Objects from Scotland’s richest Iron Age burial on display

Grave goods from the richest Iron Age burial ever discovered in Scotland have gone on display for the first time in a new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland.

The skeletal remains of a young warrior were discovered in a stone-lined cist grave opposite the town hall of Alloa in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The site on Marshill was excavated in 2003 before construction of residential homes. Archaeologists found he was between 17 and 25 years old when he died in the 1st century A.D. The young man was marked as a warrior because of his grave goods: an iron sword with a two-foot-long blade in a leather scabbard placed across his chest, a spear by his side.

He was richly adorned with jewelry, including a glass bead pendant, a bronze fibula, a belt with bronze and iron rings and two bronze toe rings. While his shoes were either not buried or had decomposed over the centuries, the toe rings suggest he wore sandals, another indicator of his elite status.

Iron Age burials are very seldom found in Scotland, and ones with weapons are even more rare. This one was unique not just for the overall richness of its contents, but also because some of the individual pieces had never been found before. The belt with rings, for example, was unprecedented on the Scottish archaeological record.

Dr Matthew Knight, Senior Curator of Prehistory at National Museums Scotland, said:

“The remarkable objects from the Marshill burial give us a vivid insight into the mindset of prehistoric communities living in Scotland almost 2,000 years ago. Burying people with weapons may reflect the person’s role in life as a warrior, or how their community wanted them to be seen in the afterlife. These treasured objects tell us this young man was a powerful member of his community. Following extensive research and conservation, I am thrilled that visitors will have the opportunity to see these objects for the first time in Scotland’s First Warriors.”

The Scotland’s First Warriors exhibition runs through May 16, 2027. It features more than 200 objects related to conflict and violence in Scotland from the Neolithic through the Roman era, including other artifacts that have never been displayed before, such as the Carnoustie Hoard of Bronze Age weapons.

* This article was originally published here