"The Northern Picts: latest finds and results"

Dr Gordon Noble, University of Aberdeen, presents a short lecture on "'The Northern Picts: latest finds and results" at the Archaeological Research in Progress (ARP 2017) national day conference on Saturday 27th May 2017 at the National Museums Scotland auditorium, Edinburgh.
Recording by Mallard Productions.
Sponsored by the University of Aberdeen, AOC Archaeology, CIfA, Current Archaeology, GUARD Archaeology and University of Edinburgh Press, with grant support from Historic Environment Scotland.

[@AsusMemopad-us5lk]

So glad to see more info coming out about the Picts!

[@roxismith6122]

Thank you for this. I'm fascinated by the history of the Picts.

[@ruthcherry3177]

Thank you so much for this video. Not only is it fascinating because I have an interest in archeology, but I spent many happy days in an old, stone farm house in Rhynie, in the shadow of Tap O' Noth, with a burn (stream) flowing just a few meters from the door, sometime during the 80s (I really don't remember the years). The water was pumped up from the burn, into the kitchen by an old hand pump, and my sister and I played for hours in the waters. Wonderful, family holidays with Mum, Dad, and sister, my dad's parents, uncle (the Scottish connection) and aunt, and cousins... my granddad, surrounded by Highland cattle, playing his harmonica to them - they were mesmerised (actually, they could have been Aberdeen Angus, I think the Highland cattle were behind the farm house, the herd he used to play for were just down the lane, on the right, towards Huntly)! Very moving, personally, but also really exciting to learn more about the archeology and history of the area. I'll do a search to find out what's happened since the pandemic. Thanks again!!!

[@jerryjohnson6810]

Good job professor Noble. thank you for your work.

[@jigold22571]

ThankU for sharing and posting. Eternal . Gratitude and Appreciation.

[@nikitaromanovs6397]

This was really interesting!

[@howtorecover1358]

Outstanding. Thanks for posting.

[@thedruiddiaries6378]

Wonderful work. Thank you for sharing this.

[@Nikilmoss74]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@johnkerr2438]

I believe historians have overlooked the fact that the area in Ireland that was part of the kingdom of Dal Riada bears the characteristics of an incursion into Ireland rather than an incursion into Britain.

[@gnenian]

It's in the first histories that Túathal Techtmar (meaning Tuathal the Legitimate because he was in reality actually of ancient blood royal descendeded and not just some guy on the make) came from Alba and founded the kingdom of Meath.

[@damionkeeling3103]

What evidence is there for that?

[@rippedtorn2310]

@@damionkeeling3103 none ...more classic youtube comment bollox .

[@CuFhoirthe88]

@@damionkeeling3103 Material culture in the form of crannog settlement types. It's spurious, but the Scottish crannogs analysed tend to posses older dates than Irish ones indicating some mechanism of cultural transmission from Scotland to Ireland introducing crannog building, rather than the other way around. "Crannogs are found in Argyll, but unfortunately for proponents of an Irish origin for crannogs, dendrochronological dating has shown that Scottish crannogs have been constructed since the early Iron Age (Barber & Crone 1993), while Irish ones almost all date from after.AD 600" (Baillie 1985; Lynn 1983 via Campbell 2001)

[@LodiJP]

Genuinely very interesting! Thank you for uploading! I wish we knew more about the Pictish language specifically

[@jeanmackenzie4781]

Very similar to Welsh was it was Britannic language as

[@annegoodwin4620]

Thanks for posting this very informative video!!

[@SocietyofAntiquariesofScotland]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@dandyrevisionist7879]

Indeed fascinating

[@gerrystevens9041]

an interesting dig. shows king Alfred 1 was hugely popular even so far north. his coin was trusted.

[@scottfergusson8411]

Proud Scot here ! If it’s not pict.......it’s crrrrrap !

[@josephturner4047]

Scotii are Hibernian.

[@free_gold4467]

@@josephturner4047 Angles are German.

[@NoName-yw1pt]

Well said sir!

