far raised £130,000 of a £200,000 target

The carving – which measures 6.2in (160mm) wide and 12.4in (315mm) tall – is very well preserved, Ms Alberti said.

It was unearthed by volunteers Richie Milor and David Goldwater who have taken part in annual digs at the fort for the past 15 years.

Mr Milor said: “We are just absolutely elated, very proud to be part of this discovery, it was actually very emotional.

“Whether you find something or not we love coming to this site, playing our small part in the research that takes place, but finding this made it a very special day indeed.”

Due to the pandemic, Vindolanda had to close for many months and furlough staff.

It has is so far raised more than £130,000 of a target of £200,000 as part of its Survival Appeal.

The excavations at Vindolanda will continue until 24 September.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Huge Objects Could Have Been Moved by a Lifting Machine at Stonehenge and Egypt!

Huge Objects Could Have Been Moved by a Lifting Machine at Stonehenge and Egypt!

A history-loving carpet fitter has recreated an ancient machine to solve the mystery of how Stonehenge was built. Steven Tasker, 66, believes the long-forgotten machinery would have been used to transport the huge stones 180 miles.

Steven Tasker on a day trip to Stonehenge, when he was likely thinking about his lifting machine and how it was used first in the UK and how it was likely the Egyptians visited Britain in search of scientific solutions for moving huge statues and building the pyramids.

He came up with the theory on a visit to Egypt as he wanted to explain how the Pyramids were built. Steven decided to build the rocking structure with his grandson to see if they could lift heavy stones.

The mechanism features a circular board in the middle of wooden planks that sit on top of rockers and wooden feet. Steven, of Llanrhaeadr, Mid Wales, says it could ‘move any weight’ and may solve the Stonehenge mystery.

He said: ‘It may look like something out of Last of the Summer Wine, but we’ve lifted a third of a tonne with it and theoretically it could move any weight.

‘I tied rockers below a plank of wood to try and work out how they could have been used.

‘By using pivot points, I could counterbalance a 60kg roll of carpet on top and by using the rockers, walk it across the road.’

Steven’s theory could explain how stone circles from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire were moved to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

He explained his ideas to Dr Campbell Price – curator of one of the UK’s largest Egyptology collections at Manchester Museum. Dr Price was impressed with his theory and said the ‘efficient movement of large numbers of ancient monuments’ has never been fully explained.

He said: ‘Steve’s experiments give a different perspective into how ancient people were able to plan paths of least resistance and to manipulate natural forces.’

Steven also believes the machine is referenced in the Old Testament when Ezekiel describes a ‘vision of God being transported on cherubim.’

Steven tested the prototype with his grandson: An important element where the ball bearings – such as those found at ancient sites – stop the statue from sliding off.
Huge Objects Could Have Been Moved by a Lifting Machine at Stonehenge and Egypt!
How Steven believes the machine could have looked – with the stone held over a circular board in the middle and wooden planks pulled sideways to propel the feet forward.
How Steven believes the machine would have looked – he believes the Egyptians could have kept animal fat in head cones to be used as a lubricant on the stone rollers

The cherubim include four wings and ‘feet shaped like the sole of a calf’s foot.

Steven said: ‘The feet are an important part of the machine because the load’s centre of mass is retained over them.

‘It gives the impression the machine is defying gravity, but like any trick of the eye, a clown leaning forward with his big shoes, it looks like magic.’

Steven estimates the machine would be able to travel 1.5 miles a day – meaning the Stonehenge stones would have taken months to transport.

Engineer Shaun Whitehead, who led the Djedi robotic exploration of the Great Pyramid, said: ‘I’m often approached by people who have their own ideas about why and how these great structures were built.

‘I’m careful not to dismiss any of these without a little thought, but most can be shown to be unworkable or impractical.

‘However, Steven’s theories on how massive objects could have been moved demonstrate a very creative and practical engineering mind.’

