I suspect that the Norse invaders of Orkney and Shetland didn’t just overwhelm’, or ‘submerge’ the native population: I think they killed them.
The Picts and the Martyrs or Did Vikings Kill the Native Population of Orkney and Shetland?
June 9, 2015 By
Picts offer historians a picture of non-Roman Briton culture
February 12, 2015 By
History has never been too kind to a group of early British Isle inhabitants referred to as the Picts, but the often mischaracterized, always mysterious people may serve as a historical laboratory to explore how the island’s culture might have developed without Roman intervention, according to a Penn State historian.
The Viking Language of the Highlands and Islands: Reconstructing the Norn Language from Old Norse
November 18, 2014 By
The Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland were at one time colonized by Vikings and belonged firmly within the field of Scandinavian cultural influence. During this time the people of these archipelagos spoke a unique language known as Norn which evolved from the Old Norse language.
Europe and the beginning of Scottish sovereignty
September 6, 2014 By
Scotland’s story may have been distinctive, but its experience was not.
Britain and the beginning of Scotland
August 10, 2014 By
In this lecture Professor Dauvit Broun explores recent rethinking on Scottish origins by discussing the role of Britain as an ‘idea’, connections with England, the emergence of Scotland as a country in the 13th century, and the beginnings of the Scottish kingdom itself.
War or Peace? The Relations Between the Picts and the Norse in Orkney
July 18, 2014 By
This article will focus mainly on the earliest period of Norse settlement, before the Norse earldom was established.
Britain and the Beginning of Scotland
July 14, 2014 By
Until recently it was generally held that Scotland first began to take shape with a union of Picts and Scots under Cinaed mac Ailpín, who died in 858.
St. Ninian of Whithorn
December 9, 2013 By
My interest here is in finding usable information regarding the centuries before Bede and in the way in which new data, especially the outstanding recent archaeological discoveries at Whithom in Wigtownshire (which is certainly the site of Candida Casal. might support and add to his picture of St. Ninian and the importance of his church at Candida Casa.
The Enigma of the Picts
December 8, 2013 By
Yet superficially the subject does not seem so problematical. The task in hand is that of identifying the general political, linguistic and cultural personality of the people, or peoples, who lived to the north of the Forth- Clyde line from the first century B.C. (around when the first historical details were collected) to the ninth century A.D. (when the Pictish kingdom disappeared).
What can written sources, sculpture and archaeology tell us about Pictish identity and how this might have changed between the sixth and ninth centuries?
November 18, 2012 By
Arguably one of the biggest changes in how the Picts portrayed themselves is understood through their use of sculpture. The earliest is thought to date to around the fifth century (Historic Scotland, 2012) lending itself to the Class I typology.
The Stamford and Peterborough mints
October 7, 2012 By
The Stamford mint has received considerable attention from several numismatists and historians, some of whom, including the Rev. Rogers Ruding, Francis Peck, the Stamford annalist, and Samuel Sharp, a Northamptonshire numismatist and antiquary, located the mint at Stamford Baron, Northamptonshire.
How late were Pictish symbols employed?
June 24, 2012 By
It is suggested that certain features enable particular relief-decorated stones displaying Pictish symbols to be dated within chronological horizons, and that this indicates that Pictish symbols continued to be employed in Scotland into the 10th century or beyond, survival perhaps lasting longer in the north.
Placenames and the settlement pattern of dark-age Scotland
June 3, 2012 By
This study will examine some placename evidence for features of settlement in E Scotland, that zone which lies of the Firth of Forth and E of the main Scottish mountain mass. In this areaat least four different languages have been spoken with differing temporal and spatial extents: one non-Indo-European tongue, Celtic, Norse and English.
The Pictish Tattoo: Origins of a Myth
May 20, 2012 By
By tracing the extant literary references based on Caesar’s remark it is possible to see just how the innocent observation came to apply to a totally different people—how the myth was born.
Philosopher-king: Nechtan mac Der Ilei
March 25, 2012 By
Like so much of the history of the early church in Scotland, it is bound up with modern political and religious factionalism. Was Naiton an English imperialist flunky? A Romanist stooge, allowing the authority of the Pope and St Peter into his realm?
Scandinavian Influences on the English Language
February 5, 2012 By
The Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh, with the Viking attacks on Europe beginning around 750 AD. The Scandinavians were excellent sailors, and they had impressive ships and navigational skills that carried them as far as North America (‘Vinland’) long before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
Christianity and burial in late Iron Age Scotland, AD 400-650
January 9, 2012 By
In the period after the fall of Rome and before the Vikings, Scotland became a Christian society, but there are few historical documents to help understand how this happened.
Archaeologists discover major Pictish site
November 16, 2011 By
An excavation has revealed a fortified early medieval settlement and unearthed significant artefacts which position a tiny Scottish village as a seat of major political power and influence.
Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system
October 16, 2011 By
Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system By Katherine Forsyth The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn: Pictish and Related Studies Presented to Isabel Henderson, edited by I. Henderson and D. Henry (Angus: Pinkfoot Press, 1995) Introduction: In recent years the cool breeze of Revisionism has been blowing through Pictish studies. Professional […]
Draconic Creatures in Pictish Art
June 12, 2011 By
Draconic Creatures in Pictish Art By Alastair McBeath Dragon Chronicle: The International Journal Of Dragons and Dragonlore, No.22 (2002) Introduction: When I examined the late Celtic dragons and draconic creatures from surviving traditions in TDC, looking for possible links with the salmon, I noted little evidence to support such a connection except in a very […]
A Pictish burial and Late Norse/Medieval settlement at Sangobeg, Durness, Sutherland
March 30, 2011 By
A Pictish burial and Late Norse/Medieval settlement at Sangobeg, Durness, Sutherland By Keven Brady, Olivia Lelong and Colleen Batey Scottish Archaeological Journal, Vol.29:1 (2007) Abstract: Salvage excavation was carried out on an archaeological site, discovered during the North Sutherland Coastal Zone Assessment Survey in 1998, in dunes at Sangobeg, near Durness in northern Sutherland. The […]
Dozens of medieval finds reported in Scotland’s treasure trove
February 16, 2011 By
The government of Scotland has issued its annual Treasure Trove Report today, which lists the archaeological discoveries made between April 2009 and March 2010. The report notes the finds of dozens of items dating back to the Middle Ages and earlier. Among the highlights of the report are: Pictish carved stone from Strath of Kildonan, […]
The Social Context of Norse Jarlshof
February 15, 2011 By
The Social Context of Norse Jarlshof By Marcie Anne Kimball Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 2003 Abstract: A series of excavations from 1897 to 1951 showed the site of Jarlshof in Shetland to have been occupied by proto-Pictish, Pictish, and Viking peoples. These inquiries culminated in J.R.C. Hamilton’s 1956 monograph Excavations at Jarlshof, Shetland. In […]
Iona in the kingdom of the Picts: a note
January 30, 2011 By
In his poem on the martyrdom of the cleric Blathmac mac Flainn in a raid by Vikings on the island of Iona in 825, the Rhineland poet Walahfrid Strabo describes that island as insula Pictorum, or perhaps more accurately, as being off the shore of the Picts: insula Pictorum quaedam monstratur in oris
THE PICTISH ANIMALS OBSERVED
January 9, 2011 By
THE PICTISH ANIMALS OBSERVED Gordon, C. A., F.S.A.SGOT. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol.98 (1964-6) Abstract The animals to be examined are those depicted in the few free standing animal portraits, contained in Class I of Romilly Alien’s Early Christian Monuments of Scotland with another, executed at a much earlier date,the deer engraved on a […]
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