[@jeanmackenzie4781]

Picts and the geals became one people which was named Scotland.

[@johnhopkins4012]

Strange all these comments fail to identify that the over riding names of rivers various mountains and place names in Pictland are all in the Brythonic language of the Cumbrogi/Welsh. The fort Dunnicaer is named quite plainly in the Welsh, 'city of the fort'. But of course no one has mentioned or spotted this fact. The Picts were a northern British tribe of Brythonic origin, of course with ancient Indo-European links.

[@colinthomson5358]

Picts or it didn't happen. ;)

[@forensicdarling]

Colin Thomson 🤣😂😁

[@rons3634]

I can't believe I"m watching this but I just can't help being interested.

[@canfistirdavis2437]

Picts, as their neighbors call them, are a Turani tribe that migrated from Anatolia. Their customs, traditions, lifestyle, clothing, and almost everything else reflects this. Pictish rock paintings are simply symbols of belonging that we call TAMG/STAMP. This is seen in all Turks/Proto-Turks and Goth tribes who had intense cultural exchange with the Turks. Each tribe has its own TAMGA. For example, the Tamga of the Oghuz tribe resembles the (IYI) form.

[@SocietyofAntiquariesofScotland]

😮

[@anvilbrunner.2013]

Ancestry DNA tells me that as much as 68% of me is from the Moray Firth bit of Scotland. Pleasantly surprised, I am.

[@robertelliottlang7031]

fACSINATING BUT HOW DID THEY "PIERCE" AS YOU SAY THE HOLES IN THE COINS?

[@anvilbrunner.2013]

drill

[@marcharsveld2914]

punch

[@stephaniemeadows6796]

This is really cool. I traced my family back and we are decent from the pictish people I wish there were more information about them like this

[@blossomjoseph5541]

I am wonderi g if the Picts were the first people to return to Britain after the end of the ice age. My DNA tests dont differentiate, but i am darker than most Britains

[@kirbyharper4998]

Me also

[@ronzombie6541]

SoAoS, what is the Y-DNA showing from these sites? Ancient DNA analysis? How does that compare to present populations in the respective areas?

[@lindaj5492]

I didn’t hear him say anything about organic material being found. Can’t get DNA from metal.

[@buidseach]

I thought most of the larger Pictish stones were in and around the county of Angus.

[@lesterjohnston8888]

Around Lossiemouth in Scotland they planted a town over the picts Fort hence lost so much information about the so called picts as the Romans called them

[@Ck-zk3we]

grooving with a pict

[@alistairwilson5344]

In a cave...

[@DarkMoonDroid]

🐭🐹🐰🐛🐝🐥🐍🦎🐁🦔🐾🐾🐾🐾

[@kenpickett9317]

The tear had fallen down he had taken, never back to raise And then cried Mary, and took out wi' your Claymore Right outta a' pocket, I ran down, down by the mountain side Battlin' the fiery horde that was falling around the feet

[@1969cmp]

Through my grandmother's side I have Pict ansestoral lineage.😊

[@heraldeventsandfilms5970]

FFS! American?

[@elenaescocia2479]

I do too on my grandfathers side.

[@youthinasia4103]

I got it through my paternal side as well. I just hoping soon we get more clear info on these wonderful n fascinating people.

[@lyndseygreig6424]

@@heraldeventsandfilms5970 how on earth did u guess lol

[@Artur-hg1qg]

@ThoughtCrime a person seeking for an “exotic” culture to cling on

[@joannechisholm4501]

On both sides, my great grandmother and her parents were from Aberdeen, and her daughter in law family is from Sterling and Ayrshire.

[@lindaj5492]

Thank you for showing the slides as he speaks: some YT videos just focus on the speaker 🙄

[@michealcurrie8272]

Aye, I have a theory the the ancient folks of Scotland have been residents since the Pangaea and Pannotia or Rodinia. It's as good as any other explanation to date certainly, not Vikings.

