EVIDENCE kept in a matchbox has been used to prove that a wooden hut traditionally associated with St Columba on the island of Iona dates to his lifetime in the late sixth century.
Carbon dating has led to the breakthrough, which proves samples of hazel charcoal unearthed in an excavation of a wattle and timber structure on Iona 60 years ago are from the exact period Columba lived in the Inner Hebridean monastery.
The samples were excavated in 1957 by archaeologist Professor Charles Thomas but, with radio carbon dating only just emerging at the time, they were not tested and instead kept in matchboxes in his garage in Cornwall.