Language, inscriptions and literacy

		The theory that the Picts spoke a pre-Celtic language of non-Indo-European origin has now been discredited. It is now agreed that Pictish was a member of the P-Celtic branch of languages, alongside Welsh, Cornish, Cumbrian and Breton. By contrast, Q-Celtic gives us Gaelic and Manx. By 563, when Columba arrived from Ireland, the two branches had grown apart so far that he needed an interpreter when speaking to the Picts. An inscription in ogham on the Brandsbutt Stone, Inverurie.

Although few examples of written Pictish survive, we know that the Picts were a literate people – though literacy would probably have been limited to the elite. Initially they used the ogham alphabet to spell out names or dedications on their stones and personal property. After the coming of Christianity, inscriptions also began to appear in Latin, the official written language of the church. Sometimes they spell out Latinised versions of Pictish names. References to Pictish kings in Irish church annals of the 7th to 10th centuries were taken from contemporary Pictish or Scottish original sources. The Gaelicised versions of their names give us some clues to the Pictish language. Gaelicised forms of other Pictish words survive to this day in place names throughout the area formerly known as Pictland. An inscription found on a stone at Portmahomack

Tattoos

It was the Romans who gave the Picts their name – Picti means ‘painted ones’ in Latin. Roman historians describe the tribes of northern Britain fighting naked to display the tattoos which covered their faces and bodies.

Tattooing was probably a common practice among several peoples of the Iron Age and earlier, and perhaps one continued by the Picts longer than by other peoples. However, Bede, writing in Northumbria in 731, does not mention tattoos at all.


Clothing

Remarkably, a few items of Pictish clothing have survived. Most fascinating is a child’s woven woollen hood, found intact in a bog in Orkney in the 1800s. Similar headgear can be seen on some of the figures carved on the stones, along with some further detail about the dress of the Pictish people. From them we can say that a typical Pictish man wore a cloak over a belted tunic, shortened as necessary for horseback. He either went bare-headed or wore a hood. His hair was long and he may have worn a thick, drooping moustache, sometimes with a long beard. Images of women are much rarer – there are only two, but both wear similar long skirts and cloaks, with penannular brooches as fastenings. Pictish child's hood from St Andrew's Parish, Orkney

Jewellery

Pair of silver plaques, Norrie's Law		In the early 200s, warriors from northern Britain are described in scathing terms by the Romans as wearing ornaments of iron instead of gold. However, in later centuries the Picts certainly produced jewellery from materials including silver, bronze, silver-gilt, enamel and amber. The precious metals had largely been derived from Roman coinage. Much of this jewellery has been lost, and some has certainly been melted down, but a number of beautiful pieces have survived. These have largely been discovered in ‘hoards’ which had been buried, possibly in a bid to protect them from Vikings or other raiders. A hoard of silver found at Norrie’s Law, Fife in 1819 included two leaf-shaped metal plaques, engraved and enamelled with Pictish symbols, as well as decorated pins and other items. A fine silver chain, a serpent-like bracelet and more pins were discovered at Gaulcross, Banffshire in 1840.

A large hoard was discovered in 1958 on St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. It dates from the late 700s and includes items of Pictish jewellery more familiar to modern eyes – elaborately decorated penannular brooches, in the form of circles or broken circles, used to fasten clothing.

Some of these items of jewellery are decorated with Pictish symbols. A few pieces include cross motifs within their designs, an apparently deliberate reference to Christianity.