The Picts of Scotland

[chairface]

Let's talk about the Picts. Any of you familiar with 'em??

[chairface]

I guess no one here is familiar with the Picts. Are they that unknown?

[Melnorme]

chairhead said:

I guess no one here is familiar with the Picts. Are they that unknown?

The only thing I know about Picts is the famous argument between RM and RRM about whether they were 'swarthy Armenoids'.

[caucasoid]

Some people think the Picts were Finns. Then again there are others who think they were Germans or that they were Celts, either Cymry or Gaels (like the Scots). That St Columba needed a translator suggests that the Picts were not Gaelic. Some Pictish names are not Indo-European, but that doesn't say much about their entire language.

[Graeme]

The Picts were an original group in Britain, ie Britons, preceding the Kelts who immigrated from the European mainland at a much later date. They were not Finns or Germans. The Kelts whether Gaels or Cymric (Welsh) arrived in Britain after the Picts were long established and both Keltic groups spoke similar languages and later differentiated in Britain to Brythonic and Goidelic after their arrival from todays France and Germany. No one really knows what language the Picts spoke or what they actually looked like, but it is believed that they were tall and dark haired similar to Atlanto-Meds. After they became Christian they were completely assimilated by the Gaelic speaking Scotti originally from Ireland, as were the Strathclyde Welsh speakers. The eastern part of Scotland was occupied by Anglo-Saxons. The Picts were the ones fond of painting their faces blue in warfare long before Mel Gibson. Nothing much survives today of Pictish culture except some highly stylised rock carvings which are difficult to interpret.

[kynikos]

Like you say, little is known. I don't even know their supposed dates.

However, I have a fanciful take of my own on the matter:

Just about the only thing we know is that they liked to paint themselves blue. I often wonder if the British preoccupation with tattooing, still widely practised, often on a grand scale, might be a cultural echo of this group.

Well, I said it's fanciful, but whaddaya think?

It was certainly a bit of culture shock for me during the first years I lived in Britain...

[Omane]

Read Ancient and Modern Britons Volume 1 and 2 by David MacRitchie. They're the most comprehensive books on the subjects of the Picts and Danes.