IT is the instantly recognisable pattern of interlocking loops and knots used for Celtic art tattoos and jewellery - a seeming nod across millennia to Scotland’s ancient warriors, druids and bards. So inked fans of body-art will be pretty miffed to learn that these typical ‘Celtic’ designs are actually Christian art, according to experts.

It is just one of the myths which the first major British exhibition on the Celts being held for more than 40 years is exploring through a display of more than 350 treasures at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Many exhibits have never been seen in Scotland before, such as the Gundestrup Cauldron, an intricately decorated silver vessel from Denmark. Highlights from Scotland include four gold Iron Age torcs unearthed in a field near Blair Drummond by a metal detectorist and a carved sandstone cross from Monifieth, Angus.

Martin Goldberg, senior curator of Scottish history and archaeology at National Museums Scotland, said many of the myths had arisen as a result of the Victorian era ‘Celtic revival’.

“A lot of our preconceptions are based on 19th century scholarship, when they had a lot less material to work with,” he said. “They wanted to know about the origins of nations and about people and so they used the classical sources, the Greek and Roman authors, to fill in the gaps.

“The classical sources were biased against the people they conquered – so Rome conquered Gaul and Britain and the things they are recording are quite often stereotypes such as being drunken and emotional and naked and barbarian and savage.

“Because the Victorians are using this as their primary material for constructing their histories, a lot of those stereotypes get written into scholarship at that time.”

He added: “Now we have a science of archaeology that helps us fill in the gaps and helps us to tell different stories. Rather than relying on classical sources, it is the objects that can tell us new stories. So 150 years later we have a different understanding of the past.”

Goldberg said one example was Celtic art, which would involve elaborately decorated metalwork and abstract styles – such as swirling and "shape-shifting" people and animals.

He said: “The interlace and knotwork that are quite often seen in tourist shops– that type of design is something that only comes in the 7th Century AD. In terms of the story we are trying to tell in the exhibition, that is about 1000 years after the beginning of our story.

“When Britain and Ireland are becoming Christian, they start making interlaced designs, particularly for use on decorated crosses – so that is why you quite often see the Celtic cross with the interlaced design on it.

“When the Celts are rediscovered in the 18th and 19th century, interlace is seen as typically Celtic – when actually it is something which only really links early Medieval Britain and Ireland.

“It is a form of Christian art…It is an expression of this new set of beliefs Christianity, which is shaping Europe at this point.”

The word Celt, which was first recorded around 500BC, does not relate to any single people or culture. Goldberg said the notion of the Celts as a race was also 150 years out of date.

He added: “What we know archaeologically is there was a mosaic of people across Europe, not necessarily living in the same way, not necessarily burying their dead in the same way, but a certain group of people who have connections and contacts.

“One of the key criteria was language – a linguistic definition is one of the clearest definitions and that is what a lot of the modern Celtic identity is based on.”

The Celts exhibition will open at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on Thursday 10 March and runs until Sunday September 25.