Page 37 - Archaeology - October 2017

making pins and brooches were also unearthed. “We found lots upper left corner is a Pictish symbol known as a double disc
of evidence of ironworking,” says Toolis. The fort’s blacksmith and Z-rod. It consists of two sets of three concentric circles
had an anvil, and archaeologists discovered hammered flakes connected with a pair of inward-flexing horizontal bars, which
and evidence of iron smelting. The smith also had gold, silver, are in turn intersected by a rod bent into a backward Z shape
and copper at his disposal, as indicated by X-ray fluorescence on with floriations and a point at each end. In the upper right cor-
the crucibles. It is believed that the fort’s residents controlled ner is what might possibly be a monster or dragon figure, with
local mining operations—a piece of lead known to have come
from nearby hills was also discovered.
The fort’s metalworkers weren’t just highly productive, they
were also highly skilled. A thistle-headed iron pin unearthed
from the east side of the hilltop was pounded into shape rather
than cast. Around its neck are two fine bronze bands. “The
ability to pound something like that,” says Bowles, “and put
this fine bronze banding around it suggests we’ve got a master
metalsmith working here.” Another impressive artifact found
at the site—a circular Anglo-Saxon-style copper-alloy horse
mount that appears to have been gilded and silvered—may
not have been made in the fort’s workshop, but is indicative of
what was produced there or obtained through trade or theft.
“The mainstay of the economy was gift exchange,” says Bowles,
“so the ability to make this really nice, fine jewelry was what
kept people in power.”
These items seem to have lured purveyors of luxury goods
from the Continent to trade with the fort’s residents. During
the period when the fort was active, Gaulish merchants car-
rying products such as oil and wine made landfall in the area.
Previous excavations at two nearby sites—the Mote of Mark,
a hillfort similar to the one at Trusty’s Hill, and Whithorn,
an early monastery—have turned up pottery from the Loire
region of France that was used to transport these goods. A
sherd of this pottery was found at Trusty’s Hill as well, show-
ing that its residents were also tapped into this trade network.
“These Gaulish sailors were completely ignoring northern
Wales and the northwest of England and really making a
beeline to Galloway,” says Bowles. “It has among the highest
concentrations of this imported pottery in all of Britain, which
indicates that there was a strong kingdom in the area.”
The fort’s residents appear to have also held wealth in the
form of cattle, as indicated by bones unearthed at the site. The
researchers believe that herds may have been corralled in a lower-
lying enclosure. At the time, cattle were seen as a form of currency,
and cattle raiding was a popular pursuit among early medieval
kings. As a result, says Bowles, keeping a herd close to the settle-
ment was “like showing off your wealth and your ability to go
off and do cattle raiding—like showing off your bank account.”

he early medieval residents of Trusty’s Hill were
clearly wealthy and appear to have traded with con-
Ttinental Europe to the south, but the carvings at the
entrance to the fort suggest they also had some sort of relation-
ship with—or at least an affinity for—the Picts to the north. As
part of their investigation, the researchers had the Pictish carv-
ings at the fort’s entrance laser scanned and analyzed by two
scholars at the University of Glasgow: Katherine Forsyth, an
Pictish carvings appear on a natural outcrop (top) at the
expert on the Picts, and her PhD student Cynthia Thickpenny. entrance to the fort at Trusty’s Hill. A laser scan of the carvings
The carvings can be divided into three sections. In the (above) allowed scholars to carefully study them.

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