The Kingdom of the Picts



The Kingdom of the Picts

Aim:

• To overview Pictish society

Who are the Picts?

The word Pictii is a Roman one, used to describe the people living north of the Forth-Clyde line from the late 3rd century onwards. It means ‘the painted people’, which probably referred to designs tattooed on their bodies. A distorted image of these people was created due to early sources.

Sources for our knowledge of the tribes which became the Picts are varied.

Written:

We rely on the accounts of Classical writers and other interested commentators. Bias and misinterpretation are rife.

• Maps of Pytheas and Prolemy: evidence of Celtic and P-Celtic tribal and place names.

• Tacitus’ account of Agricola’s battle with the Caeldonii at Mons Graupius, 84 A.D.

• Latin writers named tribes beyond the Walls: Caledonii, Maeatae, Dicaldones and Verturiones, and Pictii by Eumenius in 297 A.D.

• Later writers like Bede and Adomnán, and even mentions in Viking sources.

• Pictish King-lists, though the surviving documents are copies of the originals.

Territorial Divisions:

• Evidence from early maps and Latin writings.

• Evidence from Adomnán who speaks about Columba crossing the ‘Spine of Britain’ to reach the Pictish kingdom.

• Evidence from Bede, Nennius and De Situ Albanie on the territories of the Children of Cruithne, the Pictish origin tale.

• Distribution of Pictish symbol stones and their correlation with pit/pett place names.

Language: P-Celtic (akin to Welsh, Cornish & Breton, compared to the Q-Celtic Gaelic of Scots)

• Evidence from early maps and Latin writings.

• King lists (the Pictish Chronicle).

• Place names: Pit/pett, aber, carden, lanerc, pert.

• Ogham inscriptions on symbol stones: appear to be non-Celtic.

Material Culture: The Archaeological Evidence

Symbol Stones: Distributed from Shetland to the Forth-Clyde line, with a few south of it, and in Dalriada, which may indicate sporadic raids on their enemies.

• Class I Stones: rough, un-dressed stones with a set of symbols incised on one surface. These predominate in Grampian.

• Class II Stones: Dressed slabs with relief carving on both sides. On one side is a Christian cross with intricate interlace and iconography, on the other a set of the symbols seen on Class I Stones. These predominate to the south of Aberdeen and in clusters in Ross and the far north.

• Class III Stones: have only a Christian cross, decorated with interlace.

Buildings: Most buildings were not in stone.

• Re-use of Iron-Age vitrified and promontory forts in historical Pictish period. e.g. Craig Phadraig, Burghead and Cullykhan.

• Domestic settlements: wheelhouses in Orkney and Shetland.

• Church sites: some evidence points to church sites at Restenneth in Angus, Meigle in Perthshire, St. Ninian’s Isle in Shetland and at Forteviot and St. Andrews. The presence of high quality Class 2 cross slabs and stone box shrines such as the St. Andrews sarcophagus provide some clues as to where ecclesiastical foundations may have been.

Personal Ornament: silver chains with symbols, armlets and other small objects, beads and sword chapes have been found in hoards at Norrie’s Law, Gaulcross, Newmachar and St. Ninian’s Isle.

Matrilinear Succession (A system whereby succession to kingship is determined through the maternal, rather than the paternal line)

Evidence in favour of matrilinear succession:

• Pictish king lists: a son never appears to succeed his father.

• Bede says that they chose through the maternal line when in doubt.

• Talorgen, son of Eanfrith, an Anglian, became king of the Picts.

• Kenneth mac Alpin’s succession may have been through a Pictish mother.

Arguments against matrilinear succession:

• Kingship may have alternated between rival regional kings e.g. of Fortriu and Atholl.

• Bede may have been perpetuating a legend.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Source 1 is the first recorded use of the word ‘Pict’.

