Scotland's Earliest Animal Carvings: An Incredible New Discovery

The Ancients

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4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Prehistoric animal carvings, thought to be up to 5,000 years old, have been discovered in Scotland for the very first time. The images, which include carvings of two red deer, were found by chance on an ancient burial site in Argyll, called Dunchraigaig Cairn. Dr Tertia Barnett, principle investigator for Scotland’s Rock Art Project at Historic Environment Scotland, is on The Ancients to explain why this incredible new discovery is so significant. Find out what the carvings might mean, how they have been conserved for thousands of years, and why these images rewrite the story of prehistoric rock art in north-west Europe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, a very special episode of the Ancients today because we are talking all
0:08.3	about a brand new rock art discovery. You might have noticed in the past couple of
0:13.2	weeks that in Scotland they have discovered these animal carvings, these prehistoric animal
0:19.0	carvings. And so we on the Ancients we had to get someone on the show pronto to explain
0:23.6	all about this new discovery and why it's so significant. And I'm delighted to say that
0:28.5	we have got on the podcast today, the principal investigator of Scotland's rock art project.
0:34.5	Dr Tersha Barnett from Historic Environment Scotland. I love Historic Environment Scotland.
0:40.0	They are the best. Now Tersha she is a wonderful speaker and it was fantastic to get it on
0:45.4	the show. And in this episode she reveals all about the new discovery and why it is so
0:50.2	significant. So without further ado, here's Tersha.
0:59.2	Tersha thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast.
1:02.2	My pleasure, thank you for inviting me. I mean no problem at all. We had to get to you on.
1:06.2	Seeing this discovery, it's been making the headlines. It's been in the news recently.
1:11.2	Can we say I want to get this right? This is the oldest known dated depiction in rock art of an
1:17.8	animal from Scotland. That's correct. Wonderful. So let's dive into this discovery now. First of all
1:24.4	with the background, where about since Scotland, are we talking about with this discovery?
1:28.4	Okay, so the carvings were found in Kilmartin Glen, which is a lovely,
1:32.4	wide valley on the west coast of Scotland in our gile. So if you imagine the mull of
1:37.4	cantaya, Kilmartin is sort of situated at the top of the mull of cantaya.
1:41.7	And this seems to be an area rich in prehistoric finds and prehistoric artifacts.
1:48.6	Exactly. Kilmartin is actually possibly the most important prehistoric landscape in
1:52.6	Scotland, if not in Britain. It's got hundreds of prehistoric monuments dating particularly
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