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The Picts were a confederation of tribes in what later was to
become central and northern Scotland
from Roman times until the
10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde. They were the descendants of the Caledonii and other tribes named
by Roman historians or found on the world map of Ptolemy. Pictland, also known as Pictavia, became the
Kingdom of Alba
during the 10th century and the Picts became the Fir Alban, the men of
Scotland.
The name by which the Picts called themselves is unknown. The Greek word Πικτοί
(Latin Picti) first appears in a panegyric written by Eumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean
"painted or tattooed people" (Latin
pingere "paint"). The Gaels of Ireland and Dál Riata called the Picts Cruithne,
(Old Irish
cru(i)then-túath), presumably from Proto-Celtic
*kwriteno-toutā. There were also people referred to as
Cruithne in Ulster, in particular
the kings of Dál
nAraidi. The Britons (later the Welsh and Cornish) in the south knew them, in the
P-Celtic form of "Cruithne", as Prydyn; the terms "Britain" and "Briton"
come from the same root. Their Old English name gave the modern Scots form
Pechts.
Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts. Although very
little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history, from the
late 6th century onwards, is
known from a variety of sources, including saints' lives, such as that of Columba by Adomnán, and various Irish annals. Although the popular impression of
the Picts may be one of an obscure, mysterious people, this is far from being
the case. When compared with the generality of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,
Pictish history and society are well attested.
The archaeological record provides evidence of the material culture of
the Picts. It tells of a society not readily distinguishable from its similar
Gaelic and British neighbours, nor very different from the Anglo-Saxons to the south.[5] Although analogy and
knowledge of other "Celtic" societies may be a useful guide, these extended
across a very large area. Relying on knowledge of pre-Roman Gaul, or 13th century Ireland, as a guide to the Picts of
the 6th century may be misleading if analogy is pursued too far.[6]
As with most peoples in the north of Europe in Late Antiquity, the Picts were farmers living in
small communities. Cattle and horses were an obvious sign of wealth and
prestige, sheep and pigs were kept in large numbers, and place names suggest
that transhumance was
common. Animals were small by later standards, although horses from Britain were
imported into Ireland as breed-stock to enlarge native horses. From Irish
sources it appears that the élite engaged in competitive cattle-breeding for
size, and this may have been the case in Pictland also. Carvings show hunting
with dogs, and also, unlike in Ireland, with falcons. Cereal crops included wheat, barley, oats and rye. Vegetables included kale, cabbage,
onions and leeks, peas and beans, turnips and carrots, and some types no longer common, such as skirret. Plants such as wild garlic, nettles and watercress may have been gathered in the wild. The
pastoral economy meant that hides and leather were readily available. Wool was the main source of fibres for
clothing, and flax was also common, although
it is not clear if it was grown for fibres, for oil, or as a foodstuff. Fish,
shellfish, seals and whales were exploited along coasts and rivers. The
importance of domesticated animals argues that meat and milk products were a
major part of the diet of ordinary people, while the élite would have eaten a
diet rich in meat from farming and hunting.[7]
No Pictish counterparts to the areas of denser settlement around important
fortresses in Gaul and southern Britain, or
any other significant urban settlements, are known. Larger, but not large,
settlements existed around royal forts, such as at Burghead, or associated with religious
foundations.[8] No towns are known in Scotland until the 12th
century.[9]
The technology of everyday life is not well recorded, but archaeological
evidence shows it to have been similar to that in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon
England. Recently evidence has been found of watermills in Pictland. Kilns were used for drying kernels of wheat or barley,
not otherwise easy in the changeable, temperate climate.[10]
The early Picts are associated with piracy and raiding along the coasts of Roman Britain. Even in the
Late Middle Ages,
the line between traders and pirates was unclear, so that Pictish pirates were
probably merchants on other occasions. It is generally assumed that trade
collapsed with the Roman Empire, but this is to overstate the case. There is
only limited evidence of long-distance trade with Pictland, but tableware and
storage vessels from Gaul, probably transported up the Irish Sea, have been found. This trade may have been
controlled from Dunadd in Dál Riata,
where such goods appear to have been common. While long-distance travel was
unusual in Pictish times, it was far from unknown as stories of missionaries,
travelling clerics and exiles show.[11]
Reconstructed
crannog on Loch Tay
Brochs are popularly associated with
the Picts. Although these were built earlier in the Iron Age, with construction ending around 100 AD, they
