Description : Traprain Law is a hill about 221 m (725 ft) elevation, located 6 km (4 mi) east of Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the site of an oppidum or hill fort, which covered at its maximum extent about 16 ha (40 acres). It is the site of the Traprain Law Treasure, the largest Roman silver hoard from anywhere outside the Roman Empire and which included exquisite silver artefacts. The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century (about the time that the Antonine Wall was manned). Following the Roman withdrawal to Hadrian's Wall, it was predominantly uninterruptedly occupied from about 220 until about 400 when the rampart was replaced by one more impressive. The site was abandoned after a few decades. In the 1st century AD the Romans recorded the Votadini as a British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements; named Curia by Ptolemy. They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name Gododdin and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to Din Eidyn (Castle Rock in modern Edinburgh).
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