How a Scottish schoolboy stumbled upon a treasure trove of ancient Egyptian artefacts in Fife after being ordered to dig up potatoes as a punishment

• A 4,000-year-old Egyptian relic was uncovered in 1952 by a schoolboy in Fife

It is the kind of thing you might expect to find beneath the shifting sands of the Old Kingdom. 

Instead, this 4,000-year-old Egyptian relic was uncovered in 1952 by a Scots schoolboy in a ‘kingdom’ far closer to home – Fife.

Ordered to dig up potatoes as a punishment at Dalhousie School, in the grounds of Melville House, near Collessie, he stumbled across a bulbous form. He initially mistook it for a spud – but it turned out to be the first of 18 antiquities unearthed there over the next 30 years. 

Following the discovery of an ancient Egyptian artefact by a Scottish schoolboy in Fife, a further seventeen were uncovered over the next thirty years

National Museums Scotland is telling the stories behind the treasures for the first time

Now Edinburgh-based National Museums Scotland is telling the stories behind the treasures for the first time. 

One idea is that they belonged to a Melville family member who died a year after touring Egypt in 1856. His family, spooked by ‘mummy’s curse’ tales, may have then buried the ‘unlucky’ souvenirs. 

Former curator Dr Elizabeth Goring had a role in the discoveries and said: ‘This is one of the most extraordinary stories that happened to me in my 26 years at the museum.’ 

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