News - Live Science: Source of ancient Egyptian figurines discovered in Scotland found

Scientists have found out that the ancient Egyptian figurines dug up in Scotland 70 years ago were brought there by a young lord in the 19th century, Live Science reports. Between 1952 and 1984, several antique statues were found on the grounds of Melville House—a stately building in Fife county of Scotland that lodged soldiers during World War II and later served as a boarding school. In 1952, a schoolboy who was forced to dig potatoes as a punishment had discovered an ancient Egyptian statue in the ground. Since then, teachers and students have discovered many more similar artifacts, but no one knows how they got there. The collection of these artifacts found at Melville House includes a nearly 4,000-year-old statue head carved out of red sandstone, as well as several bronze and ceramic figurines dating to between 1069 B.C and 30 B.C. Also among the finds are a bronze figurine of an Apis bull, the top half of a glazed ceramic figurine depicting the goddess Isis suckling her son Horus, and a ceramic plaque bearing the eye of Horus. Previous efforts to determine the origin of these objects were fruitless, but researchers now think they were brought there by Alexander Leslie-Melville, whose title was Lord Balgonie—a young heir to Melville House who traveled to Egypt in 1856 and died one year later upon his return to the UK. Balgonie may have acquired the collection on his travels, as consuls and antique dealers often sold ancient artifacts to foreigners during this period. After Balgonie's death, family members likely moved the objects to an outbuilding, which was later demolished, and forgot about them.