Knights today are romanticized in pop culture as noble warriors and defenders of chivalry, but the real thing has been found this week in Scotland.

A medieval knight has been found buried underneath a car park in Edinburgh this week. The car park was reportedly being demolished when a decorated sandstone slab covered in the Calvary Cross and a sword was found. The knight’s skeleton is that of an adult and the markings on the slab indicate the remains could be that of a noble.

The knight’s skeleton will now be taken for study, which should be able to determine significant facts about the person’s life, including the time period in which he lived.

“We hope to find out more about the person buried in the tomb once we remove the headstone and get to the remains underneath but our archaeologists have already dated the gravestone to the thirteenth century,” said Richard Lewis, culture convener for the Edinburgh City Council.
“This find has the potential to be one of the most significant and exciting archaeological discoveries in the city for many years, providing us with yet more clues as to what life was like in Medieval Edinburgh.”

The site of the burial was reportedly also the site of several historical buildings, such as the 13th century Blackfriars Monastery. The car park was being demolished to build a rainwater-harvesting tank for the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI).