The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies was given an ancient script yesterday which was discovered during a clean-up in a house in Hafnarfjördur a few years ago. The script is at least 200 to 300 years old and has mysterious writing.

"There are dots between the letters and they are neither runes nor Latin," manager of the institute Vésteinn Ólafsson told Fréttabladid. "It is some kind of a secret code written on skin in an old Icelandic binding."

Ólafsson said it is not clear yet whether the script was written in Iceland, adding they generally know very little about the script as it is because the investigation is in its beginning phases and more scientists need to be called out solve the mystery.

Pálmar Pétursson found the script, a small book with a wooden cover, wrapped into strips, in the attic in a house in Hafnarfjördur, a neighboring town of Reykjavík, when he was helping his brother move. He kept it for a few years before deciding to give it to the Árni Magnússon Institute for investigation.

"I was studying history at the time and therefore realized that it was worth a second look," Pétursson said.