thumb|300px|Traprain law from the Garleton Hills
'''Traprain Law''' is a hill about 221m (724 feet) in elevation, located 6km (4 miles) east of Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the site of an oppidum or hill fort, which covered at its maximum extent about 16 ha (40 acres) and must have been a veritable town. Whether it was a seasonal meeting place or permanent settlement is a matter for speculation.

The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and re-aligned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late 40 through the last quarter of the Roman withdrawal to the line of 220 almost uninterruptedly until about 400 when an impressive new rampart was built, then within a few decades the site was abandoned.

In the Romans recorded the British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements. They emerged as a kingdom under the Pictish chains have been found by archaeologists, the  interchange may have occurred between the two peoples through trade, tribute or through raiding or warfare.

This hill was only known as Traprain Law from the late 18th century, taking its name from a local hamlet. Before that, it is found on old maps as Dunpendyrlaw<ref>Scots Place Names. Retrieved 23 april 2008, from: http://www.scotsplacenames.com</ref>. Locally, and particularly amongst fishermen who use it as a land mark, it is still referred to as Dunpelder.

==Archaeology==
A team led by Curle and Cree began the first excavations in 1914 and continued them until 1923, finding layers of fragmentary stone and timber houses under the turf.

===Traprain Treasure=== 
In 1919, they recovered a hoard of Silver plate. Consisting of over 53 pounds of sliced-up Roman era silver, the discovery was made in a pit within the boundary of the settlement earlier uncovered. Four coins were discovered with the hoard one of the emperor Valens, three of Arcadius and one of Honorius which dates the find to some point in the 5th c. AD. The quality of some of the items suggests that they may have come from as far afield as Rome, Ravenna, or possibly Antioch or Constantinople.<ref>HMSO Information Sheet 7/1980,'' The Treasure of Traprain''. Joanna Close-Brooks, 1980.</ref>

Most objects had been crushed and hacked to pieces, and only some were left intact. A great deal of the find was table silver, but there was also early Christian items and remnants from a Roman officers uniform.

It had originally been thought that the objects had been brought back from a raid abroad, as the objects had been split up ready for division. Later finds such as at Scots, Picts, and Saxons, the Silver being split up as bullion due to lack of adequate coinage.

'''Traprain Law''' è una collina (altitudine circa 221 m s.l.m.) che si trova a circa 6 km ad est di Haddington nella regione di East Lothian, in Scozia.

Sul sito sorse un ''oppidum'' di notevole estensione (circa 16 ha), che deve essere stato una vera e propria città, sebbene sia incerto se si trattasse di un punto di raccolta stagionale della popolazione, oppure di un insediamento permanente.

La collina era già un luogo di sepoltura alla metà del II millennio a.C., e mostra tracce di occupazione e di una fortificazione agli inizi del I millennio a.C.. Nei secoli seguenti le fortificazioni furono ricostruite e ritracciate diverse volte. Gli scavi hanno mostrato che fu occupato nella tarda età del ferro tra il 40 d.C. e l'ultimo quarto del II secolo, al tempo in cui veniva sistemato il Vallo di Antonino. In seguito all'abbandono della linea del vallo di Adriano, fu occupato nuovamente tra il 220 e gli inizi del V secolo, quando venne costruita una nuova potente fortificazione. Dopo pochi decenni, tuttavia, il sito venne abbandonato.

Si ritiene che Traprain Law fosse uno dei principali insediamenti della tribù britanna dei celtica degli abitanti.