Panegyric on Constantius Caesar (delivered AD 297)

And certainly, though Britain was but a single name, its loss to the state was not without significance – a land so rich in harvests, with such abundant pasture, shot through with so many seams of ores, a lucrative source of so much tribute, girded round with so many ports, so vast in its extent. When Caesar, the origin of your name, entered it, the first Roman to do so, he wrote that he had found another world. … The Britons too, at that time used only to foes as yet half-naked, like the Picts and the Irish, gave way with ease before the arms and standards of Rome, so much so that in his campaigns Caesar should have made this single boast: that he had crossed the Ocean.

p127, Roman Britain: a Source book by S. Ireland

Source 2

So the Picts crossed into Britain, and began to settle in the north of the island, since the Britons were in possession of the south. Having no women with them, these Picts asked wives of the Irish (Scots), who consented on condition that, when any dispute arose, they should choose a king from the female royal line rather than the male. This custom continues among the Picts to this day. As time went on, Britain received a third nation, that of the Irish; they migrated from Ireland under their chieftain Reuda and by a combination of force and treaty, obtained from the Picts the settlements that they still hold. From the name of this chieftain, they are still known as Dalreudians, for in their tongue dal means division.

p46, Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People , translated by Leo Sherley-Price

Source 3 is from the Historia Norwegiae, a Norse Chronicle written in Orkney in around 1200 AD.

Of the Orcades islands.

These islands were at first inhabited by the Picts and Papae (priests). Of these, the one race, the Picts, little exceeded pigmies in stature; they did marvels, in the morning and in the evening, in building [walled] towns, but at mid-day they entirely lost all their strength, and lurked, through fear, in little underground houses.

p331 Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 to 1286 (Vol I) collected and translated by A.O. Anderson

Source 5 is a Pictish king list based on the various Chronicles that exist. It was created by A.O. Anderson.

|Brude, son of Maelchon |ca. 555 – d.584 |Angus, s. Fergus |752- d.761 |

|Gartnait, s. Domelch |d,?601 |Brude, s. Fergus |761-d.763 |

|Nechtan, gs Verb |?601 – d.?621 |Kenneth, s. Feradach |763-d.775 |

|Kenneth, s. Luchtren |?621 – d.633 |Alpin, s. Wroid |?775-d.780 |

|Gartnait, s. Foith |633 - d.637 |Drust, s.Talorcan |?780 |

|Brude, s. Foith |637 – d.642 |Talorcan, s.Drostan |?780-d.782 |

|Talorc, s. Foith |642 – d.653 |Talorcan, s.Angus |?782-784 |

|Talorcan, s. Eanfrith |653 – d.657 |Conall, s.Tadc |?784-789 |

|Gartnait, s.Donald |657-d.663 |Constantine, s.Fergus |789-d.820 |

|Drust, br. Gartnait |663-672 |Angus, s.Fergus |?820-d.834 |

|Brude, s. Bile |672-d.693 |Drust s. Constantine & Talorcan, |?834-?836 |

|Nechtan, s.Derile |706-724 |s.Wthoil | |

|Drust |724-726 |Eoganan, s.Angus |?836-d.839 |

|Alpin |726-728 |Wrad, s. Bargoit |839-842 |

|Nechtan, s. Derile |728-729 |Bred, |842-843 |

page cxiii, Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 to 1286 (Vol I) collected and translated by A.O. Anderson

Source 6 shows a Class I incised symbol stone. The stone is situated at Aberlemno, near Forfar (Angus), and shows the skill of the Pictish craftsmen.

on page 22 of Picts by Anna Ritchie

Source 7 shows the two sides of a Class II symbol stone. The carving is in relief and shows a Christian cross and unusual battle scene. As the stone is situated at Aberlemno, near Forfar, some have interpreted the battle scene to show the battle of Nechtansmere, the site of which is nearby. The Picts decisively defeated an invading Anglian army at Nechtansmere in A.D. 685.

on page 23/4 of Picts by Anna Ritchie, (Crown copyright

Source 8

Map showing the distribution of place-names containing pit/pett. Names containing this element like Pitlochry, Pittenweem and Pitcaple are found in the north and east of the country. They are usually interpreted as defining the settlement area of the Celtic-speaking Picts. The name element is of Pictish origin and means, ‘portion, share, piece of land’. Pit words frequently have Gaelic parts to them which leads to the conclusion that the victorious Scots used this Pictish element when naming places in the ninth and tenth centuries.

p51, Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 edited by Peter G B McNeill and Hector L MacQueen

SECONDARY SOURCES

More recent historians and archaeologists tend to disagree about the evidence for the Picts, though they all agree they are an interesting, if often misinterpreted, people to study.

