A new archeological site at Trust’s Hill in Galloway, which was known to be the epicenter of Pictish culture, has been recently discovered. 

This ancient kingdom dates back from just after the fall of the Roman empire when chaos swept the land and small regencies popped up throughout Europe.

Some researchers speculate that this was the seat of power for the Kingdom of Rheged, which was previously thought to be in Carlisle or Cumbria.

This small empire was governed by King Urien, who makes himself known in some of the legends featuring King Arthur.

The Kingdom of Rheged has always been one of the most mysterious of the period, reaching its heyday in the 6th century.

It was also supposedly the site of the earliest Scottish Christian monument, the Latinus Stone, erected around 450 AD.

The Galloway Picts Project, a initiative that aims to study engravings from that period, accidentally stumbled on a few around the site in 2012.

The engravings, however, may never be translated thoroughly as it may prove impossible to find the origins of Pictish words and symbols.

After the discovery, the private firm private firm GUARD began digging around where the engravings were originally found.

They unearthed a royal hall, a smith’s workshop and a fort which was used to protect local royalty from neighboring kingdoms and the population at large.

Christopher Bowles, an archaeologist with the Scottish Borders Council and co-author of the new book The Lost Dark Age Kingdom of Rheged, stated:

“The people living at Trusty’s Hill were not engaged in agriculture themselves. Instead, this household’s wealth relied on their control of farming, animal husbandry and the management of local natural resources — minerals and timber — from an estate probably spanning the wider landscape of the Fleet Valley and estuary. Control was maintained by bonding the people of this land and the districts beyond to the royal household, by gifts, promises of protection and the bounties of raiding and warfare.”

Archeologists also believe that those who lived in Trusty’s Hill were at the top of the social hierarchy of the times, and that royal inauguration ceremonies took place there.

It was confirmed that the royal hall was destroyed by a fire in the seventh century, as evidence by stone ramparts that had fused together from extreme heat.

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