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The
Picts
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the artwork on this page is Pictish |
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The
Picts were the original inhabitants of what
we today call Scotland. It is not until the end of the
third century (AD 297) that the Picts are mentioned in writing, for the first
time, by the Roman writer Eumenius, who associated them with Irish raiders (Hiberni)
as enemies of the Romans. The Picts were always Rome's enemies. The Picts left
no written records and parts of their language has only come down to us as in
the form of place names. Nobody today knows what language
the Picts spoke, or is even very sure what they actually called themselves.
The name Picts came from the Romans, who called them Pictii (meaning
'painted people') almost certainly because they dyed or tattooed their skin.
The native name of the Picts in the early christian period was Cruithni. Cruithni
means 'People of the Shapes or Designs'. The Picts did leave carved stones,
hundreds of which have survived. They depict warriors, animals and symbols.
Some of them are shown on this page.
In
the early centuries AD, the area of modern Scotland bounded by the Moray Firth,
the Great Glen and the Forth-Clyde ithsmus was occupied by four tribes; the
Caledonii, the Vacomagi, the Taezali and the Venicones. The Caledonii's territory
ran from Perthshire to the Beauly Firth. They have given their name to Shiehallon,
the 'Sacred mountain of the Caledonians' and to Dunkeld, the 'fort of the Caledonians'.
The Vacomagi seem to have centred on Strathmore, the area from the Tay to the
Dee. The Taezali were based on the river Don in Aberdeenshire and the Venicones
occupied Fife. In the 80s of the first century, when the Romans, led by Governor
and General Agricola, first invaded the lands north of the Tay, they met and
fought the Caledonians. This invasion was written about by the Roman writer
Tacitus. Tacitus does not mention Picts, only the Caledonians. Tacitus wrote
that the Caledonians had reddish hair and large limbs. Tacitus
sometimes also calls the Caledonians 'Britons'. In 197, we learn, from another
Roman, Dio Cassius, that the Caledonians were about to break their treaty with
Rome and aid the rebellious Maeatae who dwelt 'next to the cross wall that divides
the island in half'. We are told that the Caledonians and the Maeatae had emerged
as the two main groupings of northern British barbarians, presumably North of
the Forth and Clyde, since the 'cross wall', mentioned by 
Dio
Cassius, is assumed, by most historians, to be the Antonine Wall between the
Forth and Clyde. Myot Hill, near Denny, and Dumyat (meaning 'hill fort of the
Maeatae'), the most westerly of the Ochil Hills, are thought to be named after
the Maeatae. Both of these places are just north of the Antonine wall, on the
southern edge of the Scottish highlands, and must have been southern outposts
of the Maeatae.
It is clear from a reference in 310 to the 'woods and marshes of the Caledones and other Picts' that the Caledonians were considered Pictish. The ancient Roman writers came to use the word 'Pictii' to signify those people living north of the Antonine Wall, and for those among them, in particular, who raided the Roman Empire. The Picts played a large part in the Barbarian Conspiracy of AD367, in which the Roman Province of Britannia was attacked on all sides by the Picts, the Scots and the Saxons. The fourth-century Roman writer Vegetius descibes Pictish ships as being camouflaged scout-boats with sails, ropes and twenty oarsmen.
Many
of the inhabitants of Southern Scotland were converted to Christianity by St
Ninian. Very little is known about his life or works, although he was engaged
in building a church in 397 AD, which dates his period among the Picts to the
close of the fourth century. The Venerable Bede, who wrote the Ecclesiastical
History circa 720 AD, tells us that at the time of St Ninian, the Picts were
divided into two main groups, the Northern Picts and the Southern Picts. According
to Bede, the Southern Picts were Christianised by St Ninian while the Northern
Picts were later converted by St Columba. Ninian was, it is believed, a native
of Britain who travelled to Rome to study for the priesthood. At that time the
capital of the Southern Pictish Kingdom was Abernethy and a church, dedicated
to St Bridget of Kildare in Ireland, was established there circa 432 AD. This
church is mentioned in the Pictish Chronicle.
Credit
for converting the northern Picts to Christianity is given to St. Columba, who
was born around AD 521 in Ireland. In AD 563 St. Columba set up the monastery
on the island of Iona and from there set out to convert the Picts to Christianity.
Iona is in western Scotland and, when Columba set up his monastery there, that
area was run by the Dál Riata (The Scots) who had also come over from
Ireland. Adomnan, the biographer of Columba, records that Columba made several
journeys into Pictland. It was the missions of St. Columba and his followers
up the Great Glen to preach among the Picts that recorded the first sightings
of the Loch Ness Monster. Columba visited the court of the Pictish King,
Bridei (or Brude) son of Maelchon, on more than one occasion. Adomnan writes
of the Miathi, clearly the same people as the ancient Maeatae, in the late sixth
century, in a context which suggests that they then controlled Angus and the
Mearns. The Caledonii who were 'beyond them' were another confederacy, presumably
centred on the Moray Firth. The gradual conversion of the Picts to Christianity
and the spread of Columban monasteries throughout Pictland had been achieved
before the end of the 7th century.
Pictish
Kings are named from about AD556 to AD843. Pictish metalworkers occupied the
Iron Age settlement of Mine Howe on Orkney from about AD300 to AD500. The kingdom
of the Picts came to a gradual end during the first half of the 9th century.
