It’s amazing isn’t it? And it’s not just small things. Every so often you hear about colossal statues getting dug up in Cairo suburbs or from under riverbeds.

Snacks. You are going to need snacks. 2000 sheep heads will keep you going for a while.

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So does the tartan pattern correspond to any particular clan or was that a thing that came later?

Edit: nvm the article says it was found on what was then Chisholm lands but they can't say for certain

A great amount of "traditional" Scottish culture is a rather recent invention

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I love that they all dressed up in tartans to show off the tartan.

Found another pic here https://www.thenational.scot/news/23413472.scotlands-oldest-tartan-discovered-glen-affric-peat-bog/ (and learned there's a newspaper dedicated to Scottish independence).

I'm into fiber arts and it's always so nice to see examples from the past. It can be so ephemeral but we manage to get bits and pieces.

The English would have been as likely to be playing bagpipes in the 13th century as the Scots.

But the harsh sound of Highland pipes can to some extent be blamed on relatively recent pipeband competitions. The 18th century ones, before the Victorian Scottish revival, were sweeter, pitched at A, not Bb. But when a competition is between pipe bands, includes drums and is set outside on a parade ground ( instead of listening to a lone piper in someone's house) the edgier sound wins.

The 18th c. pipes sounded more like present-day Border pipes Lively enough to play for a dance, but not maddeningly loud.

If an important figure requested to be buried with two thousand heads of sheep, if I was the mummists it would be easier to mummify literally just the heads. Imagine in the afterlife they are sitting there with 2000 sheep heads and just face palm because they took the instruction literally. Joking of coarse, I have the utmost respect for ancient culture.

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Why wouldn’t we?

That's modern Greek, but thanks for proving my point. Next time maybe don't make big stands about things you have zero knowledge about. Leave it to the experts.

Pretty much. 'Whereas tartan - that is, cloth woven in a geometrical pattern of colours - was known in Scotland in the sixteenth century [...] the philibeg - name and thing - is unknown before the eighteenth century. So far from being a traditional Highland dress, it was invented by an Englishman after the Union of 1707; and the differentiated 'clan tartans' are an even later invention.'

From The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, contribution by Hugh Trevor-Roper.

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If mere dark-light checkered textiles count, the oldest dyed tartan in the Netherlands is from 800 BC. Checkered textiles are hardly an original idea. Most traditional "ethnic" dress is a lot younger than most people like to believe.

Yeah go look at old illustrations even. They do have kilt like clothing but they were generally solid colors and I believe were yellow mostly.

So Tartans were much older and widespread and more recently became distinctly Scottish and multicoloured?

Most tartans are far newer than that, it was more or less an invention in Victorian times to sell in the new industry, tourism.

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Honestly it's for entertainment not education.

But that's a "Border Tartan" (two colours, undyed) rather than a "Scottish Tartan" (multiple colours, dyed) which is the distinction they are making.

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There is so many historically wrong issues with Brave Heart but I still enjoyed it more than once.