Bannockburn relics reconsidered

For all the fame of the battle fought there, Bannockburn has yielded precious few artifacts -- chief among them, three pointed wooden stakes.

The Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling has proudly displayed the stakes, which were discovered in 1923, for many years. They are said to have been among those planted in shallow, covered pits with the intention of impaling English cavalry horses and their riders.

But carbon-dating tests of the spikes carried out during the making of the BBC
archaeological programme Two Men in a Trench has produced a shock: they are more than 8,000 years old.

Nor does it seem at all likely that they could have been used for any martial purpose in 1314. The debunking doesn't stop there:

Two areas, for example, have been suggested as remnants of the pits into which English cavalry fell and were impaled. . .

"But our dig discovered that these sites were originally dug by coal prospectors some time during the late 19th century," [investigating archeologist] Pollard added.

From The Scotsman. I don't know how accurate the quotes attributed to the Smith Gallery's director might be, but they certainly don't make her look good:

"The wood was found by local archaeologists in 1923. They wrote with such clarity, and without the mumbo-jumbo associated with archaeology these days, so that I believe the stakes are authentic relics from the battle. There is no proof that they were not used in the battle".

"Mumbo-jumbo"? Like carbon-14 dating? And though I value clear writing, it is no substitute for actual evidence. The attempt to shift the burden of proof is pretty lame, everything considered (why only three stakes, out of what must have been hundreds?). But relics, even secular ones, have a way of warping sound judgment.

Posted by David on March 28, 2004 11:02 PM