Archaeologists have cast new light on an incredible Bronze Age find on the Black Isle, where a hoard of beautifully crafted bronze ornaments was deliberately buried almost 3,000 years ago. The discovery, made at Rosemarkie during housing development works at Greenside in 2020–21, has now been comprehensively analyzed, providing precious information about the lives and beliefs of the people who once occupied the shores of the Moray Firth.

The Rosemarkie Hoard, prior to micro-excavation. Credit: GUARD Archaeology Ltd

The hoard consisted of nine bronze objects stacked on top of one another: six bracelets, two penannular ringed ornaments, and a unique cup-ended ornament. The most spectacular piece is a ring-shaped object decorated with 37 small rings, renowned as the most well-preserved and complex of its kind ever found in Scotland.

Underneath was a fragmentary version of the same type of ornament, and at the base of the deposit was the cup-ended piece tied together with bracelets using bast, the tree’s inner bark. Unusually, organic material such as tree bast and bracken stems had been preserved, showing how the objects were wrapped and even exhibiting an overhand knot still holding together some of the objects. Radiocarbon dating placed the burial between 894 and 794 BC, at the close of the Bronze Age.

Close up of the Cup-Ended Ornament with tree bast knot. Credit: GUARD Archaeology Ltd

The ornaments were made with sophisticated techniques, including lost-wax casting, a method that was seldom employed in Scotland at the time and normally reserved for prestige objects. Isotopic analysis showed that the metal originated in Wales and England, linking the Rosemarkie hoard to large-scale networks of exchange and trade. No two bracelets were identical, with some showing signs of long-term use, suggesting contributions from multiple individuals or households.

The Complete Penannular Ringed Ornament. Credit: GUARD Archaeology Ltd

The excavations also uncovered evidence of earlier human occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and Neolithic, including a cremation burial with a bear bone and a fragment of a polished axehead that could have been buried as protective offerings. There was permanent occupation in the form of a sequence of roundhouses inhabited for more than six centuries in the Bronze Age. These were not used at the same time but were successive households, most likely linked by lineage. There was also evidence of bronze working, with fragments of weapons’ moulds and ornamental pieces, indicating the craftsmanship of the population.

Archaeologists classify Bronze Age hoards into several types: scrap-metal collections for recycling, ritual deposits of broken objects in watery sites, and collections buried near dwellings for safekeeping. Rosemarkie is of the third type. Its arranged ornaments, tied together and buried near dwellings, appear to have been intended to be retrieved—but for some unknown reason, the hoard was never retrieved.

The Cup-Ended Ornament, viewed from either side. Credit: GUARD Archaeology Ltd

The discovery is unusual not just for the skill of its metalwork but also for the survival of its organic wrappings, a rare phenomenon almost unknown in Bronze Age archaeology. Both point to the technical knowledge and symbolic practices of a small Highland community at the threshold of the Iron Age.

More information: GUARD Archaeology