Archaeologists Thought They’d Found a Piece of Old Farm Equipment. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Iron Age Chariot Tire
The more than 2,000-year-old tire was found among a trove of artifacts during excavations ahead of construction for a new golf course near Inverness, Scotland
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Archaeologists were excavating a site in the Scottish Highlands when they stumbled upon a large metal artifact. At first, they thought it was just a piece of old farm equipment. But when they took a closer look, they realized they had something very special on their hands: a rare Iron Age chariot tire.
Though similar artifacts have been unearthed in England, very few have been found in neighboring Scotland. Archaeologists also think this is the first chariot tire ever discovered in the Scottish Highlands.
“They are such a rare thing,” says Andy Young, principal archaeologist at Avon Archaeology Highland, the company that conducted the excavations, to BBC Scotland News. “None of us had really seen one before in terms of physically excavating one. We were a bit bemused.”
Researchers discovered the chariot tire, along with a trove of other artifacts, while preparing for the construction of a new golf course near Inverness. They also found a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age cremation urn, flint tools and at least 25 Neolithic wooden buildings. Additionally, their excavations turned up decorated pottery, as well as evidence of medieval field systems, animal enclosures and grain-drying kilns.
Since no one on the team had ever excavated a chariot tire before, the archaeologists were initially skeptical. But when they finally realized what it was, they were “pretty amazed,” Young tells Smithsonian magazine in an email.
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According to Young, the tire would have gone around a wooden wheel. It’s made of forged iron, which means it was probably constructed by a highly skilled blacksmith, he says.
The blacksmith likely gathered several strips of smelted iron, then forge-welded them together on an anvil. He may have placed the newly created iron ring around a wooden wheel, heating up and rapidly cooling the metal to “shrink-fit” it to the wheel, says Young.
Archaeologists are still awaiting the results of radiocarbon testing. But Young says the tire is from the Iron Age, which lasted from around 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. in Scotland. He thinks it may date to around 200 B.C.E., which would make it around 2,200 years old.
The tire appears to have been buried in a pit along with cremated human remains, coarse pottery and animal bones. The pit was likely enclosed by a wooden fence, as part of an area called a “palisade circle,” per BBC Scotland News. Two chariot wheels were probably initially buried here, but the other one was likely dug up or destroyed by a modern plow, Young tells Smithsonian magazine.
Since iron tires would have been extremely expensive to make, Young says the person buried in the pit was probably “pretty important,” possibly a tribal chief.
The researchers reburied the ceremonial circle, in keeping with best practices in Scottish archaeology. They’re donating the rest of the artifacts to museums in Inverness and Edinburgh.
“This has been a remarkable journey from prehistoric times to the present, right here on our doorstep,” says Stuart McColm, vice president of golf development at Cabot, the company building the new golf course, in a statement. “It’s humbling to think that our new championship course … will rest on such historically rich ground.”