[@LynxSouth]

Ice ages kept coming and going until between 11-12,000ya, so no one could have lived there since before that. There were probably humans and even humanoids there in between the ice ages, but they'd have had to move back to what is now continental Europe or freeze to death when the weather changed (again!).

[@LynxSouth]

@basil fawlty I should have written "starve" instead of "freeze" in my first comment, but you hit on the real problem. Actual ice ages mean there are glaciers up to a few km thick on the land (and over the water much of the time). There's no seasonal vegetation, no moss under the snow, so no animals. And not much usable shoreline, I think, just ice cliffs.

[@dwaynedarockjohnson2023]

Makes sense why some claim "northerns" encountered the irish , asking them where to find fertile land to cultivate, and then sent them to what is referred to later as pictland. Would this be accurate an conclusion?

[@brucecollins4729]

@@dwaynedarockjohnson2023 and you actually believe that tale

[@bigboaby555]

no info given on why the anglo saxon coins were there , in a pictish settlement ? sensible answers only please

[@PoweredbyRobots]

Trade, raiding, gifts...

[@gillmacgillechiaran5651]

The Angli of Northumbria were the Picts’ southern neighbors.

[@bigboaby555]

@@PoweredbyRobots yeah which one ? i know they had to defeat the anglo saxons and take their lands back from them so im guessing it was from raiding ?

[@bigboaby555]

@@gillmacgillechiaran5651 yeah , im wondering how they think they got there . as far as i'm concerned their relationship with the Northumbrians was hostile , backed up by the many battles fought with them .

[@mikem9001]

@@bigboaby555 Not that many battles, and plenty of trade in between, with everyone.

[@AnthonyEvelyn]

I think so called "Picts" were a mix of aboriginal Pretanic peoples (those that built the stone monuments and made rock carvings) and early Brythonic Celts who imparted their language but was absorbed by the original peoples up north.

[@miguelpuyalto5562]

We need genetic analysis of the bones found in these sites! Maybe some of them are already on going. Do you have some information about that?

[@frankjoseph7259]

I agree

[@AnthonyEvelyn]

@@miguelpuyalto5562 Unfortunately no I havent. In time we will see what the results of these ongoing research are. But until then I'll stick to my hypothesis that who we call "Picts" were already there when the Celts came.

[@LynxSouth]

@@AnthonyEvelyn I'm not an expert in this area, but I agree with you about the Picts existing in Scotland before the Celts showed up. If you would be so kind, can you recommend videos here or other online sources of reliable/intelligent information?

[@mikem9001]

The most likely scenario is that the Picts were the immediate descendants of the northern tribes whom the 1st and 2nd century Romans called "Caledonii". Same people (with whatever immigrants had joined in the meantime), just different name. The Picts and Caledonii never appear in historical records together.

[@jamiemorton113]

So did all the pics get killed

[@eddiemcgrath8536]

they got cancelled.

[@bt8593]

I believe the current thinking is that the Pictish kingdoms fused with the Gaelic Kingdom of Dal Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba after a disastrous defeat against the Vikings. You can probably find more precise information about it by reading about Kenneth MacAlpin, preferably in papers or books published in the last 20 years.

[@garymcatear822]

They completely assimulated into Christianity.

[@joykeddy8799]

No my family’s still here, from northern Caledonia to Canada 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@jeffmurray1681]

@@garymcatear822 Correct. They assimilated into the Gaelic culture due to their conversion to Christianity. Dal Riata and Pictland became Alba, which later became Scotland.

[@felicitashousemanagement9198]

My last name is Morey. I’m a descendant from north eastern Scotland.

[@Artur-hg1qg]

For a descendent from Scotland it is spelt Moray.

[@OldieBugger]

Who did edit this video? The slides should be presented, not the lecturer's profile (as he is watching the same slides). You can concentrate on the lecturer's face in the beginning of the video and in the end. He did NOT bring those slides up for nothing. They are an integral part of the lecture.