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

cache of 80-million-year-old shark teeth found in Solomon-era site in Jerusalem

Cache of 80-million-year-old shark teeth found in Solomon-era site in Jerusalem

Scientists have found an unexplained cache of fossilized shark teeth in an area where there should be none—in a 2,900-year-old site in the City of David in Jerusalem. This is at least 80 km from where these fossils would be expected to be found.

Cache of 80-million-year-old shark teeth found in Solomon-era site in Jerusalem
Fossilised Squalicorax tooth Nr. #07815 from the Jerusalem site.

There is no conclusive proof of why the cache was assembled, but it may be that the 80 million-year-old teeth were part of a collection, dating from just after the death of King Solomon. The same team has now unearthed similar unexplained finds in other parts of ancient Judea.

Presenting the work at the Goldschmidt Conference, lead researcher, Dr. Thomas Tuetken (the University of Mainz, Institute of Geosciences) said:

“These fossils are not in their original setting, so they have been moved. They were probably valuable to someone; we just don’t know why, or why similar items have been found in more than one place in Israel”.

The teeth were found buried in the material used to fill in a basement before conversion to a large Iron-Age house. The house itself was situated in the City of David, one of the oldest parts of Jerusalem, found nowadays in the largely Palestinian village of Silwan.

They were found together with fish bones thrown away as food waste 2,900 years ago, and other infill material such as pottery. Intriguingly, they were found together with hundreds of bullae—items used to seal confidential letters and packages—implying a possible connection with the administrative or governing class at some point.

Normally archaeological material is dated according to the circumstances where it is found, and so at first, it was assumed that the teeth were contemporary with the rest of the finds. Dr Tuetken said:

“We had at first assumed that the shark teeth were remains of the food dumped nearly 3,000 years ago, but when we submitted a paper for publication, one of the reviewers pointed out that one of the teeth could only have come from a Late Cretaceous shark that had been extinct for at least 66 million years. That sent us back to the samples, where measuring organic matter, elemental composition, and the crystallinity of the teeth confirmed that indeed all shark teeth were fossils. Their strontium isotope composition indicates an age of about 80 million years.

This confirmed that all 29 shark teeth found in the City of David were Late Cretaceous fossils—contemporary with dinosaurs. More than that, they were not simply weathered out of the bedrock beneath the site, but were probably transported from afar, possibly from the Negev, at least 80 km away, where similar fossils are found”.

Artist’s impression of a Squalicorax shark.

Since the first finds, the team have found other shark teeth fossils elsewhere in Israel, at the Maresha and Miqne sites. These teeth are also likely to have been unearthed and moved from their original sites.

Dr. Tuetken said:

“Our working hypothesis is that the teeth were brought together by collectors, but we don’t have anything to confirm that. There are no wear marks that might show that they were used as tools, and no drill holes to indicate that they may have been jewellery. We know that there is a market for shark’s teeth even today, so it may be that there was an Iron Age trend for collecting such items. This was a period of riches in the Judean Court. However, it’s too easy to put 2 and 2 together to make 5. We’ll probably never really be sure”.

The shark teeth which have been identified come from several species, including from the extinct Late Cretaceous group Squalicorax. Squalicorax, which grew to between 2 and 5 meters long, lived only during the Late Cretaceous period (which was the same period as the late dinosaurs), so acts as a reference point in dating these fossils.

Commenting, Dr. Brooke Crowley (University of Cincinnati) said:

“This research by Dr. Tuetken and colleagues is an excellent example of why it is so important to approach a research question with as few assumptions as possible, and how sometimes we have to revisit our initial assumptions.

It also highlights how beneficial it can be to apply multiple tools to answer a research question. In this case, the authors used both strontium and oxygen isotopes, as well as X-ray diffraction and trace element analysis to establish most likely age and origin of the fossil teeth.

