A team of Scots archaeologists has played a key role in a breakthrough discovery into the origins of the Buddhist religion.

Professor Robin Coningham, of Durham University, led a group of 15 archaeologists from Durham, Stirling and Orkney, within an international team who excavated an ancient shrine in the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal, dating back to the sixth century BC.

The Unesco heritage site has long been identified as the birthplace of Buddha and the discovery - revealed in the December edition of the international journal Antiquity - has been hailed as the first archaeological material pinpointing the life of the Buddha to a specific century.

The British team worked alongside monks, nuns and pilgrims at the sacred site in collaboration with conservationists and planners. Prof Coningham said: "It is one of the most exciting discoveries in terms of Buddhist archaeology because we now have an idea of what the earliest Buddhist shrine looked like."