Secrets unlocked as ancient Bronze Age and Pictish faces of Scotland reconstructed in Perth Museum project

Three ancient faces have been brought to life in an extraordinary project to revive people of Perth’s past

They hold clues to life in Scotland over thousands of years. From a young man dumped in a pit following his murder more than 700 years ago to a Bronze Age woman with back pain and a Pictish-era wanderer, at least some of their stories can now be told.

Three individuals from Scotland’s ancient past have been brought to life ahead of the opening of the new Perth Museum in March – an event destined to be a major highlight in Scotland’s cultural calendar.

Their facial reconstructions follow extensive analysis of their remains by bioarchaeologists Professor Marc Oxenham and Dr Rebecca Crozier, from the University of Aberdeen, and by an independent craniofacial anthropologist Dr Chris Rynn.

Digital facial reconstruction based on remains of a Bronze Age female, who lived c. 2200-2000 BC, found at Lochlands farm, Perthshire. Copyright Perth Museum, Culture Perth and Kinross, working with Chris Rynn, 2024.

Now, details of their life in Perth and the surrounding area over the past two millennia have been unlocked for the very first time, the pasts of the individuals buried no more.

Curator Mark Hall said: “It’s always an immense privilege to work with the physical remains of our past and collaborate with other colleagues to recover some of the stories those remains can tell us about past lives and ways of living. I hope visitors will be excited to engage with the digital facial reconstructions, of which there will be more to discover in the new museum. I have come to think of these faces as avatars from the past, here to guide us through some of its realities”.

Fascinating detail of the everyday in Bronze Age Perthshire has emerged, with the facial reconstruction of a woman from Lochland Farm near Rattray, whose remains were found back in the 1960s when a tractor broke into the cist burial chamber where she lay.

Digital facial reconstruction based on remains of Late Iron Age/Pictish male, who lived 400-600 AD, found at Bridge of Tilt, Blair Atholl. Copyright Perth Museum, Culture Perth and Kinross, working with Chris Rynn, 2024.

The body of the woman, who lived around 2,000 BC, was found in a crouched position, with the left hand across the body and the right hand lying beside the face. On the lower left-hand side of the face, the facial bones appeared to have been cut cleanly away, leaving no trace of the teeth from the left-hand side.

Following re-examination of the skeleton using radiocarbon, isotopic, DNA, dental and osteological analysis, it is know she was in her 30s when she died and had traces of arthritis in her spine. The woman was around 5ft tall.

As well as the condition of her spine, a head injury was also noted. The blunt force injury was detected on the right hand side of her forehead.

Digital facial reconstruction based on remains of Late Medieval male, who lived in the 13th or 14th century, found at Horsecross in Perth. Copyright Perth Museum, Culture Perth and Kinross, working with Chris Rynn, 2024

A museum spokesperson said: “The inner table of the cranium was not affected, which suggests that this injury was most likely an accident. One possible explanation is that she bumped the front of her head on something quite hard.”

Meanwhile, the murder of a young man and his concealment in a shallow pit in what is now Perth city centre has been confirmed following work by Aberdeen University on his skeleton, which was discovered in the early 2000s.

The remains were found during excavations in the Horsecross area for the new concert hall, which sits next to the Perth Museum site. His body was found beneath the foundations of a former tenement. It is now known the man was between 18 and 25 when killed.

"The body appears to have been crammed into the pit, which was just big enough to contain him, in a flexed position,” the museum spokesperson said.

“The left hand was raised towards the lip of the pit. A lack of Christian burial and seemingly hasty concealment suggests the young man died in violent circumstances, probably murdered. Two depressions in the skull were initially understood as resulting from blows to the skull and interpreted as indications of murder. A re-examination of the skeleton suggests that the fractures are more likely to have resulted from the way the body was buried.

“However, re-analysis at the University of Aberdeen, does confirm he was likely to have been murdered.”

Two blunt force penetrating injuries to two ribs and multiple rib fractures are now known to have been inflicted around the time of his death. The injuries indicate substantial force and suggest the young man had been involved in a violent confrontation, leading to his death.

Found with the skeleton were two silver coins, fused together – a penny of Edward I or II of England, dating between 1279-1322, and a penny of David II of Scotland, dating to 1367-71. These suggest burial in the late 14th century. A radiocarbon date suggests the man may have been buried 50 to 100 years earlier. The coins had probably been stitched into a seam of the dead man’s clothing.

Experts working on the project have also been able to turn the clock back to the Pictish period, with the reconstruction of the skull of a man who was buried at Bridge of Tilt, near Blair Atholl.

He was discovered during construction work in the early 1980s interred in a long-cist grave The foot end of his cist was closed off with a large round stone disc.

"This probably symbolised a quern stone, linking perhaps to the man’s long life of agricultural labour,” a spokesperson said.

Analysis has now shown he dates to the fifth or sixth century and died in his 40s. Interestingly, it is known that he hailed from the west coast before arriving in Perthshire’s Pictish heartlands.

The museum spokesperson said: “He spent his childhood on the west coast or possibly in Ireland. As an adult, he probably endured many years of hard agricultural work. He ate mainly farmed land produce and probably a high proportion of pork.

"He may have also eaten wildfowl and freshwater fish, but not marine fish. He moved to what we now call Perthshire probably late in his life. He can be seen as embodying early connections between cultures and communities across Scotland in the middle of the first millennium AD in Scotland.”