Celtic - Viking bling

      Hunterston Brooch, c. 700, Hunterston, Ayrshire, Scotland.

The back of the brooch has a scratched inscription in runes in the Old Norse language, probably 10th century, "Melbrigda owns this brooch"; Maél Brigda, "devotee of Bridgit" is a common Gaelic female name, though seen as male by other sources.  Much later ownership inscriptions are not uncommon on elaborate Celtic brooches, often from Norse-Gael contexts. The Hunterston Brooch is clearly an object of very high status, indicating the power and great prestige of its owner. With the Tara Brooch in Dublin, and the Londesborough Brooch in the British Museum, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate Irish Celtic brooches to survive, and is "arguably the earliest of the ornate penannular brooches from Britain and Ireland"