How seat fit for a king has cast new light on Scotland's dark ages

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 21:40

THE first Pictish throne to be built for a millennium has been unveiled by researchers investigating the lives of Scotland's most mysterious tribal people.

Researcher Alice Blackwell tries the new throne

The team spent a year crafting the oak of five Scottish trees into a design modelled on ancient carvings in a project that cost around 10,000. Raised thrones were important symbols of Pictish power for church leaders and kings, but none survive. The project at the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) is part of a three-year research programme, sponsored by the Glenmorangie whisky company, and aims to improve understanding of Scottish history from 300AD to 900AD.

David Clarke, the NMS keeper of archaeology, said: "During the process of recreating this piece, we've learned so much about the design, manufacture and use of these thrones. It's very exciting to see this brought to life."

Eight or nine Pictish stone carvings show thrones. But the NMS began with the best example, the Fowlis Wester stone from Perthshire.

Discovered early last century, built into a church that protected it from weathering, it shows a clear, detailed side-view, including the distinctive Pictish "key" pattern.

"It shows two of these thrones, essentially they are a pair," said researcher Alice Blackwell. "They had a number of distinctive features; the single curved arm and footpiece, and a very high seat – the figures shown are perching almost – and it had these curved terminals (endpieces]. We had to reconstruct that side view."

Some of the features unique to Scotland were the foot block to stop people sliding off the high seat, otherwise you would have ended up with "your knees round your ears," she said. The curve of the seat would have forced a bishop or chieftain to sit forward and up.

One possible piece of a Pictish throne, a curved terminal, or end-piece, of gilded wood, does survive in Ireland. There are stone thrones of the era from England and others on the continent, but none from Scotland.

Researchers approached Adrian McCurdy, a veteran furniture maker who lives in the Borders, and who worked on the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

Beginning with a prototype in MDF, Mr McCurdy drew on the Fowlis Wester and four or five other stone carvings for the work. "It was decided it would be made of oak, as it has been used for so many centuries as a durable wood, and is easily sourced," he said.

After the team concluded the curved arm pieces must have been made from naturally curved wood, Mr McCurdy found some large branches felled in a storm, that were thought to be about 300 years old. He used traditional tools, including wedges, mallets, and adzes, to split and shape the wood.

"It was decided we should follow the same tradition and method," said Mr McCurdy. "It was a matter of finding that shape on a tree."

The Picts: A people who all but vanished from history

THE Picts are often cast as a mysterious, enigmatic people, famous for the stone carvings they left behind, featuring patterns and images that archeologists have yet to decode.

Known to the Romans as "Picti" or "painted ones", active between 300 and 900 AD, they formed the largest kingdom in early historic Scotland, fighting off Romans and Angles, before all but disappearing from history.

The Picts famously defeated the invading Angles in the Battle of Dun Nechtain (Dunnichen) in 685 AD, records suggest. But two centuries later, in 878 AD, the Pictish king, ed, was murdered and replaced by a Gael, Giric.

A distinctively Pictish culture and society was increasingly submerged into Gaelic language and traditions as the kingdom of Alba, the Gaelic word for Scotland, emerged.

"We have very few historical sources" on the Picts, said researcher Alice Blackwell. "We have to rely more on the archaeological evidence."

Thrones were probably common across Pictish lands. The people typically shown sitting on them are church figures, but that may be because stone carvings that survived were made to carry the Christian message.

"We don't know whether kings and queens used thrones, but we presume they did. The chair and an individual sitting on a chair is very special – you don't get that in a normal society, you sit on benches with other people."

The chairs may have travelled or remained in one place, or possibly travelled with a chieftain. Cathedra, from which "cathedral" is derived, means seat, reflecting the expression "a seat of power".

The next project, Ms Blackwell said yesterday, was to recreate one of the leather satchels of the period, of which only a few fragments remain, and which were used to carry precious documents.