Source 9

The Picts are the most interesting, and least well defined, of all the peoples of Celtic Britain. With the advance of archaeological knowledge, studies become less speculative. Today, they allow the notion of an amalgam of tribes or groups, some harking back to the local Bronze Age and even late Neolithic, some having pushed northwards over five centuries or more during the Iron Age.

p83, Celtic Britain by Charles Thomas

Source 10

Ever since they were first called Picti, ‘the Painted Ones’, by the Roman soldiers along Hadrian’s Wall, the Picts have been the subject of myth and misconception.

p5, Picts by Anna Ritchie (Crown Copyright 1989. HMSO Publications Centre, PO Box 276. London SW8 5DT

There seems to be general agreement on what this term refers to.

Source 11

But the word ‘Pict’ is essentially an historical term, introduced by Classical writers and taken up by early medieval monastic scribes to describe an historical people from the period 300 to 900. It is the historian, therefore, who defines the term Picti and it is up to the linguist and archaeologist to see how language and material culture relate to that definition. The word Picti, meaning ‘painted people’, was probably originally coined as a nickname by Roman soldiers, auxiliaries and areani, who patrolled the northern frontier of Britian, and they applied this military slang to their barbarian enemies living north of the Forth and Clyde in Caledonia – the name of that region, incidentally, being vouched for by Tacitus as early as AD 80. The Romans called their enemies Picti almost certainly because they dyed or tattooed their skin, and the name stuck perhaps because of a vague likeness between it and Priteni, a name which the Picts were called by their Celtic neighbours if not by themselves. It seems clear that ancient writers used the word Picti in the loosest sense to signify those people living north of the Antonine Wall, and for those among them in particular who raided the empire.

p45, Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD80-1000 by Alfred P Smyth

Source 12

The Picts were not a new element in the population. They were simply the descendants of indigenous iron-age tribes given a new name. From various references in the works of Roman authors, it appears that a process of tribal amalgamations took place during the Roman period; by the early 3rd century a number of smaller tribes had been absorbed into two confederations: the Caledonii and the Maeatae, and by the end of the century both were labelled Picti.

p6 Picts by Anna Ritchie

There is some debate as to exactly how ‘Celtic’ the Picts were. A non-Celtic element to these people is sometimes referred to as a distinguishing feature.

Language

Source 13

The idea of this mixed background is reinforced by the existence into early historic times of two quite distinct Pictish languages. The non-Celtic one is known from a handful of very late inscriptions (samples: irataddoerens … iddarrnonn vorenn ipuor). All one can safely say is that, obliquely represented in late Ogham scraps, this language appears to have been non-Indo-European, and therefore comparable as a survival to the situation of Basque and a few other archaic tongues on Europe’s periphery.

p84, Celtic Britain by Charles Thomas

Source 14

It was first suggested in the late nineteenth century that the Picts spoke or retained a non-Indo-European (or pre-Celtic) element in their vocabulary. In other words, the language which was spoken by the native inhabitants of the British Isles prior to the movement of Celts (Indo-Europeans) from continental Europe after c. 1200 BC. If true, this would have strongly demarcated the Picts from their neighbours and might imply the continuity in Pictland of other unusual practices. However, modern research now confirms that this was not the case, and that the Picts spoke another type of Celtic language: P-Celtic. This language, which presumably had many dialects, was different from the Q-Celtic of their Dal Riata neighbours, and this explains why St Columba (a Q-Celtic speaker from Ireland) needed an interpreter to speak to Picts on or near Skye.

p24, Picts, Gaels and Scots by Sally M. Foster, (Sally M. Foster, 1996, published by B.T. Batsford Ltd, 4 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 0AH

The distribution of place-names often tells us about the geographical spread of people who spoke their language. Again we should be careful with such evidence. Current distribution may not show us the entire picture.

