Symbol Stones Research Articles

The Newton Stones and writing in Pictland, part 1

In the grounds of Newton House near Insch in Aberdeenshire are two Pictish monuments. One is an inscribed stone that also has an incised Pictish mirror symbol, and the other is a Pictish symbol stone with a notched double-disc above a serpent and z-rod symbol. The inscribed stone, commonly referred to as the Newton Stone, has an ogham inscription on one edge that continues onto an added stemline, and on the top front is a unique horizontal, six-line alphabetic inscription. This article examines the documentary record for these two monuments, which were moved from their original location in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. Through analysis of the documentary evidence, and in comparison with the local geology, the area of the original findspot of the Newton Stone and associated symbol stone is identified. The original landscape of these stones is compared with the topographical features of other Pictish monuments, particularly those in Donside. This comparison reveals that the topographical and liminal features in the original vicinity of the Newton Stone and symbol stone correspond with the wider pattern of the siting of Pictish symbol stones and Pictish cemeteries, and the association between a potentially Pictish-age settlement and these monuments may be suggested through examination of local place-names.

Settlement, landscape and land-use change at a Pictish Elite Centre: Assessing the palaeoecological record for economic continuity and social change at Rhynie in NE Scotland

The first millennium AD was a transformative period when many of the medieval kingdoms of Europe began to take shape, but despite recent advances in palaeoecological and archaeological research there remains a shortage of interdisciplinary collaborative research targeting this period. For some regions we know relatively little about the societies who lived during this formative period. This current investigation focusses on an early medieval elite centre near to Rhynie in NE Scotland; an important power-centre during the fourth–seventh centuries AD as evidenced by a remarkable series of Class I Pictish symbol stones, fortified enclosures at Cairn more, Tap o’ Noth and the Craw-Stane, as well as high status metal-working and a range of continental imports from the Craw-Stane enclosure. However, by the end of the seventh century AD, elite focus appears to have shifted elsewhere with the Craw-Stane and Cairn More enclosures all being abandoned. By combining paleoenvironmental analysis with available historical and archaeological archives this paper provides new insights into societal change during the first Millennium AD, with focus on the economic, social and environmental impacts caused by the rise and subsequent abandonment of elite nodes of power. A calibrated age of AD 260–415, near the base of the core, coincides with the earliest dates for the Craw-Stane complex and pre-dates the construction of the nearby Cairn More enclosure. The results provide a rare snapshot of the Late Roman Iron Age to Medieval environment of Northeast Scotland. This centre appears to have been supported by a rich agricultural landscape, with evidence of pastoral and arable farming, and potential metal working. One of the most significant findings of this study has revealed that despite abandonment of these elite enclosed sites by the seventh century AD, people continued to utilise the surrounding landscape and available resources right through until modern times.

Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland: a Roman Iron Age promontory fort beyond the frontier

ABSTRACT Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, a now isolated sea stack, is the findspot of five Pictish symbol stones discovered in the nineteenth century. Excavations from 2015 to 2017 have revealed a Roman Iron Age promontory fort, providing insights into the development of fortified settlement in north-east Scotland, with fortified sites being a key feature of first millennium AD elite practice in this region. The presence of rare and unusual finds indicates contact with the Roman world to the south and changes in the character of settlement as evidenced at Dunnicaer indicate broader transitions in the later Roman Iron Age native society. The archaeological sequence at Dunnicaer sheds new light on the adoption of non-roundhouse styles of architecture in first millennium AD Scotland and provides important evidence for the dating of the Pictish symbol tradition. A consideration of the impacts of coastal erosion on promontories of this nature suggests these are amongst the most threatened archaeological sites.