[@SocietyofAntiquariesofScotland]

Thanks for your comment. We are working to improve the timing of future videos to make the content of lecture slides easier to read.

[@kevinchambers4848]

I find this a common problem in so called professional museum lectures. Instead of focusing on the subjects the camera man focuses on the speaker. Maybe their egos are more important to them than the subjects they speak about.

[@Catubrannos]

@@kevinchambers4848 That makes no sense as the cameraman is not the subject of the video.

[@kevinchambers4848]

@@Catubrannos clearly you didn't understand what I was saying. The one doing the video should focus on the screen or the subject being spoken about, not the speaker. For most of the museum lectures I have seen, the majority of time is spent on the speaker and very little time on the object they are talking about as though the object, such as a painting, is of little importance. The speaker may say, look at the brush work on the material, while the entire time the camera is focused on the speaker. Look at " art in isolation" and you will see how a very good presentation is given when someone knows what to show the viewer what is being talked about.

[@lindaj5492]

@@kevinchambers4848 It’s the person behind the camera, not the speaker, that’s to blame. “…their egos…” appears to refer to the speakers.

[@mariakatariina8751]

So, the Picts were of Suomi and Saami origin, just like the first pharaohs. Later on, they unfortunately mixed with the tallmudder satanic asskenazis. Pitk = long, tall Munait = My mother

[@lynncansler2154]

رباح)هل

[@buidseach]

And does the shape of their houses point to a Dane or Norse origin at that time ?

[@jamesmckay-mount8689]

You're obsessed. They were in Scotland centuries before the Danes and Norse

[@buidseach]

@@jamesmckay-mount8689 The evidence is there, there is quite a bit more evidence to support that theory.

[@jamesmckay-mount8689]

@@buidseach I've been researching it for years and I've never seen any information that supports this theory

[@jamesmckay-mount8689]

@@buidseach it feels like you have decided this is the case and found a long researcher. Can you provide a link to the evidence?

[@buidseach]

@@jamesmckay-mount8689 Well One thing that puzzled outsiders is that they were the last people on these islands to trace their lineage through their mothers. The Venerable Bede, writing in 731, said that the Picts had come from mainland Europe, presumably Scandinavia, to northern Ireland to ask for land, but the Irish sent them on to Scotland.

[@daragildea7434]

Can this man say err and um a bit more, I don't think are enough of them.

[@Drew-ce9ce]

Dara Gildea I’ve seen other video presentations from him where he is very same. I feel that he is quoting what others have lectured to him and it’s not his own original thinking during these presentations. I do realise there’s very few original thinkers out there and harsh as I seem then this guy shouldn’t be the face of what is being presented.

[@SuperFunkmachine]

Is it me or is near everything in Scotland thats pre roman or scot, pictish. I'm sure that there other kingdoms that we just lack a name for. I joke that Scotland has three ages, wild word covered hordes, the highland clearances an bonnie prince charlie, an today aka junky an hard men.

[@mikem9001]

"Picts" aren't attested before the 4th century AD, so they definitely aren't pre-Roman. Rather, they were post-Roman! Their ancestors would have been pre-Roman, at some stage, but there is no certainty about who their ancestors were.

[@Jand1smas]

@@mikem9001 They existed at the same time as the Romans, as well as after their occupation.

[@mikem9001]

@@Jand1smas Yes - the Picts were not in any sense "pre-Roman". The vast majority of their history (that we know of) was post-Roman (i.e. after the Romans left Britain)

[@jamesmckay-mount8689]

@@mikem9001 the first mention of them is 297 but it's ridiculous to assume that they didn't excuse before that

[@jamesmckay-mount8689]

@@mikem9001 so they just appeared out of nowhere as soon as the Romans started writing about them? Okey doke

[@rayw3294]

Watched a lot of things about the Picts. The 2 circles look like breasts. Heard 3 other explanations, but they would not be prudish.

[@dwaynedarockjohnson2023]

Would love to have a discussion.

