Brother Derfel
01-10-2003, 00:34
Having always believed them to be one and the same, i did some searching round the net for some info on the picts and found this from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~merrie/Arthur/Picts.html :
The Picts
Information on the Picts, the "barbarians" who so often ravaged the Britons from the north, is somewhat scarce. The only text left to us by the Picts is their king-list, which gives the names and the lengths of the reigns of 60 or more Pictish kings. The list ends with Causantin mac Cinaeda, who died in 876. Thereafter, this record of the Picts was no longer used. The only other written source from around the Arthurian era is Adomnan's Life of Columba. Archaeological evidence for their lifestyles is also scarce.
The domain of the Picts was what we consider today to be Scotland. The terms "Picts" and "Pictland" were used in speaking of the inhabitants and the area up until 900, when the country began to be called "Alba."
The Picts had a warrior society, "and warlords needed strongholds. When Columba visited the Pictish king, Bridei, son of Maelchon, in 565, he went to one of the royal fortresses; it was 'near the river Ness' and the most widely accepted identification is Castle Urguhart on Loch Ness... where the medieval castle overlies earlier occupation..." (Nicoll 23) Several Pictish forts have been excavated, revealing that the warlords lived in style, wearing great silver chains and beautiful jewelry. A Pict's life was not altogether different than that of his southern Celtic neighbors; they all spoke a very similar language, as the Pictish language is convincingly argued to have been P-Celtic or Brittonic.
Some archaeological information comes from uncovered Pictish hoards (prior to safe-deposit boxes and banks, a method used to protect valuales was to bury them; inevitably, some remained unclaimed). Brooches and dress-pins have survived from these hoards. The absence of grave-goods, indicating that the Picts did not think much of the practice of burying valuables with the dead, "presumably has implications for their pagan concept of death" (Nicoll 25).
Small painted stones used as charms, distinctively Pictish, have also been found.
This article seems to back up my belief that they were the same. However then I thought about it harder and I seem to remember something about the scots originaly coming from Ireland and pushing the picts out, or something like that.
Can anyone help me on this?
The Picts
Information on the Picts, the "barbarians" who so often ravaged the Britons from the north, is somewhat scarce. The only text left to us by the Picts is their king-list, which gives the names and the lengths of the reigns of 60 or more Pictish kings. The list ends with Causantin mac Cinaeda, who died in 876. Thereafter, this record of the Picts was no longer used. The only other written source from around the Arthurian era is Adomnan's Life of Columba. Archaeological evidence for their lifestyles is also scarce.
The domain of the Picts was what we consider today to be Scotland. The terms "Picts" and "Pictland" were used in speaking of the inhabitants and the area up until 900, when the country began to be called "Alba."
The Picts had a warrior society, "and warlords needed strongholds. When Columba visited the Pictish king, Bridei, son of Maelchon, in 565, he went to one of the royal fortresses; it was 'near the river Ness' and the most widely accepted identification is Castle Urguhart on Loch Ness... where the medieval castle overlies earlier occupation..." (Nicoll 23) Several Pictish forts have been excavated, revealing that the warlords lived in style, wearing great silver chains and beautiful jewelry. A Pict's life was not altogether different than that of his southern Celtic neighbors; they all spoke a very similar language, as the Pictish language is convincingly argued to have been P-Celtic or Brittonic.
Some archaeological information comes from uncovered Pictish hoards (prior to safe-deposit boxes and banks, a method used to protect valuales was to bury them; inevitably, some remained unclaimed). Brooches and dress-pins have survived from these hoards. The absence of grave-goods, indicating that the Picts did not think much of the practice of burying valuables with the dead, "presumably has implications for their pagan concept of death" (Nicoll 25).
Small painted stones used as charms, distinctively Pictish, have also been found.
This article seems to back up my belief that they were the same. However then I thought about it harder and I seem to remember something about the scots originaly coming from Ireland and pushing the picts out, or something like that.
Can anyone help me on this?