A Pictish ‘serpent’ incised slab from Jarlshof, Shetland

The identification and dating of a supposed Norse grave slab of 10th-/11th-century date from Jarlshof, Shetland, consisting of two decorated fragments picked up on the beach beside this multi-period settlement site in the 1930s, are rejected by the authors of this paper in favour of a Pictish attribution, a late 6th- or early 7th-century date, and a probable architectural function. On the basis of a detailed examination of the two fragments of the so-called 'Jarlshof Serpent' (front and back), alternative reconstructions of the incised motifs are considered, leading to the conclusion that they probably represent a hybrid in the form of a horse-headed serpentine creature with the body conventionally decorated in the manner of the Pictish salmon symbol. The use of such hybrid symbols by the Picts, as well as the growing evidence for their erection of symbol stones in association with structures, are discussed. The paper ends with a brief consideration of the implications of this reattribution for the traditional 'minimalist' interpretation of the Pictish settlement-phase at Jarlshof.

The Monumental Cemeteries of Northern Pictland

THE EMERGENCE OF FORMAL CEMETERIES is one of the most significant transformations in the landscapes of 1st millennium ad Scotland. In eastern and northern Scotland, in the lands of the Picts, square and circular burial monuments were constructed to commemorate a small proportion of the population — perhaps a newly emerging elite in the post-Roman centuries. This paper presents the results of a project that has consolidated and reviewed the evidence for monumental cemeteries of the northern Picts from Aberdeenshire to Inverness-shire, transcribing the aerial evidence of many sites for the first time. In addition, the landscape location of the cemeteries is assessed, along with their relation to Pictish symbol stones, fortified sites and settlement landscapes of the 1st millennium ad. Two particular elements of the burial architecture of northern Pictland are highlighted — barrow enlargement, and the linking of barrows through the sharing of barrow/cairn ditches. Both of these practices are suggested here to be implicated in the creation of genealogies of the living and the dead during an important transitional period in northern Europe when hereditary aristocracies became more prominent.

(Re)discovering the Gaulcross hoard

Abstract

Pictish symbol stones and early cross-slabs from Orkney

Orkney shared in the flowering of interest in stone carving that took place throughout Scotland from the 7th century ad onwards. The corpus illustrated here includes seven accomplished Pictish symbol-bearing stones, four small stones incised with rough versions of symbols, at least one relief-ornamented Pictish cross-slab, thirteen cross-slabs (including recumbent slabs), two portable cross-slabs and two pieces of church furniture in the form of an altar frontal and a portable altar slab. The art-historical context for this stone carving shows close links both with Shetland to the north and Caithness to the south, as well as more distant links with Iona and with the Pictish mainland south of the Moray Firth. The context and function of the stones are discussed and a case is made for the existence of an early monastery on the island of Flotta.

Between prehistory and history: the archaeological detection of social change among the Picts

The development of small-scale kingdoms in the post-Roman world of northwestern Europe is a key stage in the subsequent emergence of medieval states. Recent excavations at Rhynie in north-eastern Scotland have thrown important light on the emergence of one such kingdom, that of the Picts. Enclosures, sculptured ‘symbol stones’ and long-distance luxury imports identify Rhynie as a place of growing importance during the fifth to sixth centuries AD. Parallels can be drawn with similar processes in southern Scandinavia, where leadership combined roles of ritual and political authority. The excavations at Rhynie and the synthesis of dated Pictish enclosures illustrate the contribution that archaeology can make to the understanding of state formation processes in early medieval Europe.

Pictish Symbol Stones: Religious Imagery, Heraldic Arms or a Language?

Abstract The Pictish Symbol Stones are a collection of finely carved stones dating from ca. 300 AD to 843 AD whose meaning has been lost in time. Despite attracting linguists and historians alike, as a collection they have been just too small to surrender their secrets. Now, however, Rob Lee, Philip Jonathan and Pauline Ziman have used a technique based on comparative entropy to unwrap some of the mystery of the stones.

Reading the Multiple Lives of Pictish Symbol Stones

A small number of Pictish symbol stones demonstrate evidence for multiple lives within the Early Historic Period. These stones are reviewed together with their implications for how we view the wider corpus of Pictish stones. The idea that the stones are burial markers is rejected. Instead, it is suggested that they were created in response to, and as a rejection of, Christian missionary activity.