remained in use into and beyond the Pictish period.[12] Crannogs, which may originate in Neolithic Scotland, may have been rebuilt, and some
were still in use in the time of the Picts.[13] The most common sort of buildings would
have been roundhouses and rectangular timbered
halls.[14] While many churches were built in wood, from the
early 8th century, if not earlier, some were built in stone.[15]
The Picts are often said to have tattooed themselves, but evidence for this
is limited. Naturalistic depictions of Pictish nobles, hunters and warriors,
male and female, without obvious tattoos, are found on monumental stones. These stones include
inscriptions in Latin and Ogham script,
not all of which have been deciphered. The well known Pictish symbols found on
stones, and elsewhere, are obscure in meaning. A variety of esoteric
explanations have been offered, but the simplest conclusion may be that these
symbols represent the names of those who had raised, or are commemorated on the
stones. Pictish art can be classed as Celtic, and later as Insular.[16] Irish
poets portrayed their Pictish counterparts as very much like themselves.[17]
Early Pictish religion is presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism
in general, although only place names remain from the pre-Christian era. The
date at which the Pictish elite converted to Christianity is uncertain, but there are
traditions which place Saint Palladius in Pictland after leaving Ireland, and link Abernethy with Saint Brigid of
Kildare.[18] Saint Patrick refers to "apostate Picts", while
the poem Y Gododdin
does not remark on the Picts as pagans.[19] Bede wrote that Saint Ninian (identified with Saint Finnian of
Moville, who died c. 589), had converted the southern Picts.[20] Recent
archaeological work at Portmahomack places the foundation of the monastery there, an area once assumed
to be among the last converted, in the late 6th century.[21] This is contemporary with
Bridei mac
Maelchon and Columba, but the process of establishing Christianity
throughout Pictland will have extended over a much longer period.
Pictland was not solely influenced by Iona and Ireland. It also had ties to churches in
Northumbria, as seen in the reign of Nechtan mac Der Ilei. The reported
expulsion of Ionan monks and clergy by Nechtan in 717 may have been related to
the controversy over the dating of Easter, and the manner of tonsure, where
Nechtan appears to have supported the Roman usages, but may equally have been
intended to increase royal power over the church.[22] Nonetheless, the evidence
of place names suggests a wide area of Ionan influence in Pictland.[23] Likewise,
the Cáin
Adomnáin (Law of Adomnán,
Lex Innocentium) counts Nechtan's brother Bridei
among its guarantors.
The importance of monastic centres in Pictland was not perhaps as great as in
Ireland. In areas which had been studied, such as Strathspey
and Perthshire, it appears that
the parochial structure of the High Middle Ages existed in
early medieval times. Among the major religious sites of eastern Pictland were
Portmahomack, Cennrígmonaid (later St Andrews), Dunkeld, Abernethy and Rosemarkie. It appears that these
are associated with Pictish kings, which argues for a considerable degree of
royal patronage and control of the church.[24]
The cult of Saints was, as throughout Christian lands, of great importance in
later Pictland. While kings might patronise great Saints, such as Saint Peter in the case of
Nechtan, and perhaps Saint
Andrew in the case of the second Óengus mac Fergusa, many lesser
Saints, some now obscure, were important. The Pictish Saint Drostan appears to have had a wide following in the
north in earlier times, although all but forgotten by the 12th century. Saint
Serf of Culross was associated with
Nechtan's brother Bridei.[25] It appears, as is well known in later times,
that noble kin groups had their own patron saints, and their own churches or
abbeys.[26]
The means by which the Pictish confederation formed in Late Antiquity from a
number of tribes are as obscure as the processes which created the Franks, the Alamanni and similar confederations in Germany. The
presence of the Roman
Empire, unfamiliar in size, culture, political systems and ways of making
war, should be noted. Nor can we ignore the wealth and prestige that control of
trade with Rome offered.[27]
Pictland had previously been described as the home of the
Caledonii.[28] Other tribes said to have lived in the area
included the Verturiones, Taexali and
Venicones.[29] Except for the Caledonians, the names may be
second- or third-hand: perhaps as reported to the Romans by speakers of
Brythonic or Gaulish languages.[30]
Pictish recorded history begins in the so-called Dark Ages. It appears that they were not the dominant
power in Northern Britain for the entire period. Firstly the Gaels of Dál Riata
dominated the region, but suffered a series of defeats in the first third of the
7th century.[31] The Angles of Bernicia overwhelmed the adjacent British kingdoms,
and the neighbouring Anglian kingdom of Deira (Bernicia and Deira later being called Northumbria), was to become the
most powerful kingdom in Britain.[32] The Picts were probably tributary to Northumbria
until the reign of Bridei map Beli, when the Anglians
suffered a defeat at the battle of Dunnichen which halted their
expansion northwards. The Northumbrians continued to dominate southern Scotland
for the remainder of the Pictish period.
