The Galloway Hoard, the £2m trove of artefacts discovered in a Dumfries field, may not be as Viking as previously thought.
As half of the hoard, which has been allocated to the National Museum of Scotland (NMS), goes on display in Edinburgh for the first time, experts have already begun to decode the evidence contains in its runes, patterns, and jewellery.
The "unparalleled" fund of gold, silver and jewelled treasures, is now the subject of a ££1.98m fund raising scheme - the NMS needs to raise the sum in six months, with the amount going to its finder, Derek McLennan.
The runes found on some of the items are Anglian runes, rather than Scandinavian, which suggests the owners of the hoard had contact with, or were, people from the north of England, Wales or even Ireland.
The hoard appears to show connections with the Holy Roman Empire, Byzantium and even further afield.
The way the arm bands have been marked and stored in different ways - as if by different owners - also suggests, Dr Martin Goldberg, senior curator of Viking collections at the NMS, said that the cache had been left temporarily, and its owners were expecting to return.
The cache on show includes five Anglo-Saxon disc brooches not found in Scotland before.
The museum is now saying the hoard is "much more than just a Viking hoard".
Dr Goldberg added: "You'd normally expect Scandinavian runes in a Viking hoard, but everything about this hoard is a little bit more complicated, a little bit more interesting than that.
"A Runologist had looked at them and she recognises that some of them are Anglo-Saxon forms: so it changes, it makes you think a little bit harder about what's happening around the Irish sea at this time.
"These types of arm rings are found mostly in Ireland but also in north Wales and Lancashire, and this horde completes the circle at the top of the Irish sea.
"Labelling anything 'Viking' is always a bit of a stereotype...the past is always a little bit more complicated.
"There are always nuances, so that's why we are titling it 'much more than just a Viking hoard'...there is much more to learn."
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