Discourse on the frontiers of history: Material culture and social reproduction in Early Scotland

The historical archaeology of early Medieval Scotland is of interest outside of Britain because, unlike much of Europe, Scotland experienced little direct intervention from the Roman Empire. Early Scotland has left few contemporary documents and is therefore only barely historical; consequently archaeology has always played a significant role in the study of its origins. That role has generally been to provide illustrations for historical discussions, especially in the case of the Picts who occupied what was to become the core of the Scottish state. This study suggests how the archaeological evidence can be used to go beyond mere illustration and beyond the limitations of the aristocratic interests which are embodied in the contemporary sources and to begin writing a representative social history. The concept of fields of discourse is used to provide a materialist method for integrating texts and artifacts. Attention here is focused on the architecture of the hillforts, the significance of the Symbol Stones, and on the settlement patterns as revealed by aerial photography.

The Reinterpretation of the Pictish Symbols

The ‘meaning’ of Pictish symbols on stones exists at a number of levels. This paper deals first with the social context for the symbol stones. It is argued that they are memorial stones; by logical extension, the symbols must refer to the deceased Pict. The paper then deals with the ‘semantic’ meaning of the symbols. Thomas's interpretation is discounted because the proposed pseudo-syntactical or grammatical rules for reading symbolic messages are internally inconsistent and, no matter what ranks, professions, or tribal affiliations be substituted, the numerical distribution of the individual designs would produce an impossibly large number of ‘kings’ or ‘poets’ or ‘Pictish beast people’ in relation to other ranks or peoples. The division between commemorated and erector of the stone is likewise argued to be inconsitent and untenable.It is finally suggested that the symbols conveyed the name of the deceased, but not by the equation one symbol = one name; the formula ‘X son of Y’ is argued to give an implausibly large number of Picts with the same name. Instead, individual symbols are taken to be themes from which names were built. The frequency of paired symbols is compared to the construction of Anglo-Saxon and Irish personal names which were regularly constructed from the pairing of thematic elements. This theory is argued to explain the numerical frequency of the paired combinations better than lineage marriage alliances or statuses and tribal affiliations, and explains the lack of distinct regional distributional concentration of any individual symbols.

Low cairns, long cists and symbol stones

Low mounds surrounded by rectilinear or circular ditches and low rectilinear and circular kerbed cairns, both groups covering extended inhumation burials, represent a funerary tradition of the pre-Viking Iron Age, predominantly in N Scotland. Sometimes forming cemeteries, these mounds and cairns are loosely associated with Pictish symbol stones, and a possible origin in La Tène burial tradition is suggested. A R

Painted pebbles in early Scotland

Pebbles with simple but carefully-painted designs are unique to Caithness and the Northern Isles between 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Their apparent connection with Pictish culture is supported by some sharing of motifs with the repertoire of the Pictish symbol stones. They may be charm stones like those known from medieval sources and folklore; the Life of St Columba also contains a reference to a healing stone.

Two new Pictish symbol stones from Orkney

Two new Pictish symbol stones from Orkney

Two Pictish Symbol Stones

Two Pictish Symbol Stones

The Origin Centre of the Pictish Symbol Stones

The Origin Centre of the Pictish Symbol Stones

Carving Technique on the Symbol Stones of North East Scotland

Carving Technique on the Symbol Stones of North East Scotland

The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland

The early Christian monuments of Scotland have not received the attention which they deserve since Romilly Allen published his descriptive catalogue in 1903. New discoveries since that date, and a fuller study of the analogous carvings in neighbouring areas, have made necessary some revision of the ideas then current. The investigation is rendered more difficult by the individual character of the series and by the rarity of stones bearing inscriptions. Mrs Curle, in a recent paper has boldly attacked the main problem, that of the monuments north of the Forth, the symbol stones and cross-slabs generally attributed to the Picts. Her thesis does not attempt to cover the whole field but is rather ‘an endeavour to establish a classification and a tentative chronology and to review the comparative material’ (p. 60). The conclusions to which her survey have led the author show a wide divergence from those of earlier writers, and the chronology proposed is revolutionary.