The Picts are a mysterious tribe from Scottish history, often thought as ‘savage warriors’ we don’t know a lot about them as their historical records stem largely from the Roman Empire who were their bitter rivals. Despite many attempts by Romans to move in on Pictish territory, and having dominated other areas of Britain easily, they still could not conquer this ancient tribe.
The first mention of Picts comes from a Roman chronicler in 287 CE, yet no written record of them can be found post 900 CE which leaves historians puzzled by their ‘mysterious’ disappearance as all that remains of their legacy are carved stones, settlements and place names in Scotland.
Rest assured, researchers have confirmed there was much more to these ‘savage warriors’ than just that as they boasted a ‘sophisticated culture’ and a long history despite not being so well-known today. So, to learn more about the fascinating Picts of Scotland here are 13 facts about them.
5. Saint Patrick was against the Picts
Contrary to popular belief, the famous Saint Patrick was reportedly born in Britain rather than Ireland. Here - amongst many groups - he encountered the Picts for whom he held contempt as he described ‘the apostate Picts’ as just ‘as bad as his fellow countrymen’ as he knew them for murdering newly-baptised Christians. This note was discovered in Saint Patrick’s letter to the soldiers of Coroticus. Photo: via WikiCommons
6. How the Pictish language sounded is a mystery lost to time
Scotland has never had one uniform language that was spoken by all its inhabitants, to this day on top of English we still have other native tongues like Scots and Scottish Gaelic. However, due to the total extinction of Pictish culture (including their language) in this day and age we have no way of knowing how they sounded when they spoke. However, by deciphering old scripts and place names we know that places in Scotland that begin with ‘Aber-, Cat-, Dol-, or Pit-’ (for example) are Pictish by origin. Photo: via WikiCommons
7. We don’t know what the Picts called themselves
How the Picts referred to themselves (or if they even considered themselves a collective) is unknown to us. What we know is that the Picts were not one unified people but instead a multitude of tribes that the Roman Empire catalogued under the one term “Picti” (‘the painted ones’) as they considered them barbaric. Photo: via WikiCommons
8. We know how Picts may have looked thanks to science
Via modern-day facial reconstruction, the face of a Pictish man who was brutally slain has been revealed in recent years. The remains of this Pict was found in a cave with his skeleton buried beneath stones where he was thought to have died around 600 CE. The circumstances to his death are a mystery yet forensics discovered that he had received five hard blows to his head and mouth before he died. Photo: YouTube Screenshot via March of the Titans