It was a monumental of work but these efforts have revealed a much more interesting story about the people who lived in this region in the past. I am very excited by this work and hope that one day, we might be able to unravel the mystery of why these fossil teeth are being recovered from cultural deposits”.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Did Hindu’s build Egyptian Pyramids?

Did Hindu’s build Egyptian Pyramids?

Egyptian Pyramids, Mayan Pyramid Temples, Babylonian Ziggurats (Shikara in Sanskrit) and Hindu temples—all look like a cone. The design and structure are same. Hindus were the originators. Hindus taught the world that God lives in a high place-sacred mountain MERU.

The Greeks changed the name to Mount Olympus. Hindus are the only race in the world continuing temple buildings in the same way and worshipping God in it. All others made them as museums.

We took this concept of ‘sacred mountain’ to Cambodia and built the largest temple complex in the world Angkor Wat and Borobudur in Indonesia. We used the temple for Gods, where as others used them for God like kings.

Scholars around the world knew the connection between India and Egypt from 1400 BC. That was the time Mittanni King Dasaratha wrote ten letters (it is available in all the encyclopaedias as Amarna letters) after marrying his daughter to Egyptian king Amhenotep (Sramana Dev).  Tushratta/ Dasaratha was a king who ruled Syria (now a Muslim country), but his name and his forefather names are in Sanskrit.

To confirm they are Indian Hindus we have an inscription giving the Vedic Gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya (Asvini Devas) in an agreement with the Hittites and a horse manual with Sanskrit numbers.

(Though all these things were in encyclopaedias from 1930s, the ruling British were very careful not to teach this or about South East Asian Hindu Empire to Indian History students. All these excavations were done by non British scholars! British were very successful in sowing the poisonous seeds of divisive Aryan Dravidian Invasion theory which is not in Sangam Tamil or Sanskrit literature.

They carefully hid facts like Tamils worshipped Indra, Varuna, Vishnu, Skanda and Durga which was found in the oldest Tamil book Tolkappiam).

Bible which was put to writing around 945 BC (Hutchinson Encyclopaedia) also gave Sanskrit words  for imports from India such as karpasa (cotton),Tuke (Siki for peacock or Suka for parrots), Kapi (monkey)etc.

But many of us do not know that the first king of Egypt was Manu, the law giver. But they were not Dasaratha of Valmiki Ramayana or Manu of Manu Dharma Sastra. 

Many of us do not know that the Egyptian builders used the Sanskrit word  Sutra for measurements during building Egyptian Pyramids.

Sulba Sutras are Vedic manuals giving measurements for Yaga Kundas (fire pits for sacrificial fire ceremonies). It contains Pythagorean Theorem and other Vedic mathematics. Sutra means thread/plumb line,also book of formulas.

Arta Dama, a Mittanni king, married his daughter to Egyptian king Tuthmose IV and the daughter of Sutharna was married to Amenhotep III (1390 BC). Another daughter was married to his son Akhenaten.

He was the most revolutionary king who established ONE GOD for the Egyptians. His name in Sanskrit means Eka Aten (One Aten is God). He worshiped Surya (sun).

Egyptian kings’ sun worship looks exactly like Brahmins doing Sandhyavandhana. Brahmins do it thrice a day facing sun. Egyptian kings worship the sun in the same way.

Manu=Nara Meru

In my earlier posts I have established that the big conflict between Krishna/Arjuna pair and the Nagas under the leadership of Maya Dhanava just before 3100 BC resulted in a mass exodus of Nagas to South America and Central America.

After Krishna’s burning of Naga lands (Kandava vana) in the Gangetic plains, there were continuous clashes. It was followed by the mass execution of Nagas (Sarpa Yagna) to avenge the assassination of King Parikshit by the Nagas. A Naga hid himself in the fruit basket and killed King Parikshit.

Around 3100 BC another dynasty started their rule in Egypt. Since they were Hindus, they named the first king Manu (Manes). His other name was Narmer i.e. Nara Meru, a pure Sanskrit word meaning Mountain among the Kings. Meru was the holiest and highest mountain in Hindu Mythology. Any high point was named Meru.

