[MR] BBC: Padlock Found at Pictish Longhouse Dig

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Thu Jan 9 02:21:06 PST 2020


Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots:

Yesterday the BBC featured a brief story about finds at an excavation of a
Pictish longhouse near Glenshee in Scotland. Among the treasures recovered
was an early padlock. The lock is pictured in the BBC story, along with an
image of how the longhouse might have looked:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-51033096 .

While locks require some pretty advanced manufacturing techniques, they
actually predate Roman civilization in Europe, and were widely used in
early China. For an idea of what the Scottish lock might have looked like
see a similar oriental type at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padlock#/media/File:Kathmandu-05.JPG .

The Glenshee longhouse has been under excavation since around 2012.
Radiocarbon dating puts the building's probable date to between the 7th to
9th century. It had low turf walls to which arched wooden rafters were
attached, then was covered by thatch. It is one of several related
buildings that made up a small settlement. Among the other treasures from
the site is a decorated stone spindle whorl seen at
https://www.socantscot.org/research-project/glenshee-archaeology-project-exploring-early-medieval-turf-longhouses/
.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆


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