[@Catubrannos]

They're linked discs, it's not clear in these images but there are lines linking them in other depictions. They're often shown with the z-rod which I think represents some aspect of death as it resembles the bent weapons sometimes found in Celtic graves. The dics could be anything, they could be armbands or torcs with the disc part the terminal and the linking part the band, some claim an astrological origin, maybe more will be found and one day the mystery solved.

[@rayw3294]

@@Catubrannos The Picts were not Celts. Picts from southern europe/Turkey. Cells from southern Germany/Switzerland. As far as I know.

[@rayw3294]

When you look through ancient history the moon (crescent here) is a woman. Long before Artemis. The Picts are matriarchal as far back as you can go (Orkney with no weapons 6000 years ago). They must of got nagged a lot, but didnt have to fight as much. I think as far as Gobelki Tepe. How did Bede now this? You should be asking.

[@faithlesshound5621]

It's also worth asking why Bede is the only source for the matrilineal inheritance of Pictish kingship, and that only in the context of Kenneth MacAlpin, as a reason for the King of Scots to inherit the Pictish crown from his mother. The only matrilineal inheritance in Europe.

[@rifekimler3309]

Matrilinear is not matriarchal

[@rayw3294]

@@faithlesshound5621 Henry VIII destroyed a lot of info re:Catholics etc. I personally think, a lot information about the Picts was destroyed. Info/books that must of read. But that would be another thing to look into. Who would of done that and why. Did the Vikings do it accidentally to make a fire?

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@rayw3294 As far as we know, the Picts had no writing, and consequently no books for anyone to destroy, Vikings or anyone else. We don't even know what language they spoke. As with most pre-literate cultures, we depend on their literate neighbours, that is the monks of Ireland and England. Hardly anything has survived of whatever the Scottish monks wrote down. The ancient royal records of Scotland were seized and destroyed during an English raid: supposedly lost in the Firth of Forth. Even those probably did not go back before the Kings of Scots became Christians late in the 11th century and began to employ clerics who could write in Latin.

[@rayw3294]

@@faithlesshound5621 But Bede knew something. Tacitus knew about Caledonians or the Roman version. Somewhere there was history of the Picts. It was either destroyed by Saxons or others (who were illetarate) or by need for fire. Paper good kindling. Personally (they say humbly) a lot of information has disappeared. Watching (reading) a lot of Eastern European history and lots of info lost around that time. A time of literature. Maybe it was early Christians? I don't know.

[@davidallard1980]

I can teach you how to read it if you want. Pretty sure I figured it out.

[@tonykillen9159]

Scottish Irish Northern Europe the same

[@jukeboxhero1649]

I like running around butt ass nekked with my machete and riding my mountain bike like that too. My grandmother was a Scott all the way back to the Revolutionary war. It probably wasn't hard to.talk all those Scotts into rebelling against the German Crown of England. Our dialect in the south is mostly Scottish influenced as well. So, being less than an eighth Scott shows how powerful that Pictish blood is!!!!

[@loneronin1386]

Scots , not Scotts

[@themagicdragon2011]

Just because you are Sottish doesn't mean you are Pictish.

[@anvilbrunner.2013]

@@themagicdragon2011 If he's from Ontario & it appears he might be. Then it give's him high odds on, being genetically rich in Pict .

[@themagicdragon2011]

@@anvilbrunner.2013 I believe, without going back to look, he said he was Pict because he is Scottish... hence the point I made. Thanks for the insight.

[@raccoonresident5760]

Lol your funny

[@pravoslavn]

I would love to watch this video, but discourse in which almost every sentence begins with UM, just drives me wild. Sorry, but I must leave because I can take no more. (One would expect better from an academic...)

