 Every year, things are found in every country on this planet that signifies a loss of history in the past and the struggle in the today and now to understand exactly what happened in time's past is the key to our future. Cataclysms have occurred in the history of civilized culture on this earth, but humans remain. We keep bouncing back from the brink of extinction and our ability to survive for long periods and harsh conditions has seen us tame every corner of the earth, but our understanding still lacks any serious anchorage. In Scotland, for example, history has been absolutely replete with stories from a people who have struggled for millennia, from the time of the First Queen of Scotland who came from Egypt and supposedly the daughter of Akhenaten to the feared Pictish people who the Romans describe as a tattooed warrior tribe. The lands of Scotland have been ravished with activity for thousands of years as the strategic landmass has long been seen as a major stronghold and easily defended due to the treacherous layout of the land. 2019 was no exception in the glorified discovery of all things ancient. They are the traces left behind by the people of the past which are helping the story of Scotland emerge from the mist of time. Piece by piece, in this video we are going to present to you guys six artifacts from the very ancient past that were discovered in Scotland in 2019, so wait till you hear this. At number 6, the first ever railway. The rail track predated steam trains by decades and has ties to the rebellion of 1715. It was found one meter below ground alongside a cobble horse track for the ponies which pulled the empty wagons up to the coal pits. A team of archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Island Archaeology Institute aided by local residents and students were toasting their success in the summer. Excavation on the site is due to begin in 2020, but this recent discovery of the first ever railway and dating to 1722 before upgrades were carried out in 1815 when the switch was made from pony drawn carriages which at the time was used to pull coal out of the mines. A spokesman said, the hope is that we can excavate a longer stretch of the track and we are working with the East Lothian Council Archaeology Service to plan this for spring 2020. Given the level of preservation of the small section we uncovered in June, we are confident that the central cobbled horse track survives in good condition and we remain hopeful that some rail timbers will be intact enough to remove, although this is dependent on soil conditions. Archaeological investigations into early wagonways are relatively rare and the information that this site can give us is incredibly valuable with the potential to establish links in technology used for early railways around the country in the 18th century. And at five on our list, the Lost Goven Stones. Some archaeologists spend their entire careers without discovering anything of major importance to the historical past, but as luck would have it a schoolboy on his very first archaeological dig at Goven Parish made the discovery of a lifetime. Three long lost gravestones belonging to one of the most significant collections of Viking Age sculpture in Britain and Ireland have been found during a community dig in the churchyard of Goven Old Parish Church in Glasgow. The stones were rediscovered by Mark McGitigan, a 14-year-old student volunteering on his very first excavation which was run by Northlight Heritage. Mark described how he made the discovery. I was just prodding the ground to see if there was anything there and suddenly it made a noise and I realized I had hit something. Myself and two of the archaeologists worked out the area of the object and started to dig it out and clean it. I wasn't too sure at the start what it was, but then we checked with the records and we realized it was one of the Lost Goven Stones. I am extremely happy, in fact I'm ecstatic at what I helped to uncover. The Goven Stones were carved between the 9th and 11th centuries to commemorate the rulers of the Kingdom who made the area around the Clyde into a political and religious center following the Viking Siege in the year 870 and the subsequent fall of the British royal stronghold on Dumbarton Rock. The rare find described by experts as being of national importance is decorated with several mythical creatures which experts describe as being unlike anything found of any other Pictish stone. It is one of only about 50 complete or near complete Pictish cross labs known in the world and the first to be discovered on the Scottish mainland for many years. Some 46 stones were originally found in the churchyard, but their importance was not fully recognized until the end of the 19th century. Subsequently, 31 were moved inside the church for safekeeping while the other 15 were displayed against the churchyard walls. It was long thought that when the nearby Harland and Wolf Shipyard were demolished in 1973, these 15 stones had been destroyed as well. But this new discovery has shown that at least three of the stones did survive and the possibility remains that others may be buried in the vicinity. Archaeologists hope that further excavations in the area might help bring them to light too. At number 4 on our list, 1400 year old Pictish skeleton discovered on the Black Isle. The remains were found in September on the very last day of the excavation of a Pictish cemetery that had been identified from aerial photographs from beforehand. For more than two weeks, archaeologists from the north of Scotland Archaeological Society had uncovered the outlines of burrows, the earthen mounds raised over ancient graves, but owing to the acidity of the soil, no remains of human bodies had been found until the surprise discovery right at the end of the day. Although a number of Pictish cemeteries had been discovered in northern Scotland over the last 30 or 40 years, only a handful had been excavated and bodies very rarely survived. The significance of the current excavation in the Black Isle is that it is one of the largest Pictish cemeteries in Scotland and firmly placed within the old Pictish province. Aerial photographs had clearly shown the outline of the ditches in closing circular and square burrows of different sizes and the recently discovered skeleton lay within one of the large square enclosures and may be difficult to assign a sex to the skeleton, but it is