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Abstract
The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have allowed for a more precise chronology, extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular scripts developed beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, to the ninth century AD. These symbols were probably an elaborate, non-alphabetic writing system, a Pictish response to broader European changes in power and identity during the transition from the Roman Empire to the early medieval period.
Highlights
The origins and evolution of writing are one of the most critical and transformative developments in world history (Innes 1998: 3)
These included the runic system of Scandinavia and north Germany, and the ogham alphabet of Ireland and western Britain (e.g. Swift 1997; Barnes 2012; Findell 2014). Both of these scripts were used across early medieval Britain and Ireland, but the most common and monumental form of communication that survives from northern Britain is the less well-understood Pictish symbol system
Debate over its origins and dating have continued for over a century, and here we present the results of a new programme of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling on a range of new sites and objects to provide a more robust chronology for the development of Pictish symbols, pointing to an earlier origin than many scholars have previously countenanced
Summary
The origins and evolution of writing are one of the most critical and transformative developments in world history (Innes 1998: 3). The fact that the symbols at all three sites had previously been stylistically linked, and that all three have since produced very similar chronological ranges for activities during the third to fourth centuries AD, increases confidence in these early associated dates from the Scottish mainland.
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