The Picts weren't 'painted'!? Roman stereotype faces historic new challenge

As we all know, the mysterious Picts were basically a bunch of tattooed barbarians. This was, after all, why the Romans gave them their name – ‘Picti’ being Latin for ‘painted people’. However, according to what is being hailed as “the best book on the Picts ever written”, this isn't actually quite right.

Curiously, Carved in Stone is no dry academic tome. Lavishly illustrated, the book was apparently designed with fans of roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons in mind. It has been described as being part visual encyclopaedia, part ‘setting guide’, in which you are invited to imagine you are a Pict, and part adventure with places to explore and characters to meet.

READ MORE: Could this be the face of an ordinary Pict?

A Pict as imagined in the new book, Carved in Stone | From Carved in Stone

It contends that tattoos were about as common among the Picts as they are today: a few people had many, some had one or two, but most had none. Learned experts appear impressed by the scholarship, with one lauding its “painstaking recreation” of life in 7th-century Scotland.

Turns out the Picti were less ‘painted’ and more just ordinary ‘people’ – much like us.

READ MORE: ‘Mindblowing’ discovery locates largest ever Pictish settlement where 4,000 people once lived