Steps Toward Answering 'The Problem Of The Picts'

 

"Modern interest in the ancient Pictish peoples of Scotland was both reflected and stimulated by the publication in 1955 of a book called The Problem of the Picts. Unfortunately this choice of title has led to a situation where the Picts have continued to be perceived as essentially enigmatic, even unknowable ... Because we have no written records from the Picts themselves, they can seem almost historically invisible. Scotland as a whole has virtually no surviving documents from the First Millennium ... "  (pp. 21,17, A New History of the Picts)

Two publications have caused some of this historical mist to clear. Both articles extend the reality of Pictland back to the era of Roman Britain.

"The development of the Pictish symbol system: inscribing identity beyond the edge of Empire" (G Noble and others, 2018, Antiquity, 92.365, 1329-1348), uses radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites to establish a cultural continuum of stone art.

"Picti: from Roman name to internal identity (N Evans, Journal of Medieval History, 48.3, 291-322), shows that there are many more references to the Picts as a distinct political entity than recent scholarship has allowed.

Between them, these reports replace earlier doubt and confusion with a clear appeal to new evidence and historical probability. In fact, the 'mysterious' Picts existed centuries before an imagined start date at the Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685 AD.

Dating the Pictish symbol system

"The so-called Pictish symbol stones ... represent an iconic element of the archaeological record ― sculptured stones carved with distinctive symbols, some abstract, others naturalistic, including striking animal designs or objects such as mirrors or combs."

"There are over 200 stone monuments with symbols known from eastern and northern Scotland ― approximately two-thirds are incised symbol-stones and the other one-third are Christian-cross slabs. The symbols also occasionally appear on metalwork, bone and other portable objects. There is little agreement about the total number and range of symbols, but around 30 core symbols have been suggested."

"Over a century ago ... Allen and Anderson set out a typological classification ...

Class I monuments (incised symbols usually on unshaped boulders) were assigned to the seventh and eighth centuries AD ...

Class II monuments (where symbols appear with a much broader repertoire of ornamental, narrative scenes and a Christian-cross) to the ninth and tenth centuries AD ..."

"Nonetheless, chronology remain[ed] controversial and previously there was no direct dating that demonstrated use of the symbols prior to the late sixth century ... 

The major obstacle to establishing a definitive chronology is the difficulty of obtaining absolute [radiocarbon] dates from the stone [inorganic] monuments ...

Given the lack of absolute dates, any opportunity to add to the corpus is important, and new field work by the Northern Picts Project has targeted sites in [north-] eastern Scotland."

Pool, Sanday, Orkney

Ox phalange decorated with double-disc, crescent and V-rod; 

cal AD 410-570, 95% probability.

Bone pin decorated with double-disc and Z-rod.

cal AD 325-645, 95% probability

Dairy Park, Dunrobin, Sutherland

Class I symbol stone above human remains (burial redated)

cal AD 565-640, 95% probability (cal AD 575-625, 68% probability)

Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire

Charcoal from promontory fort (stone wall and timber rampart) on sea stack with six associated symbol stones showing double-discs, salmon-fish, crescent and V-rod, etc.

cal AD 250-400, 95% probability (cal AD 285-350, 68% probability)

Rhynie, Aberdeenshire

35 radiocarbon dates bracketting activity start and end for fortified site with associated Craw Stane, Rhynie Man stone, etc., showing 'Pictish beast' symbol, salmon-fish, crescent and V-rod, double-discs, mirror-case, etc.

cal AD 330-390, 95% probability (cal AD 355-380, 68% probability)

cal AD 480-570, 95% probability (cal AD 510-560, 68% probability)

Sculptor's Cave, Covesea, Moray

Human bone showing decapitation ritual on coastal cave floor.

cal AD 220-335

Cave wall carvings showing salmon-fish, crescent and V-rod, trip[le oval, flower symbol. Similar motifs and early dates to Dunnicaer sea-fort. Supported by associated Roman coins with latest date of 365 AD.

Sliding Cave, East Wemyss, Fife

Intact floor layer (with no evidence of later use) below carvings of double-disc, serpents, comb-case on interior cave walls.

cal AD 240-390, 95% probability

A Revised Chronology and Complementary Typology

"Using the range of associated and direct dates presented here, we suggest a new and more robust chronology for the Pictish symbols : the evidence from Dunnricaer and the cave sites suggest that unelaborated carvings, generally of a smaller size and less standardised when compared with the later standing stone monuments, originated in the third to fourth centuries AD. The large stone monuments in eastern Scotland were set up in the period from the late fourth to the early sixth century ... The dated examples from settlements in Orkney show symbol use in the most northerly parts of Pictland from as early as the fifth century AD, and certainly by the early sixth century."

Upsetting the Sceptics

The second article, "Picti: from Roman name to internal identity", takes on the revisionist notion that 685 AD is a sort of 'proof year' for the historical existence of the Picts. That is, "when Bridei son of Beli, king of Fortrui, defeated the Northumbrians in 685", at the Battle of Dun Nechtrain, "his expanded kingdom which reached south of the Forth by 698, was 'of the Picts', not 'of the Britons' or 'of the Northern Britons". The lack of contemporary references from before this date has prompted some historians (Fraser 2009, Woolf 2017) to be wary of using the terms 'Picts', 'Pictish', or 'Pictland' for the period outside 685-839 AD.