We have different Merus around the world. Pameru (Pamir Plateau), KuMeru (Kumari in the South of India). Su Meru (Sumerians) of the Middle East. The word Khmer of Cambodia may be related to Kumari/Ku Meru. I will write about it separately. North and South Poles were also called Merus in Hindu Mythologies (Puranas).

Menes was given a legendary date 3100 BC by the Greeks because Indian Kaliyuga Calendar begins in 3102 BC. Mayans also followed this Kali Yuga Calendar. (Full details are in my posts)

Menes (Manu) was praised the first Law Giver of Egypt by the Greek Historian Diodorous Siculus. Egyptians were just like Indian Hindus. They believed kings were half God, half man. Indian words for kings and palaces are synonymous with Gods and Temples. Diodorous links Heracles (Hercules) with Egypt and India. Hercules was one of the 12 ancient Gods of Egypt and he cleared India of wild animals, says Diodorous.

Narmer palette shows his picture as a strict man punishing the wrong ones.

( In Tamil Khon means King and God, Koil means Palace and temple, In Sanskrit Deva is used for Lord and the King). Khon became Khan in other languages like Kesari/lion gave a new word Caesar. Tele in the Ancient Middle East means temple, which is the corrupted form of Sanskrit word STHALA. Tamils changed it to Thali=temple)

Egyptian kings called themselves children of Surya/sun. This corresponds with the Surya Vamsa of Hindu scriptures. Like Indian Hindu kings, Egyptian kings had two names : 1. Name given at birth 2. Coronation name or Abisheka Nama.

Nile River (Sanskrit word)

River Nile is known as Blue Nile because of its BLUE colour. It is a Sanskrit word NILA meaning blue. If I find only one Sanskrit word from among 1000 place names in Egypt, scholars will laugh at me. But almost all ancient Egyptian names are Sanskrit names. (Just a few examples: Heliopolis= Suryapura, Thebes=Devas, Zawyet el Aryan=Arya of ?, Saqqara= Chakra, Dashuf= Dasyu or Dasa, Asyut=Achyuta, Hierakonpolis=Swarnapura, Amra, Amarna= Amara, Dishashasa=Disa,  El Badari= Badri (nath), Beni Hasan=Vani dasan,  Naj el der=Naga….?). Please note that Greek words are also in many place names.

Ramses=Rama Seshan?

Ramses is a title for at least seventeen kings in Egypt. Kanchi Paramacharya Swamiji has mentioned this is the name of Rama, Hero of Ramayana, in his 1932 Chennai lectures.

Naga on their heads

Many of the kings have Naga ( Naga gave birth to English word Snake=S+Naka) on their heads. There is no Hindu God without snake on their bodies. But Egyptian Kings look exactly like Lord Shiva of Hindu mythology. Another word for snake is Uraga=Uraes of Egypt.

Belief in Rebirth

The reason for building Pyramids was their belief in after life and rebirth. All the oriental religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) believe in after life and Rebirth. Semitic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) don’t believe in it. This shows very clear connection with the Hindus of India. In Indian mythology we have Nimi (see the Puranas) saving his body like the Egyptians.

ASIA, RUSSIA, WORLD

The 4,000-year-old Aryan city discovered in Russia

The 4,000-year-old Aryan city discovered in Russia

Russian archaeologists have unearthed some ancient and virtually unknown settlements which they believe were built by the original Aryan race about 4000 years ago.

According to the team which has discovered 20 of the spiral-shaped settlements in a remote part of the Russian steppe in southern Siberia bordering Kazakhstan, the buildings date back to the beginning of Western civilisation in Europe.

The Bronze-age settlements, the experts said, could have been built shortly after the Great Pyramid some 4000 years ago by the original Aryan race whose swastika symbol was later adopted by the Nazis in the 1930s.

Swastika symbol.

