A vitrified fort in Scotland  Eminent Scientist and writer Arthur C Clarke was once asked "What's the most baffling thing you have ever investigated"?

He replied, "The oddest thing is these vitrified forts in Scotland. I just thought 'How the hell?' After all, lasers weren't common in the Stone Age"

To understand his incredulity, we need to understand what a vitrified fort is, and how they defy description by scientists and archaeologists. Do they point to high civilisations lost in the myths of time? Do they point to intervention in our past from forces outwith our planet? Both are plausible and at times, the only answers we can come up with for this enduring mystery.

There are over 100 vitrified forts scattered throughout the world dating from the Stone Age onwards, some in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, there's even one in Iraq, but by far the most to be found are in Scotland. Over 50% of the world's known vitrified forts are in Scotland and they number between 60 and 70. But what is a vitrified fort? Essentially it's the same as any fortified area used as a defence against enemies but it has been 'superheated' so that the rock has fused together and in some cases turned to glass. As Arthur C Clarke rightly concluded this 'superheating' makes the defensive structure significantly weaker, brittle, easy to break. Although archaeologists suggest that those who sought protection from within the forts somehow did this themselves, it seems ludicrous as they would be exposing themselves to greater risk and undermining their safety.

The obvious choice is that the forts have been vitrified by an attacking force. This leads us to the major problem confronting scientists and archaeologists however, as Clarke noted, "The temperatures required to vitrify the entire fort structure in-situ are equal to those found in an atomic bomb detonation." No known method for vitrification of such large scale objects has ever been discovered in pre-modern history. Archaeologists have tried to reproduce the process but without success, they have 'vitrified' small sections of forts but nothing on the scale of an entire fort and concede that it appears impossible. Could the forts have been attacked by technology 'not of this earth'? It really does seem like the only answer, but it almost goes without saying that no such record of an attack exists, and certainly no such record of technology which could produce these temperatures has been recorded. Or has it?

It's a huge leap of the imagination but nuclear/atomic weapons have been described in historical writings - The Mahabbarat describes one of the Gods (who was responsible for a 'race' of people) as using what can only be interpreted as a laser to 'heat' ground based objects to super high temperatures and 'fusing' them as a sign of his displeasure...I stress this wasn't lightning which was well documented and understood - this was a 'light beam'. Curiously Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, chose to quote from these same Indian writings when discussing his first nuclear detonation. Even more remarkable was when he was asked if - the nuclear explosion he oversaw was the first? His reply was - "Yes, in modern times"

Vitrified forts are one of the strongest pieces of evidence on the surface of the earth, for an 'alternate' view of history and the development of human society.