Source 15

Only seven place-name elements are considered to be Pictish: pett (with over 300 examples), as in Pitmedden or Pitcaple; carden ‘thicket’; pert ‘wood’, ‘copse’; lanerc ‘clear space’, ‘glade’; caer ‘fort’; pren ‘tree’; and aber ‘confluence’, ‘river-mouth’. Names with pett (usually pit- in modern English) are not only extensive, but it has been suggested that their distribution is more or less identical to the settlement area of the ‘historical Picts’. This is not strictly speaking true, since the place-name element is not found in those areas of former Pictland which were subsequently inhabited by the Scandinavians. Possibly this was due to the thorough way in which all pre-existing names were eradicated in these areas. Alternatively the term had not been fashionable in this part of Pictland. Certainly, the name only seems to have survived in areas which were subsequently Gaelic speaking, because the word, translated as ‘(dependent) estate’, was adopted by the Dál Riata. They also used it, adding a second Gaelic element to the name, because the meaning was not only understood by them, but was also relevant.

p32, Picts, Gaels and Scots by Sally M. Foster

Source 16

As for the heartland (of the Pictish kingdom) itself, its location is spurious, since it depends on a misunderstanding of distribution maps relating to Pictish place-names and to symbol stones. If we take the region covered by pit place-names as the criterion for a heartland, then we must extend the region to cover south-eastern Sutherland, Easter Ross, and the mainland opposite Skye.

p48, Warlords and Holy Men by Alfred P. Smyth

Symbol stones

Another feature of Pictish society is the symbol stones, which, again, are open to interpretation.

Source 17

The Picts have retained their aura of mystery mostly on account of their symbol stones. No other contemporary people in western Europe has left a comparable legacy of stonecarving, and there is no doubt that, in some respects, the Picts were unique. It is not simply the idea of using symbols that sets them apart – the Celts, the Romans, the early Christians all used symbols as a simple and graphic means of communication – but rather the way in which they used them and the extent to which they used them. They put symbols on small objects and on the walls of caves, but primarily they carved them on large stones that were set upright as a visible and important component of the Pictish landscape. Some 200 symbol stones have survived, from the Forth of Firth to the Northern and Western Isles, and new ones are discovered almost every year (usually turned up by the plough), so the total is likely to go on rising.

p17 Picts by Anna Ritchie

Source 18

The symbols, which comprise abstract designs, animal designs and a few representations of objects, are stylistically very uniform. The curvilinear patterns and the stylisation of the animals have a consistency which almost suggests that they were designed at one point in time by one school of artists. The designs are very beautiful, and the incision on the stones is even and controlled. Some of the most aesthetically successful symbols are found in the north and this could be interpreted as having a bearing on the place of origin of the designs or simply be taken as evidence for a particularly talented group of sculptors practising there. It has been suggested by Professor Charles Thomas that the stones are headstones, and that the symbols are the ancient tattoo designs, which he further believes indicated the personal rank of the tattooed individual. I have put forward a case for their being connected with ownership. In fact it is unlikely that the meaning of the symbols will ever be determined with certainty.

p63, The Problem of the Picts by Isabel Henderson in Who are the Scots?

Source 19

The most logical interpretation of the symbols is that they are identifications of the dead, or personal inscriptions where they occur on portable objects or cave walls. They were in effect names and/or titles, giving cultural identity / ancestry or history.

p122 The Picts and the Scots by Lloyd and Jenny Laing

Source 20

Interpretation of the meaning of the individual symbols, the function of the objects which carry them and their date continues to excite furious debate. Individual symbols have been identified as totemic symbols of lineage; indicators of rank, clan and profession; or components of personal names. The Class I stones are therefore seen as memorials to the dead (although not necessarily placed over the corpses); testimonies to marriage alliances between matrilinear clans; statements of tribal affiliation; or charters in stone, erected by descendants to legitimise their inheritance of land. However, used over several centuries and in many different situations (not just carved stones) the designs cannot be strait-jacketed; identical motifs may have meant something different in each context, although their repertoire demonstrates shared and widespread beliefs. They appear to make most sense when looked at in the light of Celtic religious beliefs and practices.

