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Can YOU solve this 1,200-year-old puzzle? Archaeologists ask online gamers to help piece together 3,000 pieces of stone cross
Recent excavations found scattered fragments of the cross at Easter Ross Fragments were transported to hospital and put through a CT scanner Digitised fragments are now part of a game that anyone can access online Project is hoped to help experts interpret stone's elaborate carvings
By Ellie Zolfagharifard PUBLISHED: 11:47 GMT, 9 October 2013 | UPDATED: 17:21 GMT, 9 October 2013

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Scotlands national museum is recruiting online gamers to help piece together 3,000 fragments of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. The project will see gaming fans use a unique 3D program to help unlock the mystery of the Pictish stone which was carved around 800AD in Invernesshire. Gamers are thought to be better at manipulating on-screen objects and their skills could help experts interpret the stones elaborate symbols and carvings. Scroll down for video...

Peebles-based Relicarte has developed a platform for online gamers to see if they can fit the stone fragments together

The stone was found in Easter Ross in Scotlands Northern highlands, which was then a heartland of the Picts over 1,200 years ago. Last year research on of the stone revealed that the main figure depicted was one of Scotlands earliest depictions of Jesus. The carvings were made onto local sandstone after the Picts converted to Christianity, in order to celebrate their new religion. But over the centuries the stone, currently at the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh, was knocked and broken a number of times.

The Hilton of Cadboll stone was carved around AD 800 in Invernesshire, north-east Scotland, then a heartland of the Picts. Carved from local sandstone, it displays sophisticated artistry and symbolism

Help piece together the fragmented face of the Hilton of Cadboll...

THE HILTON OF CADBOLL STONE

The Hilton of Cadboll stone was carved around AD 800 in Invernesshire, north-east Scotland, then a heartland of the Picts. Carved from local sandstone, it displays sophisticated artistry and symbolism. At some point the stone was toppled and broken, possibly in a storm in 1674. Sometime before 1676 the original carving of the Christian cross was chipped off and replaced with an inscription commemorating a local man, Alexander Duff and his three wives. 300-900 AD, Early Medieval, is a formative period for Scotland as a multi-cultural nation, marking the arrival and adoption of Christianity, and the establishment of new Kingdoms. Sculptured stones were created to celebrate these new ideas and beliefs. At some point the stone was toppled, possibly in a storm in 1674, and the bottom portion lost. In 1676 the original carving of the Christian cross was chipped off and replaced with an inscription commemorating a local man, Alexander Duff, and his three wives. Excavations at its original site have found the stones base along with 3,000 scattered fragments of a cross, most of them small enough to fit in your hand. Peebles-based Relicarte has developed a platform for online gamers to see if they can fit these fragments together. The fragments were transported to Borders General Hospital and put through a CT scanner. The digitised fragments were then put into a computer programme. From Friday 25th of October, anyone can go online and interact with the 3D models in real-time. Mhairi Maxwell, a Glenmorangie Research Officer, said: This 300-year old mystery is a jigsaw much larger than one person.

If we can come together to re-fit the pieces it will be a huge step forward in our understanding. The fragments will be displayed at an exhibition Creative Spirit: Revealing Early Medieval Scotland which starts at the museum on 25 October.

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Comments (46)
Share what you think Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Report comment get_real, somewhere, 2 hours ago Call Nathan Drake from Uncharted he is pretty good at it !!

0 2 Click to rate Report comment Quasar, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2 hours ago why don't they use all those clever software programs they use in films, you know the ones where they have wicked graphics and they auto sort bits out and hey we have a result.... ahhh yikes, did I say FILM,...

0 2 Click to rate

Report comment No to the EU, England, United Kingdom, 2 hours ago I hope you will be statistically aggregating the results of all the attempts to solve this puzzle. And I recon that googles translate Algorithm will help.

0 0 Click to rate Report comment Man on a Soapbox, London, United Kingdom, 3 hours ago A cracked pot, for a crack pot,

1 0 Click to rate Report comment Soprano2, Dijon, 4 hours ago Send it to CSI New York - they have a computer program to do this - they have done it many times on the show (LOL)

1 20 Click to rate Report comment EllieC130, Dartford, United Kingdom, 4 hours ago Smart move... but I stuggle with 1000 piece puzzle so I won't be attempting this.

1 4 Click to rate Report comment Mcsam, Anytown, 4 hours ago Easter Ross is NOT in Inverness-shire, it's a shire in it's own right.....GRRRR

1 10 Click to rate Report comment Snipe, Torquay, 9 hours ago YU-GI-OH

2 8 Click to rate Report comment Tigerpaw16, Pembroke, 9 hours ago It's just another plaque of a "Fox Hunt" like the one shown above. Solved! Don't bother!

4 8 Click to rate

Report comment eyesopen, Houston, United States, 12 hours ago ......dammmit.... I took the bait..... I pushed the play button... to my shame, I did it several times !!!!

2 8 Click to rate The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

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