Traprain Law is a hill east of

Haddington, East Lothian The Royal Burgh of Haddington (, ) is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the main administrative, cultural and geographical centre for East Lothian. It lies about east of Edinburgh. The name Haddington is Anglo-Saxon, dating from the six ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is the site of a

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

or possibly ''

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (: ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age Europe, Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celts, Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread acros ...

'', which covered at its maximum extent about . It is the site of the

Traprain Law Treasure The Traprain Law treasure is a hoard of late Roman hacksilver, found on the hillfort of Traprain Law (East Lothian, SE Scotland) during excavations in 1919. It is the largest hoard of Roman hacksilver currently known, weighing just over . It consi ...

, the largest Roman silver hoard from anywhere outside the Roman Empire which included exquisite silver artefacts. The hill, about above MSL, was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century (about the time that the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

was manned). In the 1st century AD the Romans recorded the

Votadini The Votadini, also known as the ''Uotadini'', ''Wotādīni'', ''Votādīni'', or ''Otadini'' were a Celtic Britons, Brittonic people of the British Iron Age, Iron Age in Great Britain. Their territory was in what is now south-east Scotland and ...

as a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements, named ''Curia'' by Ptolemy. They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name

Gododdin The Gododdin () were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North (modern south-east Scotland and north-east England), in the sub-Roman period. Descendants of the Votadini, they are best known ...

and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to

Din Eidyn Eidyn was the region around modern Edinburgh in sub-Roman and early medieval Britain, approximately during the 5th–7th centuries. It centred on the stronghold of Din Eidyn, thought to have been at Castle Rock, now the site of Edinburgh Cast ...

( Castle Rock in modern

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

). In 1938 an area of the hill was leased to the district council for use as a quarry for road stone, causing substantial disfigurement to the landscape.

Name history

This hill was only known as Traprain Law from the late 18th century, taking its name from a local

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

. This is etymologically a

Cumbric Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...

name cognate with Welsh ''tref'' 'farm' and either ''pren'' 'tree' or ''bryn'' 'hill'. Law comes from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ''hlāw'', meaning a hill. Before that, it is found on old maps as Dunpendyrlaw. This name appears on a map printed in 1630. An alternative spelling 'Dounprenderlaw' was used in 1547, when a signal

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

was placed on the hill to warn of an English invasion. Locally, and particularly amongst fishermen who use it as a landmark, it is still referred to as Dunpelder. This name seems also to be etymologically Cumbric, cognate with Welsh ''din'' 'fort' and ''pelydr'' 'spear shafts', thus meaning 'fort of the spear shafts'. Dun may also be derived from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

word ''dùn'' meaning 'fort'. It is as 'Dunpeldyr', the capital of King Lot of Lothian, that Traprain Law appears in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.

Archaeology

A team led by Curle and Cree began the first excavations in 1914 and continued them until 1923, finding layers of fragmentary stone and timber houses under the turf.

Traprain Law Treasure

In 1919, Alexander Ormiston Curle recovered a

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

of silver plate. The hoard is known as the Traprain Treasure, or

. Consisting of over of sliced-up Roman-era

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, the discovery was made in a pit within the boundary of the settlement earlier uncovered. Four Gallic coins were discovered with the hoard; one of the emperor

Valens Valens (; ; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the Byzantine Empire, eastern half of the Roman Em ...

(reigned 364–378), three of

Arcadius Arcadius ( ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the eastern half of ...

(reigned 383–408) and one of

Honorius Honorius (; 9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho ...