possibly a female. The Picts were a matrilineal society and it would not be unexpected to find a woman of high status buried in what would have been a very large and imposing burrow. Elder Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen and advisor on the excavation said, Terradale is one of the largest recorded Pictish burrow cemeteries. The Terradale through time project has done a fantastic job of revealing and excavating part of the cemetery. The discovery of human remains within one of the burrows is a particularly exciting result for it may help date one monument of the cemetery and tell us more about the individual buried within the grave. Very few of these cemeteries have been excavated so projects like to have much to tell us about the ways which the Pictish buried their dead. At three Viking drinking hall discovered on Orkney. There was likely no shortage of ale and good cheer at a recently unearthed Viking drinking hall discovered by archaeologists on the Orkney Isles in northern Scotland. The hall wasn't a short lived establishment either. Its doors seem to have been opened from the 10th to the 12th centuries likely serving high status Vikings the archaeologists said. Now all that's left of this once bustling ale house or stones, a handful of artifacts including a fragment Norse bone comb, pottery and a bone spindle Whirl, a very old trash heap after learning that walls extended from below a known settlement were actually part of a large 43 foot long Norse building. These walls were about three feet wide and 18 feet apart. Stone benches sat on the side of the building they noted. The drinking hall was found at an archaeological hotspot a place that has likely been inhabited by people for more than a thousand years. That's why a team of archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute locals and students have been digging there for years. They are often sifting through the garbage remains to learn about old farming and fishing practices as well as what sorts of foods were eaten by the people who live there. We have recovered a millennia which will allow us an unparalleled opportunity to look at changing dietary traditions, farming and fishing practices for the Norse period up until the 19th century. Project co-director Ingrid Mainland and archaeologists at the University of the Highlands and Islands said in a statement, excavation at the drinking hall are ongoing but it's already showing similarities to other Norse halls found in Orkney as well as other parts of Scotland. And at two in our list, 1200-year-old Pictish Stone, 1200 years old and originally standing more than two meters high in ancient monolith a spiritual monument was found decorated with a spread of classic Pictish symbols. Experts are rightfully declaring this find as being of national importance. Found situated within the grounds of an early Christian church in Dingwall on the northeast coast of Scotland and McInnes from the north of Scotland Archaeological Society first identified the stone while surveying the church yard. Mrs. McInnes said that when she was clearing vegetation and spotted the carving, I really couldn't believe what I was seeing. A team of archaeologists from Highland Council and Historic Environment Scotland quickly confirmed the find and noted that it had been broken and reused as a grave mark in the 1790s. Designs on the stone include several mythical beasts, oxen an animal headed warrior with sword and shield and a double disc and z-rod symbol. Details of the carvings on the reverse side of the stone are not yet known but experts suggest that based on examples from similar stones, they are likely to include a large ornate Christian cross. It would make the stone one of the estimated 50 complete or near-complete Pictish cross slabs known across the world and the first to be discovered on the Scottish mainland for many years. John Borland, president of the Pictish Art Society said, the discovery of the top half of a large cross slab with Pictish symbols is of national importance. The find spot, an early Christian site in Easter Ross, is a new location for such sculpture so adds significant information to our knowledge of the Pictish church and its distribution. Kirstie Cameron, an archaeologist at Highland Council said, This is a once in a lifetime find and what started as a small recording project has resulted in the identification of not only this important stone but also that the site itself must be much older than anyone ever expected. All credit goes to the local archaeologist for immediately recognizing the importance of the stone and putting plans in place for securing its future. And in at number one on our list over a thousand ancient sites discovered on the Isle of Arran. The cutting edge archaeological project has discovered about a thousand sites of interest on Arran including prehistoric settlements and medieval farmsteads. The island in the Firth of Clyde was scanned using airborne laser scanning. The technique known as LIDAR created a 3D record of the land surface. Archaeologists from Historic Environment Scotland, HES, who carried out the work, said it was the largest survey of its type ever undertaken in Scotland. Among the discovery was a curses monument, a neolithic ceremonial structure described as an exceptionally rare find on the west coast of Scotland. Rapid Archaeological Mapping Manager Dave Cowley said, This survey has shown us that there are double the number of ancient monuments on Arran than we previously knew about. The new 3D technology has allowed us to undertake a rapid archaeological survey over weeks rather than months or years and allowed us to discover sites that might even have been impossible to find otherwise. We have been able to see how densely settled parts of Arran were and the medieval and post-medieval shielding sites that were discovered have told us upland areas were used by shepherds. Mr. Cowley said this was an exciting time to be developing the technology and Arran was just a first step. He added, As this technology becomes more widely available, we expect to find tens of thousands more ancient sites across the rest of Scotland, working at this pace that was unimaginable just a few years ago. That's it. Just a few interesting finds from the archaeological investigation going on in Scotland. If you enjoyed this video, then let us know below in the comments section. And as always guys, thank you for watching.