Picts

Home > History > Modern Europe > British and Irish History

Picts [L picti, painted men]. Historical ancient people of the British Isles, perhaps the earliest to speak any form of a Celtic language in these islands. The Roman name, Picti, dates only from the late 3rd century AD and derives from a soldiers' nickname, apparently based on observing the tribal penchant for decorating bodies with tattoos, a custom not unknown to other Celtic peoples. While the Picts' name for themselves is not known, the P-Celtic Preteni, Pretani and Q-Celtic Cruithni, Cruithnig, Cruithne, Cruthin imply that if they did have one it would have included the elements -r-t-n-. The name for the Picts, therefore, may be at the root of the name Britain, although the Picts are not identical with the P-Celtic Britons conquered by the Romans. Because of their lack of surviving records and their apparent archaism, the Picts have been the subject of much scholarly speculation. At one time the Picts were thought to have been exotic intruders akin to the Basques of southern France, and to have resided primarily in northern and north-eastern Scotland; recent informed opinion rejects both notions. According to Kenneth H. Jackson (1980), the Picts had two languages, one P-Celtic, brought from the Continent by Gallo-Brittonic settlers, and the other which was non-Indo-European but absorbed some Celtic vocabulary. Further, the Picts settled throughout the British Isles including Ireland; T. F. O'Rahilly (1946) cites them as among the earliest inhabitants of that island. Custom tended to distinguish the Picts from their neighbours, e.g. descent was matrilinear, or reckoned through the female side: only sons of the Pictish royal lineage could succeed to kingship. The Picts also left an impressive artistic legacy of stylized carved memorial stones and crosses that have been much esteemed by modern aesthetes. Although the Picts are cited in Irish chronicles as late as the 8th century, they maintained a more lasting presence in Scotland. The Romans classified the Picts into two divisions, the Dicalydones [Double Caledonians], north and south of the Forest of Atholl barrier, and the Verturiones farther to the south. The initial migration of Q-Celtic Scotti from Ireland to Dál Riada during the 6th century and earlier seems to have caused little conflict, and the Irish saint Colum Cille evangelized the Pictish king Bridei or Brudei. A more constant enemy were the Northumbrians, whom the Picts defeated at Nechtansmere, AD 685. In another 200 years, however, the Picts were united with the Gaelic invaders by Cináed mac Ailpín [Kenneth MacAlpin] to form the nation of Alba, which would become Scotland.

Bibliography

See T. F. O'Rahilly , ‘Priteni, Pritani, Britanni’, in Early Irish History and Mythology (Dublin, 1946), 444–52;
F. T. Wainwright (ed.), The Problem of the Picts (Edinburgh, 1955;
rev. Perth, 1980), esp. K. H. Jackson 's ‘The Pictish Language’;
Sally M. Foster , Picts, Gaels and Scots (London, 1996);
Isobel Henderson , The Picts (London, 1967);
‘Pictish Art and the Book of Kells’, in R. McKittrick et al. (eds.), Ireland in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1982);
Anthony Jackson , The Pictish Trail (Kirkwall, Orkney, 1989);
Lloyd and Jenny Laing , The Picts and The Scots (London, 1993);
E. Nicoll (ed.), Pictish Panorama (Balgavies, 1995);
A. Ritchie , Picts (Edinburgh, 1989).

Picts. An indigenous tribe or group of tribes in Scotland during the Roman and post-Roman periods. They are first mentioned in ad 297 by Eumenius who calls them ‘half-naked enemies’ of the Britons. ‘Picts’ is probably a Latinized word meaning ‘painted people’. Classical writers, among them Julius Caesar, refer to the British habit of body-painting with materials such as woad. The Picts, along with other Britons, may even have been tattooed.

It is difficult to determine whether they had a substantive ethnic identity or if ‘Picti’ was merely a convenient label given by classical writers to all tribal peoples in Scotland in the later Roman period. A Roman poet observes in ad 310 that the Emperor Constantius chose not to acquire the woods and marshes of the ‘Caledones and other Picti’. The Caledonians were certainly one major tribe north of the Forth–Clyde frontier, whereas it would seem that ‘Picti’ were a whole group of tribes, possibly a new federation.

An important historical attestation of the Picts is provided by Ammianus Marcellinus, who records attacks on Roman Britain by Picts, Scots, Irish, and Saxons culminating in the ‘Picts' War’ of ad 367–8. Count Theodosius was sent to recover the situation and he restored the province after a major campaign. St Patrick refers to the Picts of the 5th cent. as ‘most shameful, wicked and apostate’ after they bought some of his Christian converts from slave dealers. Gildas refers to ‘marauding Picts’, savages with more hair on their faces than clothes on their bodies, who came by sea from the north and raided post-Roman Britain. In the 8th cent. Bede believed that at the time of St Columba's mission the Picts were divided into northern and southern groups, the latter having been converted to Christianity by St Ninian. According to legend, the last king of the Picts was killed at the instigation of Kenneth MacAlpin c. ad 842.

Archaeologically, the Picts are possibly represented by a number of carved standing ‘Pictish symbol stones’ found throughout Scotland. These probably date from the 6th–10th cents. ad and are incised with a wide corpus of symbols inspired by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Christian iconography.

Eleanor Scott

Picts An indigenous tribe or group of tribes in Scotland during the Roman and post‐Roman periods. They are first mentioned in AD 297 by Eumenius who calls them ‘half‐naked enemies’ of the Britons. ‘Picts’ is probably a Latinized word meaning ‘painted people’.

It is difficult to determine whether they had a substantive ethnic identity or if ‘Picti’ was merely a convenient label given by classical writers to all tribal peoples in Scotland in the later Roman period. A Roman poet observes in AD 310 that the Emperor Constantius chose not to acquire the woods and marshes of the ‘Caledones and other Picti’.

An important historical attestation of the Picts is provided by Ammianus Marcellinus, who records attacks on Roman Britain by Picts, Scots, Irish, and Saxons culminating in the ‘Picts' War’ of AD 367–8. Gildas refers to ‘marauding Picts’, savages with more hair on their faces than clothes on their bodies, who came by sea from the north and raided post‐Roman Britain. According to legend, the last king of the Picts was killed at the instigation of Kenneth MacAlpin c. AD 842.

Picts ancient inhabitants of central and N Scotland, of uncertain origin. First mentioned (AD 297) by the Roman writer Eumenius as northern invaders of Roman Britain, they were probably descendants of late Bronze Age and early Iron Age invaders of Britain. Their language is thought to have been a superimposition of Celtic on a pre-Celtic and non-Indo-European language, but there is no undisputed interpretation of it or their culture. By the early 7th cent. there was a unified Pictish kingdom north of a line from the Clyde to the Forth rivers. It apparently had a matrilinear system of succession and had probably adopted Celtic Christianity. To the south of the Picts, Scottish invaders from Ireland had established the kingdom of Dalriada in the 5th cent. Between 843 and 850 Kenneth I , king of Dalriada, established himself also as king of the Picts, although how and why is not clear. The kingdom of Alba thus formed became the kingdom of Scotland.

Bibliography: See W. C. Dickinson, Scotland from the Earliest Times to 1603 (rev. ed. 1965); I. Henderson, Picts (1967); A. B. Scott, The Pictish Nation (1977).

Picts Ancient inhabitants of e and n Scotland. By the 8th century, they had a kingdom extending from Caithness to Fife, and had adopted Christianity. To the w and s of the Picts, invaders from Ireland established the kingdom of Dalriada; in 843 its king, Kenneth I, also became king of the Picts, uniting the two kingdoms into the kingdom of Scotland.