p73, Picts, Gaels and Scots by Sally M. Foster

Source 21

Class I symbols appear singly, or in groups of two, three or four. Since animal heads point to the right and the designs are set one above the other, it may be that they were intended to be ‘read’ one after the other, from top to bottom. One attractive explanation for individual symbols is that they were representations of tribal names – for example ‘the people of the fish’, or ‘the wolf folk’. This ties in with some earlier names of tribes, though it still leaves a question mark over the fictitious or allegorical creatures, found mainly in the south. Perhaps they originated when two or more tribes amalgamated through mutual agreement or conquest – the lizard-tailed and scaly bear representing the subjugation of the bear tribe by the men of the lizard? Since we are now a long way from history, however, this is probably the point at which to move on to the more easily understood carvings of Class II stones. …. Class II stones are cut on both sides, usually with an elaborate Christian cross dominating one face. The coexistence of Pictish symbols and representations with Christian imagery suggests that the two were not necessarily repugnant to each other (or it may mean that in some parts of Pictland early Christianity was merely a new and not exclusive variety of magic).

p134-5 Ancient Scotland by Stewart Ross

Source 22

An alternative explanation arose out of the work of a social anthropologist, Anthony Jackson, using an approach that is particularly appropriate to the study of symbols and of the society reflected by them. In this light, the symbols are seen to identify lineages and the stones to be public statements of marriage alliances between lineages – and here the mirror and comb (symbol) is thought to indicate the endowment paid by one lineage to the other on the occasion of the marriage. This explanation is clearly not one that archaeology can prove one way or the other. Its weakness lies in the assumptions that it makes about the nature of Pictish society, themselves arguable: in particular that the Picts were matrilinear (reckoning descent through the female line). In time, perhaps, historical and archaeological evidence and anthropological theory will reach a workable compromise.

p18, Picts by Anna Ritchie

One other area of controversy is whether, or not, the Picts practised succession through the female side of marriages. This is the so-called matrilinear debate. It is often used as a defining feature of the ‘unique’ Picts. Others see the whole debate as a misinterpretation of the available evidence. It is also linked to the question as to whether the practices of a pre-Celtic people and their language survived.

Source 23

The linguistic make-up of Britain north of the Forth-Clyde line seems, therefore, on the basis of the available evidence, to have been the same from at least the beginning of the Christian era, and the fact that two languages were apparently spoken in Pictland has to be taken into account at all periods. The answer then to another frequent question, ‘Were the Picts Celtic?’ is ‘Partially so’. And to the further question, ‘What sort of Celtic did they speak?’ the answer is that it was akin to British Celtic but not exactly like it, having sufficient associations with Gaulish to justify it being given the name Gallo-Brittonic. When these facts are appreciated it is not difficult to see why we should expect to find Pictish culture and society significantly different from that of their Celtic-speaking neighbours, the Scots of Dalriada and the Britons of Strathclyde.

The differences indeed must have been very considerable for the evidence does not suggest that the non-Indo-European speakers became a subject population living under the rule of the Celts. The fact that this aboriginal language survived at all implies that the pre-Celtic element was strong. The most striking confirmation of this is the fact that the incoming Celts adopted the indigenous confirmation of matrilinear succession. Matrilinearism is not found in other Celtic societies and it would seem that the newcomers failed to impose their own law of succession on a population that outnumbered them. Bede, writing in the first half of the eighth century, says that the Pictish custom of choosing their kings from the female lineage was well known in his day, and the evidence of the list of the Pictish kings taken in conjunction with the kings’ obits in the Irish Annals shows that the rule that a son should not succeed his father was strictly maintained.

p54-5, The Problem of the Picts by Isabel Henderson in Who are the Scots?