TV historian Bettany Hughes, who explored the desolate part of the Russian steppe for the BBC programme ‘Tracking The Aryans’, said: “Potentially, this could rival ancient Greece in the age of the heroes.”

“Because I have written a lot about the Bronze Age world, there always seemed to be this huge missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” Hughes was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

She said: “We are all told that there is this kind of mother tongue, proto-Indo-European, from which all the languages we know emerge.

“I was very excited to hear on the archaeological grapevine that in exactly the period I am an expert in, this whole new Bronze Age civilisation had been discovered on the steppe of southern Siberia.”

The remains of the ancient city were explored for the first time around 20 years ago shortly after then Soviet officials relaxed strict laws banning non-military aerial photography.

But because the region is so remote the incredible cities have remained virtually unknown to the rest of Europe until now, according to the archaeologists.

They are about the same size as several of the city-states of ancient Greece and would have housed between 1,000 and 2,000 people, they said.

Hughes was driven to the vast region by the expedition’s chief archaeologist Professor Gennady Zdanovich who pointed to the cities that were buried in the ground beneath them.

The Aryan’s language has been identified as the precursor to a number of modern European tongues. English uses many similar words such as brother, oxen and guest which have all been tracked to the Aryans.

Items that have so far been dug up at the sites include make-up equipment, a chariot and numerous pieces of pottery.

The artefacts were daubed in swastikas which were used in ancient times as symbols of the sun and eternal life. But the swastika and Aryan race were adopted by Hitler and the Nazis as symbols of their so-called master race.

Evidence of ritual horse burials was found at the site which ties in with ancient Aryan texts that describe the animals being sliced up and buried with their masters.

Hughes, a visiting research fellow at King’s College London, said that “ancient Indian texts and hymns describe sacrifices of horses and burials and the way the meat is cut off and the way the horse is buried with its master”.

“If you match this with the way the skeletons and graves are being dug up in Russia, they are a millimetre-perfect match.”

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

3000-year-old Wine Vessel Unearthed in Shaanxi

3000-year-old Wine Vessel Unearthed in Shaanxi

Wine dating back 3,000 years has been unearthed in a nobleman’s tomb in Shaanxi province, northwest China, and is said to be the earliest wine in China’s history.

A bronze wine vessel from the West Zhou Dynasty

According to Chinese news wire Xinhua, the wine was found inside an ancient bronze vessel from the West Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-771 BC) in the city of Baoji.

“The liquid is likely the oldest wine discovered in China”, said Liu Jun, director of the Baoji Archaeology Institute, which is in charge of the excavation project.

According to Jun, the discovery of the liquid was made when the vessel – one of six found in the tomb – was shaken.

However, the cover of the vessel remains tightly shut, and with no appropriate tools to open it at the excavation site, the liquid inside has yet to be identified.

3000-year-old Wine Vessel Unearthed in Shaanxi
A large “Jin” and several bronze wares discovered in the noble tomb in Shaanxi province

“Wine became a symbol of corruption during the Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC) as officials drank to excess.

“This leads to the emergence of prohibition devices during the succeeding Zhou dynasty, which was put on the table to remind people to drink in moderation,” Jun said.

A 95cm-long “prohibition device” was unearthed with the vessels in the tomb, the first of its kind found in Baoji.

Excavation work is still underway at the site, with more bronze devices expected to be discovered in the next few days.

The Shang dynasty’s decline is sometimes attributed to its rulers’ heavy drinking habits.

Ancient wine isn’t unknown in China, which boasts one of the oldest wine traditions in the world.

The residue of wine over 9,000 years old has been found in ancient Chinese vessels.

In a 2004 BBC report, archaeo-chemist Patrick McGovern reported the liquid was composed of “rice, honey and fruit.”