(reigned 393–423), which dates the find to some point in the fifth century AD after the Romans had left Britain. The quality of some of the items suggests that they may have come from as far afield as

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

, or possibly

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. Most objects had been crushed and hacked to pieces, and only some were left intact. A great deal of the find was table silver, but there were also early Christian items and remnants from a Roman officer's uniform. It had originally been thought that the objects had been brought back from a raid abroad, as the objects had been split up ready for division. Later finds such as the

Mildenhall Treasure The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman Empire, Roman silver tableware from the fourth century AD, and by far the most valuable Roman objects artistically and by weight of bullion in Britain. It may have been found ...

found at

Mildenhall, Suffolk Mildenhall is a market town in the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Mildenhall High, in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The town is near the A11 road (Great Britain), A11, and is n ...

and the

Hoxne Hoard The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman Britain, Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. I ...

from

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, showed that silverware of this nature was certainly in use in Roman Britain. A further suggestion is that it had been brought back on a raid by the Votadini across

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the silver was in payment for mercenary service to protect weaker tribes from the inroads of the

Scot Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ...

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...

, and Angles, the silver being split up as bullion due to lack of adequate coinage. Further excavations were made in 1939 by Cruden and in 1947 by Bersu. The collection was restored where appropriate and sent to the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh and now is in the care of the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...

Folklore

In legend, Traprain Law was the cliff from which Thenaw, the mother of

Saint Mungo Kentigern (; ), known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. Name In Wales and England, this saint is known by his birth and baptis ...

, was thrown when her father,

King Lot King Lot , also spelled Loth or Lott (Lleu or Llew in Welsh), is a British monarch in Arthurian legend. He was introduced in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (c. 1136) as King Arthur's brother-in-law, who s ...

or Leudonus, discovered she was pregnant by Owain mab Urien. Saved by divine providence, she was transported by boat to Saint Serf's community in

Culross Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cuileann Ros'', 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland. According to the 2006 estimate, the village has a population of 395. Originally, Culross ...

, where she gave birth to

Kentigern Kentigern (; ), known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Celtic Britons, Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. Name In Wales and England, this saint is known by his b ...

, later also known as Mungo.

Geodesy

Up to 1891 Traprain Law was the origin (meridian) of the 6-inch and 1:2500

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps of

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

. After that year the East Lothian maps were drawn according to the meridian of The Buck in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

Geology

Traprain Law, together with nearby Berwick Law and Bass Rock, is an example of the unusual rock type

Phonolite Phonolite is an uncommon shallow intrusive or extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a var ...

. It was intruded around 350 million years ago as a

laccolith A laccolith is a body of intrusive rock with a dome-shaped upper surface and a level base, fed by a conduit from below. A laccolith forms when magma (molten rock) rising through the Earth's crust begins to spread out horizontally, prying apart ...

into sandstones, siltstones and dolomitic limestones of the Ballagan Formation of the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

period. During quarrying, large xenoliths of sandstone and shale have been found and recorded in detail. Detailed optical and chemical analysis have revealed the presence of small quantities of

Sodalite Sodalite ( ) is a tectosilicate mineral with the formula , with royal blue varieties widely used as an ornamental gemstone. Although massive sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent. Sodalite is a member of th ...

Olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

and

Apatite Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of Hydroxide, OH−, Fluoride, F− and Chloride, Cl− ion, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of ...

References

* Ian Armit, ''Scotland's Hidden History'' Tempus (in association with Historic Scotland) 1998, * R.W. Feachem, "The Fortifications on Traprain Law," ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,'' 89 (1955-6), 284-9. * Richard Feachem, ''Guide to Prehistoric Scotland'' London: Batsford, 1977 * Stuart Piggott, ''Scotland Before History'' Edinburgh: University Press, 1982

Photo gallery

Image:Traprain Law 1.jpg Image:Traprain Law 2.jpg Image:Traprain Law 3.jpg Image:Traprain Law 4.jpg

External links

"Great Sites: Trapain Law"
Ian Armit, ''British Archaeology'', February 2001 *Traprain Law Treasure; ''Scotland's Early Silver'' exhibition at National Museum of Scotland o
Google Arts & Culture
{{authority control Archaeological sites in East Lothian Hill forts in Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Mid and East Lothian Former populated places in Scotland Iron Age sites in Scotland Scheduled monuments in East Lothian Treasure troves of late antiquity Ancient Roman jewellery Ancient Roman metalwork Mountains and hills of East Lothian