Source 24

Bede’s statement (see Source above) that when in doubt the Picts of his day chose their king ‘rather from the female stock of kings than from the male’ is another example of Bede’s inadequate understanding of Pictish history, since matrilinear succession was not occasional but regular. The origins of this matrilineal kin group, which in the whole of Europe is peculiar to Pictland and thought to be non-Indo-European, must be very remote; it has been presumed that it gave a right to kingship to the sons of a mother, and in the next generation, to the sons of their sister.

p49, Scotland, the Making of a Kingdom by A.A.M. Duncan

Those that oppose the matrilinear argument point to the nature of kingship. It was very different to later medieval succession. A range of factors could affect who could become king.

Source 25

I believe we are in a position where we can only make some general observations because the evidence before us is so thin, but we may nevertheless develop a new understanding of the problems involved. It does seem, as Marjorie Anderson has pointed out, that the repletion of names (in the king lists) may suggest that one or two major competing dynasties were involved in the list. On the other hand we must also allow for several intruders from outside Pictland (or satellites within it), as well as for other competitors in an oscillating system, who from time to time felt strong enough to participate in the succession. Finally, it is dangerous to assume, as has so often been done, that fathers were succeeded by sons in all systems of succession. In early Celtic society, all the descendants of a common great-grandfather were considered eligible for office. So that while sons were undoubtedly important, they might not necessarily inherit the kingship. So, for instance, while a certain Alpín who reigned as Pictish overlord in the period 726-8 may not have been succeeded by a son, we find nevertheless that his son was slain while fighting on Alpín’s side in a struggle for the kingship against Óengus in 728. This information suggests we are not dealing with a system where sons failed to inherit any political power from fathers or that fathers were either unknown or unimportant.

p72, Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD80-1000 by Alfred P Smyth

Source 26

The Picts are thought by some to have followed the practice of succession through the female rather than the male line, in distinction to all their British neighbours. The argument stems from the fact that Bede states that the Picts gave preference to the ‘female royal line’, supported by a later medieval Irish legend. Protagonists argue that before 780 no Pictish king is known to have been the son of another and that the relationship between a number of seventh-century Pictish, Northumbrian and British kings can be interpreted as evidence for matrilineal succession.

Learned opinion is still split. After all, Bede actually states that the Picts would only use this form of succession in exceptional circumstances. Since the likely source of his information was Dál Riata, there may have been political reasons for wishing to further this view. No other early historic sources refer to this marriage practice, and Pictish kings are referred to as ‘son of’ their fathers. It therefore seems far more likely that patrilineal succession – which the evidence fits equally well – was the norm. Finally, given the supposed significance of women in a matrilineal society, it is surprising that documentary and art-historical sources so rarely refer to them, and never in the context of inheritance; when mentioned, they are simply referred to as mothers, wives, daughters and slaves.

The argument for matrilinearity is often justified by the reputed pre-Celtic nature of Pictish society as testified from their language. But this was Celtic. Patterns of succession did change with the accession of Cináed mac Ailpín: although direct patrilinear succession was not immediate, kingship was more tightly confined to the immediate family of his descendants.

p37 Picts, Gaels and Scots by Sally M. Foster

TASKS

1. Who were the Picts?

PRIMARY SOURCES

2. Use pages 1 and 2 to complete a spider diagram outlining the nature of the primary sources which can help us understand Pictish history and/or society.

3. What information about the Picts can we gain from a study of the primary sources? (Sources 1-8)

SECONDARY SOURCES

4. What do contemporary authors believe were the real origins of the Picts? (Sources 9-12)

5. What language(s) did the Picts speak? (Sources 13-14, 23)

6. What can “Pictish” place-names tell us about where the Picts lived? Give examples of Pictish place-names, and explain why do they not necessarily give us the full picture. (Sources 15-16)

7. What different interpretations are there of the possible purposes of Pictish symbol stones? (Sources 17-22)

8. Complete the table below outlining the debate regarding whether or not the Picts practised a system of matrilinear succession. If the Picts did practise matrilinear succession, what might that suggest about their origins? What if they didn’t?

|Yes – the Picts practised matrilinear succession |No – the Picts did not practise matrilinear succession |

| | |

| | |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download