There was a people in medieval Europe about which almost no information has reached our days. These are the Picts. They are stationed in a haze-shrouded area north of Hadrian's Wall. These ancient settlers of the north of Scotland were as incomprehensible to their contemporaries as they are to today's scholars. They spoke their own special language, painted and tattooed themselves with outlandish patterns, ruled the seas and transferred power through the female line.
Their bodies were painted in different colors
The Picts have not preserved any written sources. Almost everything we know about them comes from the stories of their enemies. In 297, the Roman author Eumenes first mentioned the inhabitants north of Hadrian's Wall as picti, or "painted." The Irish called the Pictish people of patterns. The Picts were a union of tribes that had the same language and common enemies. The Romans repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to conquer them. Later they fought with the Vikings. By AD 900, mentions of the Picts disappear from the chronicles, most likely, they assimilated with the Scots. The memory of this unique tribe is preserved in place names.
The true origins of the Picts remain unknown
It is known that they were not a homogeneous tribe. Historians believe that the Picts have inhabited Scottish soil since the Iron Age. They came there from Scandinavia. Since no written evidence remained, information was collected from later Roman authors and evidence carved on stones.
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The mysterious language and symbols of the Picts
Their language is a secret. The meaning of the symbols has not yet been solved. About 250 stones with inscriptions remained from the people. The letters had a specific shape, no bends. So it was easier to carve them on the stones. The early symbols are coarser, the later ones are carefully hewn. The images often include animals, snakes, geometric shapes and a crescent moon. Among the later compositions, one can find a Christian cross and biblical motives.
Power in women
In Church History, Bede the Venerable writes that the Picts arrived by sea from Scythia. They had no women with them. I had a chance to go to the Scots for brides. They made a condition that they would give them their women if power was transferred through the female line. However, some historians believe that power was passed from a random relative to another random relative.
Beliefs and everyday life
Without written evidence, it is difficult to get a correct understanding of their lifestyle and beliefs. The source of our understanding is the Roman evidence, which sometimes ironically describes the Pictish traditions. However, it is clear that most of them were farmers. They raised cattle, were engaged in piracy. And all the southern shores of the British Isles were kept in fear. The inhabitants of Londinium (formerly London) said that the Picts often confused trade and piracy. Sometimes they took prisoners along with the ships. It was very difficult to defeat them.
Picts disappeared in the Middle Ages
In the first half of the Middle Ages, references to them practically disappear. During the reign of Kenneth Mac Alpin, Scotland becomes a single state. It is said that the king's mother was from the Picts. In fact, they have not disappeared anywhere. DNA analysis confirmed the Picts existed. In 2013, geneticist Jim Wilson conducted experiments and found that out of 1000 Scots studied, 10 percent have a DNA marker related to the Picts. The British have only one percent. Three percent of the Pictish chromosome is preserved in the Northern Irish. The mysterious tribe is still with us.
Author: Pavel Romanutenko