The area around Arbroath has been occupied since at least the Neolithic period. Material taken from postholes from an enclosure at Douglasmuir, near Friockheim, about five miles north of Arbroath have been radiocarbon dated to around 3500 BC The function of the enclosure is unknown, but may have been for agriculture or for ceremonial purposes. Bronze age archaeology is to be found in abundance in the surrounding area. Examples include the short-cist burials found near West Newbigging, about a mile to the North of the town. These burials included pottery urns, a pair of silver discs and a gold armlet. Iron Age archaeology is also well represented, for example in the souterrain nearby Warddykes Cemetery and at West Grange of Conan, as well as the better-known examples at Carlungie and Ardestie. The area appears to have been of some importance in the early Christian period, as evidenced by the Pictish stone carvings found during the restoration of St Vigeans Church, and now housed in the small museum there. The stones had been used in the building of the old church and many had been badly damaged. One of the stones, the 9th century Drosten Stone, has the distinction of being one of the few Pictish artefacts to have an inscription in Latin text: ‘DROSTEN: IREUORET [E]TTFOR CUS’, which has been interpreted in various ways, but it is thought to refer to the Pictish King Uurad, who reigned between 839 and 842 AD.