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A cache of coins release forth in a Scottish stone hearth may have belong to to a clan chief drink down in a seventeenth - century massacre , according to archeologist excavating the remains of a hunting inn in Glencoe . The various collection of coin was likely hidden by someone ineffective to return and retrieve them .
Located in the highland of western Scotland , Glencoe is now a home scenic region due to its legion waterfall and trails . But it is also infamous for a brutal and bloody conflict between the MacDonald tribe and governing forces in 1692 .
The coin hoard, pot and lid discovered in the fireplace of a Scottish clan chief.
The MacDonalds of Glencoe were targeted for fail to pledge their fealty to the monarch butterfly William III and Mary II . More than 100 government soldiers were dispatched to round up and kill the MacDonalds , including their chieftain , Alasdair " Maclain " MacDonald , and ultimately several XII kin member were massacred .
Archaeological workthis summertime undertaken by the University of Glasgow identified Maclain ’s " summerhouse , " or a form of hunting social club and feasting hall used by the chief during his tenure from 1646 to 1692 . The excavation squad found pottery , glass and leatherworking fabric , personal identification number and spindle whorl — all common , everyday item . But they were surprised to discover a potbelly full of coin hide out in the grand hearth .
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Lucy Ankers, who discovered the hoard, analyzes the newfound coins in a lab at the University of Glasgow.
Lucy Ankers , the University of Glasgow student who find oneself the good deal beneath a hearth stone slab , articulate in a statement that she " was n’t expecting such an exciting breakthrough as one of my starting time , and I do n’t mean I will ever beat the feeling of seeing the coins peeking out of the malicious gossip in the pot . "
The 36 silver and bronze coin vary in date from the belated 1500s through the 1680s . Most of them were made locally , but coins from France and the Spanish Netherlands ( today , largely the area of Belgium and Luxembourg ) were also present , possibly mementos of Maclain ’s youthful travels abroad .
" What ’s really exciting is that these coins are no later than the 1680s,“Michael Given , a senior lector of archaeology and Centennial State - director of the project , said in the statement . " So were they buried in a bang as the Massacre started first affair in the dawn of the 13th February 1692 ? "
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Edward Stewart , the project ’s dig director , said that their work at Maclain ’s summerhouse lets them better understand the importance of these lands to local clan elite group in the seventeenth century . But it also speaks to " the everyday lives of those who lived here , worked the land and minded the cattle , allow us to tell their stories as well as these wondrous narrative of chiefs and their retinue , " Stewart pronounce in the statement .
WhileMaclain ’s summerhousehas been in full excavated , the team is now poring over the finds and environmental samples to learn more about this important time in Scottish chronicle .
" These exciting finds give us a uncommon glance of a single , spectacular consequence , " Given articulate . " It ’s a material exclusive right , as archaeologists , to hold in our hands these objects that were so much part of masses ’s life story in the past . "