However, this author argues that "the ethnic name Picti is found in more sources before the late seventh century than recent scholarship has acknowledged". He believes that "while it may have originated as a general pejorative Latin term for barbarians north of Roman Britain, by the fifth century it often had more specific connotations". In fact, just like their neighbours who were known as Scotti, Brittones, and Saxones in the late imperial era, the name Picti continued to be used (and give identity to a specific group of tribes) long after the Roman legions retreated.

Fourth Century Texts

ANONYMOUS, Panegyric VIII (V) 11,4, to Constantius Caesar (written 297 or 298 AD)

ANONYMOUS, Panegyric VI (VII) 7.2, for Constantine (written 310 AD)

CLAUDIAN i, Panegyric on Third Consulship of Honorius, line 54.

CLAUDIAN ii, Panegyric on Fourth Consulship of Honorius, line 32.

CLAUDIAN iii, In Eutropian (Against Eutropius), line 393 (written 398 AD, delivered 399 AD)

CLAUDIAN iv, De consulati Stilichonis (On the Consulship of Stilicho), line 254 

                       (delivered 400 AD)

CLAUDIAN v, Bellum Geticum (On the Gothic War), line 419, (about events of 402 AD)

[Note on 'panegyric', as in Panegyrici Latini - In Praise of Roman Emperors:

 prose or poetry, written or pronounced, grand public rhetoric, prolonged and effusive praise of some person or group of people or institution].

These panegyrics and poems were produced around the start and end of the fourth century, They were "clearly intended for audiences at the centres of the western imperial regime, reflecting and projecting knowledge of the Picts among the upper echelons of the Western Empire". For example, the Panegyric of Constantine (310 AD) states that Constantine "did not seek to occupy the forests and swamps of the Caledonians and other Picts".

AMMANIUS MARCELLINUS, Res Gestae (written 392 AD)

A pagan former high-ranking soldier in the curial class, writing in Rome after his retirement from the army, and utilising military resources dating back to at least 357 AD, his history was intended for an educated audience.

359-60 AD: When "the raids of the savage tribes of the Scots and the Picts, who had broken the peace that had been agreed upon, were laying waste places near the frontiers, so that fear seized the provinces", the Caesar Julian sent his commander-in-chief, Lupicinus, with military detachments from Gaul to Britain to deal with the threat.

364-78 AD: In his list of peoples who were adversaries to the Romans there is "Picti, Saxonesque et Scotti, et Attacotti [Irish?]" who were "harassing the Britons with constant disasters".

ANONYMOUS, Nomine provinciarum omnium, (written 312 X 14)

ANONYMOUS, Origo Constantini imperatoris, (written in 4th century)

The first of these fourth century texts lists the Picti alongside the Scotti and Caledonii as "barbarous nations that sprang up under the emperors". The second states that Constantius Chlorus died after a victory over the Picts.

Fifth Century Texts

These references show that Picti was not just a term found in the imperial court or the army.

ANONYMOUS, 'Gallic Chronicle of 452', s.a. 382, (written 452 AD)

The Chronicle mentions Magnus Maximus fighting against the Pictos and the Scottos in about 382 AD. It was written in southern Gaul, probably by a monk whose focus was primarily on his own area, but also on threats to the Western Empire more generally.

APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS, c. Sollius (c. 430-79), Carminia vii, 90 (delivered 456 AD)

The author wrote this poem for his father-in-law, the Emperor Auitus. Sidonius, like Auitus, was a member of the Roman elite of southern Gaul. He writes, "Caesar took his victorious legions over even to the Caledonian Britons, and although he routed the Scotum, the Pictum, and the Saxone, he still looked for foes where nature forbade him to look for any more men."

CONSTANTIUS of LYON, Vita Germani episopi Autissiodorensis, 'Life of Germanus, Bishop                                               of  Auxerre', (written between 475 and 480 AD)

Composed for bishops but also for a wider Christian audience. Includes the sentence "Meanwhile the Saxones and Pictique had joined forces to make war upon the Brittanos."

PATRICK, Epistola ad milites Corotici, 'Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus' (written 5th century)

Written while a missionary in Ireland, Patrick's letter declares that the Roman/British/Christian soldiers of Coroticus were selling captives taken from Ireland to the pagan Picts. In the epistle he states that his message should be sent to the soldiers of Coroticus and also read out in front of all the people (corum cunctis plebibus), partly to urge that no one dine with the soldiers or receive their alms. For Patrick, the Picts were a geographically and religiously separate people (gens). He criticised Coroticus for selling his prisoners "to a foreign people which does not know God" (genti exterae ignorati Deum) ― "Christians reduced to slavery - and what is more, as slaves of the utterly iniquitous, evil and apostate Picts." The author's insistence on public circulation is evidence that a substantial Latin-literate audience in fifth-century Britain and Ireland were accustomed to the term Picti.

GILDAS, De exidio Brittanniae, 'On the Ruin of Britain', (written late 5th or early 6th century)

This is the most substantial early account of the Picts, attacking them as "savage" raiders and settlers who lived in northern Britain alongside the Scots. On the Scotti and Picti, Gildas wrote that "They were to some extent different in their customs, but they were in perfect accord in their greed for bloodshed; and they were readier to cover their villainous faces with hair than their private parts and neighbouring regions with clothes."