The mystery of the glazed stones of Scotland and France

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Between 700 and 300 BC e. according to the official dating in Scotland, many stone forts were built on the tops of the hills. At the same time, the stones were laid without any fastening solution, simply fitting one well under the other. In itself, this is not something unique, this method of construction was known throughout the world. Nevertheless, everything becomes much more surprising when you learn that some of the stones from the masonry of these forts were very firmly fastened together … by molten glass.

Melted and vitrified stones from Fort Dunagoil (Scotland).

Parts of the walls were composed of this strange dark glassy substance, which contained air bubbles and droplets of molten rock. It seems that the stone walls were once exposed to very high temperatures, which led to the appearance of layers and "glaze" of glass.

Similar glass walls are found in mainland Europe, including France, as in the photo below. But most of these walls are found in Scotland.

For the past three centuries, since archaeologists have explored the first stone wall with interlayers of glass, scientists have tried to solve this riddle and until they have succeeded.

One of the first British archaeologists to puzzle over this glass was John Williams. In 1777 he made a detailed description of several similar fortresses in Scotland. Since then, more than 100 ancient ruins with such walls have been found in Europe, mainly in Scotland.

A piece of glass from the ancient ruins of Dun Mac Sniachan (Scotland).

Stones and glass in the ruins of Craig Phadraig near Inverness, Scotland.

It is still unclear exactly who built these forts and what technology turned stones into glass. Maybe scientists are missing something and the solution is very close, or they are generally moving in the wrong direction when studying these buildings.

Officially, all these mysterious glass walls are called Glazed Forts or Vitrified fort. According to some experts, in order for these stones to turn into glass in this way, it takes a temperature similar to that of a nuclear bomb.

70 such forts are located in Scotland, the rest in France, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Thuringia (Germany), Hungary, Turkey, Silesia (Poland and Czech Republic), Iran, Portugal and Sweden.

Vitreous stone from ruins (Aberdeenshire, Scotland).

Even more mysterious, the presence of this glass in the walls is very heterogeneous even in the ruins of the same structure. Somewhere it is a stream of smooth vitreous enamel covering stones, somewhere spongy, and very rarely when a solid vitreous mass covers an impressive part of the wall.

Some scientists believe that with the help of certain technologies, ancient people specially covered with glass part of the walls in order to strengthen them. But such a coating would only make these walls more fragile.

The appearance of glass also could not occur as a result of fires after the raids of enemies, and if it did, the flame should have burned for at least a day at a temperature of 1050-1235 Celsius. It is not impossible, but very unlikely.

Stones with glass from the ruins of Dunnideer Castle (Aberdeenshire, Scotland).

In the 1930s, archaeologists Veer Gordon Child and Wallace Thornycroft conducted an experiment with a giant bonfire directed against a stone wall. The same experiment was carried out in 1980 by the archaeologist Ralston.

In both cases, the experiment showed little glazing of individual stones, but could not explain how this could have been done on such a large scale as in glazed forts.

Glazed forts remain one of the largest archaeological anomalies, while for some reason, for some reason, few people study them.