In the reign of Óengus mac Fergusa (729–761), Dál
Riata was very much subject to the Pictish king. Although it had its own kings
from the 760s, it appears that Dál Riata did not recover.[33] A later Pictish king, Caustantín mac Fergusa (793–820)
placed his son Domnall on the throne of Dál Riata (811–835).[34] Pictish attempts to
achieve a similar dominance over the Britons of Alt Clut
(Dumbarton) were not
successful.[35]
The Viking Age brought
great changes in Britain and Ireland, no less in Scotland than elsewhere. The
kingdom of Dál Riata was destroyed, certainly by the middle of the 9th century,
when Ketil Flatnose is
said to have founded the Kingdom of the Isles. Northumbria too
succumbed to the Vikings, who founded the Kingdom of York, and the kingdom of
Strathclyde was also greatly affected. The king of Fortriu Eógan mac Óengusa,
the king of Dál Riata Áed mac Boanta, and many more, were killed
in a major battle against the Vikings in 839.[36] The rise of Cínaed mac
Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) in the 840s, in the aftermath of this disaster,
brought to power the family who would preside over the last days of the Pictish
kingdom and found the new kingdom of Alba, although Cínaed himself was never
other than king of the Picts.
In the reign of Cínaed's grandson, Caustantín mac Áeda (900–943), the
kingdom of the Picts became the kingdom of Alba. The change from Pictland to
Alba may not have been noticeable at first; indeed, as we do not know the
Pictish name for their land, it may not have been a change at all. The Picts,
along with their language, did not disappear suddenly. The process of
Gaelicisation, which may have begun generations earlier, continued under
Caustantín and his successors. When the last inhabitants of Alba were fully
Gaelicised, becoming Scots, probably during the 11th century, the Picts were
soon forgotten.[37] Later they would reappear in myth and legend.[38]
The early history of Pictland is, as has been said, unclear. In later periods
multiple kings existed, ruling over separate kingdoms, with one king, sometimes
two, more or less dominating their lesser neighbours.[39] De Situ Albanie, a
late document, the Pictish Chronicle, the Duan Albanach, along
with Irish legends, have been used to argue the existence of seven Pictish
kingdoms. These are as follows, those in bold are known to have had
kings, or are otherwise attested in the Pictish period:
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Cait, situated in modern Caithness and Sutherland
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Ce, situated in modern Mar and Buchan
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Circinn, perhaps situated in modern Angus and the Mearns[40]
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Fib, the modern Fife, known to this day
as 'the Kingdom of Fife'
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Fidach, location unknown
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Fotla, modern Atholl
(Ath-Fotla)[41]
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Fortriu, cognate with the
Verturiones of the Romans; recently shown to be centered around Moray[42]
More small kingdoms may have existed. Some evidence suggest that a Pictish
kingdom also existed in Orkney.[43] De
Situ Albanie is not the most reliable of sources, and the number of
kingdoms, one for each of the seven sons of Cruithne, the eponymous founder of the Picts, may well be grounds
enough for disbelief.[44] Regardless of the exact number of kingdoms and
their names, the Pictish nation was not a united one.
For most of Pictish recorded history the kingdom of Fortriu appears dominant,
so much so that king of Fortriu and king of the Picts may mean one
and the same thing in the annals. This was previously thought to lie in the area
around Perth and
the southern Strathearn, whereas
recent work has convinced those working in the field that Moray (a name
referring to a very much larger area in the High Middle Ages than the county of
Moray), was the
core of Fortriu.[45]
The Picts are often said to have practised matrilineal succession on the basis of Irish
legends and a statement in Bede's history.
