Explore the Iron Age finds
The excavations at Birnie have produced a wide range of finds
which bring the past alive. These pages showcase a selection of
finds from the site. You can see the best finds on display in Elgin
Museum.
Glass Beads
Above: Two locally-made Iron Age glass beads
(left bead 15 mm in diameter).
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Stone Tools
Above: Stone tools used for preparing leather,
grinding grain and sharpening knives. Although people had metal
tools, stone was still used because it was convenient and cheap
(75-100 mm long).
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Quern Stone
Above: Quern stone used for grinding grain. It
was used so much that a hollow was worn into the stone (600 mm
long).
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Canal Coal Jewellery
Above: Two pieces of jewellery made from a
black stone known as cannel coal. This is not local to the area,
and must have been imported. One is an unfinished bead, the other a
broken pendant (bead diameter 20 mm).
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Crucible Fragments
Above: Fragments of moulds and crucibles from
bronze-casting. These are late Bronze Age in date, c.1000-800
BC.
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Chariot Ring
Above: Bronze harness ring from a chariot. The
chariot was the sports car of the Iron Age, and shows that wealthy
people lived at Birnie (width 45 mm).
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Hilt of Iron Sword
Above: Hilt of an iron sword. Swords were rare
weapons in the Iron Age – only important people had them. This one
was deliberately broken before it was buried (H 110mm).
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Curved Knife
Above: Curved iron knife with spiral handle -
perhaps a razor (length 90 mm).
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Gold
Torc
Above: Terminal of a gold torc. Gold was very
rare in the Iron Age, and was only used by the most important of
people (H 10 mm).
Above: This intact torc was found about 10 km
from Birnie.
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Pictish Brooch
Left: Artist’s reconstruction of the original
Pictish brooch.
Rigth: This Pictish brooch dates to about 800
AD. It shows that people still lived at Birnie long after the Iron
Age (height 33 mm).
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Iron Age Crucible
Above: Iron Age crucible used for casting
bronze. Although iron was used for tools and weapons, bronze was
still popular for jewellery and other decorations (width 25
mm).
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