Earliest depiction of Scottish tartan discovered on Roman statue

• Fragment shows captive Caledonian warrior wearing tartan trews

• The statue was originally erected around 1800 years ago

• It is the earliest depiction of tartan in history

• It originally depicted the Roman Emperor Caracalla, known as the conqueror of the Caledonians

The fragment belongs to a bronze statue that at one time stood in the ancient Moroccan city known as Volubilis.

The city was located in the southwest corner of the Roman Empire, and was around 1500 miles from Scotland.

The statue depicted the Roman Emperor Caracalla, who was known as the conqueror of the Caledonians after he led a military campaign in to Scotland in the third century. Caracalla is depicted riding a six horse chariot.

The statue, originally erected around 1800 years ago, was destroyed. All that remains of the statue today is three foot fragment, which features an image of a captive Caledonian warrior wearing tartan trews.

First depiction of tartan

Dr Fraser Hunter of the National Museum of Scotland identified the carving on Tuesday as the “first ever depiction of tartan”.

He said: “The triumphal arch was built to celebrate Caracalla. He and his father, the Emperor Septimius Severus, had led massive military campaigns in to third century Scotland.

“A great bronze statue of Caracalla riding a six-horse chariot once stood above the arch.

“His cape includes an early depiction of that great national stereotype, the long-haired Caledonian warrior.

“The giveaway is the checked leggings -- the first ever depiction of tartan.

“It has been carved in to the bronze, and inlaid with different bronze alloys and silver to give a remarkable impression of the textile, its colour and texture.

“The leggings or trews are relatively skin-tight and you can see the definition. The legs are two different patterns. This is the pre-history of tartan as we know it.

“The shields too are Celtic in style.

“This guy is a Caledonian -- you can see his bare chest, his head and his cloak over the shoulders.

“But his arms are bound behind his back. This guy is a captive, a prisoner from the vicious campaigns of Severus and Caracalla.”

Other early Roman images

Dr Hunter, who has spent 20 years studying Roman artefacts, describes the find in a BBC2 documentary to be shown on Friday.

Speaking on Tuesday, he said few earlier Roman images of Caledonians existed. Though there are stone carvings from the Antonine Wall from around 70 years earlier, they show Romans soldiers on horseback slaughtering the local tribes. But those stone carvings showed the Scots naked.

Dr Hunter said: “We don’t often see Caledonians in Roman art. The earliest surviving come from the Antonine Wall but these stone carvings do not have the same level of detail or colour and the Caledonians are shown naked.

“That’s why this depiction is so exciting.

“There is not much left of the Caracalla statue, but from a Scottish perspective this is a fantastic find.”

He added that the fragment could potentially be loaned from the museum in Rabat to Scotland at some point in the future.

He said: “We’ve had a chat about it being loaned to Scotland. If we could put together a decent proposal it is something they might be open to.

“It would be nice to show it in Scotland.”

• Scotland - Rome’s Final Frontier, is on BBC2 Scotland, Friday December 7, at 9pm.