In fact, Bede merely says that the Picts used matrilineal succession in
exceptional cases.[46] The kings of the Picts when Bede was writing
were Bridei and Nechtan, sons of Der Ilei, who indeed claimed the throne through
their mother Der Ilei, daughter of an earlier Pictish king.[47]
In Ireland, kings were expected to come from among those who had a
great-grandfather who had been king.[48] Kingly fathers were not frequently succeeded by
their sons, not because the Picts practised matrilineal succession, but because
they were usually followed by their brothers or cousins, more likely to be
experienced men with the authority and the support necessary to be king.[49]
The nature of kingship changed considerably during the centuries of Pictish
history. While kings had to be successful war leaders to maintain their
authority, kingship became rather less personalised and more institutionalised
during this time. Bureaucratic kingship was still far in the future when
Pictland became Alba, but the support of the church, and the apparent ability of
a small number of families to control the kingship for much of the period from
the later 7th century onwards, provided a considerable degree of continuity. In
the much same period, the Picts' neighbours in Dál Riata and Northumbria faced
considerable difficulties as the stability of succession and rule which they had
previously benefitted from came to an end.[50]
The later Mormaers are thought to
have originated in Pictish times, and to have been copied from, or inspired by,
Northumbrian usages.[51] It is unclear whether the Mormaers were
originally former kings, royal officials, or local nobles, or some combination
of these. Likewise, the Pictish shires and thanages, traces of which are found
in later times, are thought to have been adopted from their southern
neighbours.[52]
The Pictish language has not survived. Evidence is limited to place names and
to the names of people found on monuments and the contemporary records. The
evidence of place-names and personal names argue strongly that
the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to
the more southerly Brythonic languages.[53] A number of inscriptions
have been argued to be non-Celtic, and on this basis, it has been suggested that
non-Celtic languages were also in use.[54]
The absence of surviving written material in Pictish does not mean a
pre-literate society. The church certainly required literacy, and could not
function without copyists to produce liturgical documents. Pictish iconography
shows books being read, and carried, and its naturalistic style gives every
reason to suppose that such images were of real life. Literacy was not
widespread, but among the senior clergy, and in monasteries, it would have been
common enough.[55]
Place-names often allow us to deduce the existence of historic Pictish
settlements in Scotland. Those prefixed with "Aber-", "Lhan-", or "Pit-"
indicate regions inhabited by Picts in the past (for example: Aberdeen, Lhanbryde, Pitmedden, Pittodrie etc). Some of these, such as "Pit-"
(portion, share), were formed after Pictish times, and may refer to previous
"shires" or "thanages".[56]
The evidence of place-names may also reveal the advance of Gaelic into
Pictland. As noted, Atholl, meaning
New Ireland, is attested in the early 8th century. This may be an
indication of the advance of Gaelic. Fortriu also contains place-names
suggesting Gaelic settlement, or Gaelic influences.[57]
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At 13, Robert E.
Howard, being of Scottish descent, began his studies of Scottish history and
became fascinated with the Picts, whom he called "the small dark Mediterranean
aborigines of Britain."[58] Later, as an author, he created the character Bran Mak Morn, the last
king of the Picts, who appeared in stories in Weird Tales. The Picts also appeared as savages in many Conan the
Barbarian books and comic books. It should be noted, however, that the Picts
of Howard's Conan stories bear more resemblance with American Indians than
anything else, with particularly similarity in parts to pre-Colombian Central
and South American cultures. In "Conan the Usurper", Conan journeys
through the Pictish wilderness.[59]
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The Picts are a faction in the Medieval: Total War expansion "Viking
Invasion." The faction consists of the entirety of Pictish lands, rather than a
single kingdom. A player can command a group of Pictish forces.[60]
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In Werewolf: the Apocalypse, the lost
tribe of the White Howlers was aid to have interbred with the Picts. They were
ultimately corrupted into the Black Spiral Dancers, a perversion of all that is
sacred to the Garou.
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The novel "The Dark Mirror" by Juliet Marillier is based off Pictish
history.
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Col.
S. B. Spruill
and/or