The second oldest evidence of wine, dating back 7,000 years, hails from Iran.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Earliest known bubonic plague strain found in a 5000-year-old skull

Earliest known bubonic plague strain found in a 5000-year-old skull

Five thousand years ago, a rodent bit a Stone Age hunter-gatherer. The creature carried a strain of pernicious bacteria called Yersinia pestis – the pathogen that caused the Black Death, or bubonic plague in the 1300s.

Earliest known bubonic plague strain found in a 5000-year-old skull
The skull of a young man thought to have died from plague 5000 years ago

The bacteria likely killed the Stone Age man, who died in his 20s, according to a study published Tuesday. It’s the oldest strain of plague known to science so far.

The strain’s genome closely resembles the version of plague that wrecked medieval Europe more than 4,000 years later, killing up to half the region’s population over the course of seven years. But it’s missing a few key genes – notably, traits that helped it spread.

Unlike its microbial descendants, the plague that sickened the ancient hunter was a slow-moving disease and not very transmissible, according to Ben Krause-Kyora, a professor of ancient DNA analysis at Kiel University in Germany.

“It lacked the genes that enabled transmission by flea,” Krause-Kyora, who co-authored the new study, told Insider. During the Black Death, bites from fleas and lice were the key source of infections.

So in the millennia between the hunter-gatherer’s demise and the Black Death, Y. pestis bacteria mutated in a way that gave it the ability to jump between species via fleas.

“The change was a major driving force of a fast and widespread plague,” Krause-Kyora said.

Bacteria in the bloodstream

Yersinia pestis bacteria as seen under a microscope. This bacteria is the cause of the Bubonic plague.

The Stone Age hunter-gatherer died in a region that’s now Latvia. Near his bones, anthropologists also excavated the remains of another man, a teenage girl, and a newborn, but none had been infected. Krause-Kyora’s group hadn’t gone looking for ancient plague victims – rather, they wanted to see if the four buried people were related. But before completing their planned genetic analysis, the team screened ancient DNA extracted from the bones and teeth for traces of pathogens. That’s how they found the bacteria.

The Riņņukalns site on the banks of the Salaca River in Latvia, where 5,000-year-old bones were found.

The researchers then compared the bacteria’s genome to other ancient plague strains. A previous study described other strains that are roughly 5,000 years old, but Krause-Kyora said this particular one is a couple hundred years older. So his team concluded it was the earliest-known version of Y. pestis.

The hunter-gatherer’s DNA also showed that he had a large quantity of bacteria in his body, which suggests that he died from it. His grave site indicated that other members of his group meticulously buried him, according to the study.

“It’s hard to tell if he died quickly,” Krause-Kyora said, adding, “from the number of bacteria present, it seems he survived a higher dose and lived longer or in a more chronic way with it.”

The jawbone of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer buried in Riņņukalns, Latvia, around 5,000 years ago.

The plague can take three forms. Bubonic is the type that ravaged Europe and left victims with swollen, painful lymph nodes. Septicemic refers to infections in which the bacteria enters the bloodstream and the patient’s skin turns black and dies. Pneumonic plague, meanwhile, can cause respiratory failure.

Krause-Kyora thinks the ancient hunter had the septicemic plague, which could explain why no other members of his small group got the disease.

“They would’ve had to have direct contact with his blood,” he said – or another infected rodent would have had to bite them.

The plague is mostly zoonotic, meaning it hops from animal hosts to humans. Krause-Kyora said that the hunter-gatherer’s case can show epidemiologists how zoonotic pathogens – like Ebola, swine flu, and (most likely) the new coronavirus – change over time.

“We really have to think about how the evolution of zoonotic events could take thousands of years,” he said.

During the era when the Stone Age man lived, the plague didn’t cause widespread outbreaks. Y. pestis would pop up here and there in groups of hunter-gatherers, farmers, and nomads across Eurasia, but there was never a Black Death-level event.

“The finding confirms the early strains are associated with sporadic outbreaks that didn’t spread far,” Krause-Kyora said. What changed by medieval times, he thinks, is that people started to live in bigger communities and in closer proximity. That shift might have influenced the evolution that led the plague to live in fleas – which bite people more easily.

