Scotland gets more fascinating the more we learn from its past

We will never know who deposited the most stunning hoard of treasure on sacred ground in Galloway more than 1,000 years ago but it is clearer than ever that those who held it in their hands had something in their keep which reflected a place and people that were cosmopolitan, sophisticated and with access to great wealth and prestige.

Gifts, perhaps of a diplomatic nature, came from afar and Scotland, as it was then, was not simply an isolated, mono-cultural place stuck in medieval darkness.

As told in the lidded vessel at the heart of the hoard, connections spanned far and wide. Conservators and researchers now know this object came from present-day Iran and was, in itself, a long-distance traveller on the sprawling routes of the Silk Roads.

The engraved tigers, leopards and crowns which beautifully decorate the pot - in which ample treasures were crammed - must have been held in the highest esteem by those who deposited in the ground around 900AD.

The vessel for Iran was buried alongside silver engraved with Anglo-Saxon names with Galloway in the Kingdom of Northumbria at the time.

Next, we are expected to learn about the silk in which the vessel was wrapped - the oldest known specimens in Scotland. What will unravel next is sure to help alter Scotland’s story once more.