Rare Iron Age treasures to go on show for first time

Rare treasures found with a young Iron Age man buried in Alloa about 2,000 years ago are to go on show for the first time in a new exhibition.

The remains of the man, who was aged between 17 and 25, were discovered in a stone-lined cist at Marshill.

He was buried with an iron sword in a leather scabbard placed across his chest, and a spear laid alongside him.

The objects will go on show in the exhibition Scotland’s First Warriors, external, which opens on Saturday at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The man, who was buried in about 10-70 AD, was adorned with ornaments including a bronze cloak pin, a glass bead pendant and bronze and iron rings from a belt around his waist.

Two bronze toe rings suggest he wore sandals, which was a sign of high status.

Experts say burying someone with weapons may have reflected their role in life as a warrior, or how their community wanted them to be seen in the afterlife.

Replicas of the spearhead and sword have been created for the exhibition by Ratho Byres Forge and Alan Braby.

They will be displayed alongside the originals to illustrate how they would once have looked.