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Project: The Pictish Puzzle

The Picts were a group of people that lived in Scotland during the Late Iron Age. You’re probably familiar with their signature artwork: highly stylized animals, beautiful spirals, and intricate knots, all carved into stone, or worked in metal. And it’s one of the most famous and beautiful Pictish stones that National Museums Scotland wants you to put back together.

The Hilton of Cadboll Stone was carved between 700 and 800 AD. On one side (shown above) you can see a hunting scene. On the other side, researchers believe there may have been a cross. Sadly, the original carving on this side was chipped off, and then recarved as a headstone for someone. Excavations of the site have unearthed roughly 3000 fragments that are believed to be the original work. These have been digitally scanned, and put into a game called The Pictish Puzzle.

Your job is to try to match up these fragments to help reassemble the stone. The online puzzle uses WebGL, which is available on the latest versions of the Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari browsers.

For more information about how to play the puzzle game, be sure to watch the brief tutorial video at the Pictish Puzzle site, on the left hand side of the screen.

Chandra Clarke is a Webby Honoree-winning blogger, a successful entrepreneur, and an author. Her book Be the Change: Saving the World with Citizen Science is available at Amazon. You can connect with her on Twitter @chandraclarke.