FaceofPictishmandiscoveredin 1980s revealed in new exhibition

The face of a Pictish man who was discovered in 1986 in Highland Perthshire, and which has not been looked upon for 1,500 years, has been reconstructed by archeologists.

The image forms part of the Picts and Pixels exhibition at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

The man was buried in a long cist at Bridge of Tilt, near Blair Atholl, some time between 340 and 615 AD, making it one of the earliest such graves ever discovered.

As well as reconstructing his face, which was done by GUARD Archeology in Glasgow and forensic artist Hayley Fisher, experts want to use modern technology to discover more about how the man lived.

Bob Will, the archeologist leading the project, said: “The actual burial was found in the 1980s and a certain amount of work was done then, but various members of the local community and groups wanted to do more.

“They got in touch to take the project forward and one thing they wanted was a facial reconstruction.

“We then approached Historic Environment Scotland and they gave us a grant as part of the Year of History, Heritage and Archeology 2017 to help pay for this project, and we’ve been working on it for two years.

“We are working with archeologists from the University of Aberdeen on isotope analysis to help us find out about his health and where he came from – we can track where they moved about and see if he was born somewhere else.

“We’ll hopefully be able to start that in the next six to eight months.

“We are looking forward to see what comes out of that.”