[@NephilimFree]

The Picts were one of many small tribes which were the offspring of Gomer. Genesis 10[2] The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. Gomer: Gomer, son of Japeth, grandson of Noah, founder of Galatians (Josephus) later called the Gomerites, Gimirrya (Assyrians), king Esarhaddon defeated the Gimirrah in 677 BC, Gamir (Armenians), Gimeri (Herodotus, Stabo, Plutarch), lived near the Black Sea - Cimmeria, Clrimea, some moved west becoming the Gauls (France) and Galati (Spain) and Celtae (Britain). Gomer = Gimmirray in Akkadian; "Cimmerians" in Greek Gomer means "complete" (sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah) - also Gamir, Gommer, Gomeri, Gomeria, Gomery, Goth, Guth, Gutar, Götar, Gadelas, Galic, Gallic, Galicia, Galica, Galatia, Gaulacia, Gael, Galatae, Galatoi, Gaul, Galls, Goar, Georgian, Celt, Celtae, Celticae, Kelt, Keltoi, Gimmer, Gimmerai, Gimirra, Gimirrai, Gimirraya, Kimmer, Kimmeroi, Kimirraa, Kumri, Umbri, Cimmer, Cimmeria, Cimbri, Cimbris, Crimea, Chomari, Cymric, Cymry, Cymru, Cymbry, Cumber (Cimmerians, Caledonians, Armenians, Phrygians, Turks, Picts, Milesians, Umbrians, Helvetians, Celts1, Galatians, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Scandinavians, Jutes, Teutons, Franks, Burgundians, Alemanni, Germans2, Belgians, Dutch, Luxembourgers, Liechensteiners, Austrians, Swiss, Angles, Saxons, Britons, English, Cornish, Irish, Welsh, Scots, French, and other related groups);

[@jerryjohnson6810]

Are you ok?

[@NephilimFree]

@@jerryjohnson6810 The shock wares off. Public education is lame isn't it. There's so much the ancient historians wrote that they refuse to share with students because they don't want you to know it.

[@pauls3204]

Oh my,there are some lunatics on the net.

[@jerryjohnson6810]

@@pauls3204 so very true

[@1969cmp]

@@pauls3204 Many European people groups can trace their lineage back to the table of Nations listed in Genesis. The Chinese can also find a link back to Shem.

[@marshallart100]

Oh dear....consolidating a popular Scottish myth ......what for ? well tourist industry ....Shouldn't you be calling them Calidonii?

[@Eric-ng2ed]

marsh pipe no.... because...... they’re...... different..........

[@marshallart100]

Where is your proof ?...find it

[@declanmcgavin1414]

The Caledonii were a pictis tribe.

[@mikem9001]

"Shouldn't you be calling them Calidonii?" You could, but the Caledonii and the Picts don't appear in history together. We read about Caledoni in the 2nd century AD, and Picts in the same area from the 4th century AD. So yes, Picts were probably just the descendants of the earlier Caledonii, but the speaker is right to refer to these excavations as being of Pictish sites.

[@sylvia106]

Not a good speaker, uh, uh, uh, umm, uh…umm. Clearing throat at the mic..

[@fintonmainz7845]

Not a good commentator. Making unnecessary personal comments.

[@kalechips965]

That's because he's thinking while he communicates. You should try it.

[@22grena]

The Irish created Scotland

[@wyrdwildman1689]

22grena the Irish converted Scotland.

[@dukadarodear2176]

The Irish founded Gaelic/Gallic Scotland with shared cultural attributes such as pipes, kilts, music, language etc. But Scotland is much more complex than that because of its Primeval Pictish culture, Norwegian influence, Lowland Scot decendants of English planters and the amalgamation of the kingdoms after James1st/6th, the mixed race Galloglasses (Gall-oglaoigh in Irish meaning foreign warriors) Shetland/Orkney culture as in Skara Brae etc. M Kelly Ireland.

[@Foxglove963]

22grena. Is it really? The Irish founded the kingdom of Dalriata and Highland Scotland.

[@gillmacgillechiaran5651]

@Lord Daemon - Thank you. Actually, it’s their complete lack of knowledge that’s astounding.

[@gillmacgillechiaran5651]

@Foxglove963 - Their was no “kingdom” of “Highland Scotland,” you bloody ignorant rube.