Picts Picts Pedro Martínez Category="Ancient Britons"Category="Ancient Roman enemies and allies"Category="Ancient peoples"Category="Post-Roman Scotland"This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality

The term Picts refers to a group of pre-Celtic tribes that Mediterranean classical-era writers said lived in Caledonia, which is now part of Scotland. This area was found north of the River Forth in northern Britain.

Pict first appears in a Panegyric written by Eumenius in 297 AD. Although Picti is usually taken to mean painted or tattooed in Latin, the term may have a Celtic origin. The Goidelic Celts called the Picts cruithne (e.g. Old Irish cru(i)then-túath, based on the Old Irish root cruth) and the Brythonic Celts knew them as prydyn (e.g. Early Welsh *kwriteno-teutā, or the more modern pryd).

History

Many archaeological remains in the form of buildings and jewelry have survived to give an impression of the society of the Picts, but little in the way of writing has survived. Pictish society seems to have comprised a number of small kingdoms which occasionally clashed.

Scholars believe that Pictland comprised all of modern Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde except for Argyll. It appears that two over-kingdoms existed: one north of the Mounth with its core in Moray, the other to the south with the capital at Forteviot. Irish sources recorded that seven ancient Pictish kingdoms existed:

However, good archaeological evidence and some written evidence suggest that a Pictish kingdom also existed in Orkney.

Christian missionaries completed the conversion of Pictland in the 7th century, having converted southern kingdoms in the 5th or 6th centuries. Although the Britons of southern Scotland and then the Northumbrian church played a part in this process, the Celtic church of Saint Columba and his successors proved the most influential in the missionary work. They established strong and enduring links between Pictland and Iona.

Historians now question the idea of Pictland coming under pressure from Dalriadan invaders. No evidence exists of Dalriadan dominance in the 8th or 9th centuries. The Pictish kings Onuist mac Uurgust (fl. 729-761) and Caustantin mac Uurgust (fl. 789-820) dominated Dalriada. Onuist sacked Dunadd and captured the sons of the King of Dalriada. Caustantin put his son on the throne of Dalriada and his brother, son and nephew succeeded him as Kings of Pictland until Viking invaders defeated the Picts in 839.

In the Viking Age Norse invaders conquered much of northern Pictland - Caithness, Sutherland, the Western Isles and Ross. In southern Pictland, wars with the Vikings continued until the reign of Constantine mac Aeda (900-942/3), grandson of Kenneth mac Alpin. Constantine reigned as the first King of Alba.

Pictish language

Little definite knowledge survives of the Picts' language, Pictish, its relationships and cognates.

It remains uncertain whether or not we should classify the Picts as Celts, although most available placename evidence tends to support the hypothesis that they spoke a Brythonic language. Placenames often allow us to deduce the existence of historic Pictish settlements in Scotland. Those prefixed with "Aber-", "Lhan-", "Pit-" or "Fin-" indicate regions inhabited by Picts in the past (for example: Aberdeen, Lhanbryde, Pitmedden, Pittodrie, Findochty, etc). In support of this hypothesis, Gaelic tradition sees the Picts as identical with or descended from the Brythonic group which the Gaels called, and still call, the Cruithne. Cruithne has a likely Cognate in the Welsh Prydain, in which we can see the standard /k/ to /p/ Goidelic to Brythonic sound correspondence (both sounds come from /kw/). From the Brythonic Celtic Prydain (or rather from its older form Pretani) comes (via Latin) the English word Britain.

Other hypotheses exist. For instance, the Basque nationalist Federico Krutwig tried to connect the Pictish and the Basque language, which would be remnants of the pre-Indo-European population of Europe. However lack of data about the Pictish language makes it difficult to test his hypothesis. The Symbol Stones of Scotland (Anthony Jackson, 1984) presents evidence of a decidedly un-Celtic matrilinear culture in Pictish lands, as reported by Bede.

Legends about the Picts also include mention of possible Scythian origins - linking them with another remote pre-literate people. Again, lack of information about the Pictish language makes it difficult to evaluate these legends. It should also be noted that Roman and Medieval scholars tended to ascribe a Scythian origin to any Barbarian people (including the Scots and Goths) in order to emphasise their barbarity and 'otherness'.

The legends of the "Painted People"

Popular etymology has long interpreted the name Pict as if it derived from the Latin the word Picti meaning "painted folk" or possibly "tattooed ones"; and this may relate to the Welsh word Pryd meaning "to mark" or "to draw". Julius Caesar, who never went near Pictland, mentions the British Celtic custom of body painting in Book V of his Gallic Wars, stating Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugna aspectu; which means: "In fact all Britanni stain themselves with vitrum, which produces a dark blue colour, and by this means they are more terrifying to face in battle;"

Linguists generally translate the Latin word vitro as "with Woad". The Latin phrase “vitro inficiunt” could very well have meant “dye themselves with glazes” or “infect themselves with glass”. This could have described a scarification ritual which left dark blue scars, or formed a direct reference to tattooing. Subsequent commentators may have displaced the 1st-century BC southern practices (of the Brittani, a tribe south of the Thames) to the northern peoples in an attempt to explain the name Picti, which came into use only in the 3rd century AD. Julius Caesar himself, commenting in his Gallic Wars on the tribes from the areas where Picts (later) lived, states that they have “designs carved into their faces by iron”. If they used Woad, then it probably penetrated under the skin as a tattoo. More likely, the Celts used copper for blue tattoos (they had plenty of it) and soot-ash carbon for black. Further study of bog bodies may provide more information on the specific tattooing techniques (if any) used by the Picts.

The Picts left virtually no written record of themselves so little first-hand knowledge of their history or ephemeral culture exists. Ancient legends indicate they had origins in "the east" (Baltic), or in "Scythia" (the Steppes). These legends cannot be verified.

The Picts in Fantasy

Many writers have been drawn to the idea of the Picts and created stories and mythology about them in the absence of much real data. This romanticised view tends to portray them as occasionally noble savages, much as the view of Europeans on Native Americans in the 18th century. They are an especial favourite "race" of Robert E. Howard and are mentioned frequently in his tales, having a continuity from the tales of King Kull of Atlantis, where they are his allies to the Hyborian Age of Conan the Barbarian where they are the mortal enemies of the Cimmerians, who are actually descended from the old Atlanteans thought they do not remember their ancestry or old alliance. Howard also wrote tales about the last King of the Picts Bran Mak Morn set in real historical time and they figure commonly as enemies of Cormac mac Art.

See also

References

Pictish language/dialect:

Pictish culture:

Pictish history:

Eumenius's panegyric:

External links