Viking raids along the northern and western coasts began in the last decades
of the 8th century. The name 'Pentland' in Pentland Hills and the Pentland Firth
stems from the Norse corruption of the name 'Pictland'. Pictland shrank as Shetland
and Orkney were lost to the Vikings. Sutherland also comes from a Norse name
- meaning 'southland'. In the west, Argyle was taken over by the Dál
Riata (Scots), who had come over from Ireland. The Kingdom of Dalriada centred
on Argyll and was founded by fifth century colonists of Scotti from Ireland.
The earliest source for it is the Duan Albanach, which informs us that - 'The
three sons of Erc, the valiant. Three who obtained the blessing of Patrick.
Took Alban, exalted their courage. Loarn, Fergus and Angus.' The name 'Scotti'
means 'to plunder' and it may be that the Scotti named themselves such.. or
it may have been what the Romans called them. Vikings massacred most of the
Pictish nobility in 839. Around 843, Kenneth MacAlpin, King of Scots, established
himself as King of the Scots and Picts. The Picts were defeated in battle by
the Scots with perhaps some help from the Vikings. It was not the first time
that the Picts and Scots had been united, but it was the first time that the
union continued after the death of the King. King Kenneth is said to have massacred
many of the Pictish nobility at a banquet at Fortrui near Perth. The Kingdom
created by Kenneth MacAlpin was called Alba (pronounced Alapa)
and this Kingdom lay to the north of the rivers Forth and Clyde. The Scots (Dál
Riata) spoke the Gaelic and the Picts had their own (unknown) language.
Alba is still the Gaelic name for Scotland today. The Kingdom of Alba, which
King Kenneth founded, became the Kingdom of Scotland.
-An
early legend tells how the first King of the Picts, called Cruithne, had seven
sons who gave their names to the seven regions of Pictland. The names of the
seven regions are not recorded. From the later history of the Picts, four regions
are important : Athflotla (Athol), Circinn (mainly Strathmore), Forthriu (Fortrenn
- the upper Earn and Forth). and Fib (Fife).
Pictish History begins with Bridei mac Maelcon, the first King
mentioned in a source independant of the Pictish Chronicle. His father Maelcon
had been Maelgwn of north Wales, who traditionally came from Southern Scotland.
Bridei won a victory over Gabran of Dalriada 
some
time in the second half of the sixth century, and fifteen years of peace between
Picts and Scots followed. Bridei is prominent in Scottish tradition as 'King
Brude', who was convertd by St. Columba. The full extent of Bridei's kingdom
is unknown, but it probably included Orkney, the sub-king of which was present
at Bridei's court at the time of St. Columba. Around 574 Adian mac Gabran became
King of Dalriada. He campaigned in Orkney and later encroached on Manau (the
area around Clackmannan). In 584 Bridei died, leaving the way open for Aidian
mac Gabran to annex a sizeable area of Pictland . Adrian mac Gabran, leading
both the Dalriadic Scots and the Strathclyde Britons, attacked Aethelfrith of
Northumbria at the battle of Degsastan in 603 and his army was almost totally
destroyed. At some point after 650 the Anglians annexed part of Pictland. They
were not driven back until until their defeat at the battle of Nechtansmere
in 685. More cordial relations were established by Nechtan mac Derelei, who
became King of the Picts in 706. King Nechtan invited guidance from Northumbria
on the method of calculating the date of Easter. Nechtan's reign ended with
three contenders claiming the throne. The victor was Oengus mac Fergus. King
Oengus campaigned in Dalriada. By 741, after ten years fighting there and in
Ireland, he subjugated the Irish in Scotland. After that, Oengus attacked the
Kingdom of Strathclyde. Oengus died in 761. Before
778, Aed Finn, son of Eochaid, won back Dalriada's independance from the Picts.
There then followed years of wars between the Scots and Picts. Then, in 849
or 850, Kenneth mac Alpin, King of the Scots, annexed Pictland. After that Pictland
ceased to exist as an independant power and the embrio Kingdom of Scotland (north
of the Forth and Clyde) came into being.
The main category of archaeological evidence for the Picts consists of the
unique and important series of sculptured stones. These have been divide into
three main classes.
Class I - simple undressed stones decorated with incised symbols.
Class II - dressed slabs of varying dimensions with sculptures in relief. This
consists of a cross on one side decorated with interlace and frequently subsidiary
motifs. On the other face Pictish symbols are found in relief, frequently combined
with other iconograph detail.
Class III - sculptures related in style and technique but lacking Pictish symbols.
The meaning and origin of the symbols on Class I and Class II Pictish stones
has long mystified Archaeoligists and Historians. The Symbols fall basically
into two groups -
(1) Animals - executed in a distinctive style and with great economy of line.
These consist of the horse, boar, bull, stag, wolf, fish, eagle, goose and some
representations which seem to be a horse's head, a seal or otter, the head of
a hunting dog and an animal called the 'Pictish Beast' or 'Swimming Elephant'.
There is also a snake and a beast called the 'Pictish S-dragon'. With the exception
of the 'swimming elephant' and 's-dragon', all these animals could be found
in Pictand at the time they were carved.
(2) Abstract Symbols - Known by various descriptive terms such as 'notched rectangle',
'Z-rod', 'V-rod', or ' mirror and comb case'.
These sysmbols appear repeatedly with little variation in the form of their
depiction in various combinations on Class I stones.
There
are good collections of Pictish stones at Meigle
and at St.
Vigeans. A stone at Aberlemno
commemorates the Pictish victory over the Northumbrians at the Battle of Nechtansmere.
Some historians believe that if the Picts had not defeated the Northumbrians
at that battle, then the country called Scotland would never have come to exist.
The Picts, as a people, disappeared in the mists of time, but I
am sure that they are still with us.
