The Picts

A History

Tim Clarkson

• Publisher: Birlinn
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781780274034
• eBook ISBN: 9781907909030
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

A British historian explores the mysterious Scottish culture of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages whose enigmatic symbols adorn standing stones.
The Picts were an ancient nation who ruled most of northern and eastern Scotland during the Dark Ages. Despite their historical importance, they remain shrouded in myth and misconception. Absorbed by the kingdom of the Scots in the ninth century, they lost their unique identity, their language and their vibrant artistic culture. Among their few surviving traces are standing stones decorated with incredible skill and covered with enigmatic symbols.
The Pictish Stones offer some of the few remaining clues to the powerful and gifted people who bequeathed no chronicles to tell the sagas of their kings and heroes. In this book, Medieval historian Tim Clarkson pieces together the evidence to tell the story of this mysterious people from their emergence in Roman times to their eventual disappearance.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Preface
• Genealogical Tables
• 1 A People Apart
• 2 Caledonia and Rome
• 3 The Painted People
• 4 Into the Sixth Century
• 5 Maelchon’s Son
• 6 Neighbours and Kinsmen
• 7 Brude and Ecgfrith
• 8 Reformers and Rivals
• 9 The Warlord
• 10 East and West
• 11 Twilight of the Picts
• 12 Legends and Legacies
• Appendix A Kings of the Picts
• Appendix B Pictish Timeline
• Appendix C Some Pictish Puzzles
• Places to Visit
• Further Reading
• Index
• List of Illustrations