“It’s the bacteria adapting to population density,” Krause-Kyora said.

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Possible Medieval Road Uncovered Near Bannockburn Battlefield

Possible Medieval Road Uncovered Near Bannockburn Battlefield

A long stretch of road was uncovered on Saturday during the first-ever dig at Coxet Hill in Stirling. The hill is believed to be where the Scots King Robert the Bruce set up his camp to prepare for the battle ahead of the first day of fighting, on June 23, 1314.

The statue of Robert the Bruce near Bannockburn.

It is also likely to be where the Scottish camp followers and soldiers untrained in Bruce’s tactics were based during the decisive second day when the English army was forced to flee.

These “Sma’ Folk”, concealed by the hill, are said to have emerged once victory was assured to block the line of retreat of King Edward II’s army to Stirling Castle and turned the Scottish victory into a rout.

Stirling archaeologist Dr Murray Cook, who organised the dig to mark the 707th anniversary of the battle, said the stone-built road would have gone around the hill, which was established as a hunting wood for game birds by King Alexander III in the 13th century.

It would have been used by Bruce and his army around the time of the battle, and Dr Cook believes it may also have been the route taken by the Sma’ Folk when they caused panic in the English ranks.

Dr Cook said: “Where we thought we had a boundary around Alexander III’s New Park, it now appears we have a road. We’ve got a 100-metre section of it, probably four metres wide.

Possible Medieval Road Uncovered Near Bannockburn Battlefield
The long-hidden thoroughfare skirted around the New Park, a ‘cockshot’ — a hunting wood for game birds established by King Alexander III of Scotland in around 1264. Pictured: the dig site

“This hard-packed stone road or track curves around the bottom of the Coxet Hill and doesn’t show on any of the maps going back the last 200 years, which suggests a medieval origin.

Coxet Hill was also where the sma’ folk — men lacking training or weapons — were held in reserve until the second day, once Bruce’s victory was assured. At this point, they emerged from where they had been concealed to block the line of retreat to Stirling Castle. Pictured: the Battle of Bannockburn as depicted in the 15th century ‘Scotichronicon’, showing Bruce wielding an axe and Edward II fleeing north towards Stirling Castle

“The fact it is around the medieval royal wood suggests it was there before the Battle of Bannockburn and was in use at that time. It is logical that it was used by Robert the Bruce.

“Potentially this was also the route used by the Sma’ Folk on the way to [the Battle of] Bannockburn.”

The Battle of Bannockburn was fought on June 23-24, 1314. King Edward II travelled to Scotland to find and destroy the Scottish army and relieve Stirling Castle, which had been under Scottish siege.

The Battle of Bannockburn between the English army of Edward II and Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce took place from June 23-24, 1314. Pictured: an interpretation of the first day of the battle, in which the English cavalry formations advanced on the Scots, but were ultimately forced to retreat back south over the Bannockburn
Despite being vastly outnumbered — only 6,000 men made up Bruce’s army — the Scottish proved victorious. Pictured: On the second day of the battle, the Scottish forces surprised the English by emerging from New Park, ultimately hemming Edward II’s forces against the Bannockburn and ultimately driving them to retreat

Edward’s army of up to 25,000 men far outnumbered the force assembled by Robert the Bruce, but the Scots were victorious. After a day of skirmishes, the second day of the battle ended in a decisive victory for the Scots.

Had the English army retreated to Stirling Castle they might have regrouped to fight another day – and even secured a longer-term victory – but their path was blocked.

The Sma’ Folk, seeing the tide turn in Bruce’s favour, emerged from behind Coxet Hill and caused panic among the English ranks, who fled at the sight of a new force.

Dr Cook added: “When you walk around this area, you are walking where legendary heroes like Robert the Bruce walked. It is astonishing just how much survives.”