Scottish fisherman pulled up a rare catch near Aberdeen earlier this year: a large stone etched with geometric markings. It was a Pictish symbol stone, with a meaning and age as enigmatic as the people who made it. Now it seems that the Picts began carving their symbols much earlier than we had thought, possibly influenced by the Romans 鈥� which bolsters the idea that the symbols are remnants of an ancient writing system.
The Picts were a coalition of tribal kingdoms inhabiting the far north of what is now Scotland, between about 1700 and 1100 years ago. Their first mention in the written record is from the Roman writer Eumenius, who coined the name Picti 鈥� literally 鈥減ainted people鈥� 鈥� in AD 297, likely referring to their tattoos.
But while the Romans wrote about the Picts, as far as we know the Picts themselves left no surviving written records. One thing they did leave, though, is about 200 stone slabs adorned with symbols of varying complexity. There are carved bulls, eagles and fish, as well as abstract and intricate geometric patterns.
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Pictish names?
Among the symbols are around 30 that appear often, almost always in pairs. Because the stone slabs were found in locations that seem to have been important to the Picts, these paired symbols are thought to be some sort of naming system for Pictish families. There is no agreement on their precise meaning 鈥� but there is a growing consensus that the symbols are actually some sort of non-alphabetic script, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Dating the carvings could help unravel their meaning, but doing so is not easy 鈥� carving a stone leaves no convenient organic marker for carbon dating.
Gordon Noble at the University of Aberdeen and his colleagues have found a way around this problem. They dated organic material from an ancient fort called Dunnicaer, which now lies on a sea stack on the northeast coast of Scotland and was possibly a centre of Pictish power. The rubble from the ruined walls of the fort contains a few symbol stones.
Roman connection
The results suggest the wall was built in the 3rd to 4th century AD 鈥� which is a few hundred years earlier than scholars had previously thought the symbol system was in use. This surprised Noble鈥檚 team. They argue that it might suggest the symbolic system arose through contact with the Roman Empire 鈥� the Romans still had a presence in Britain when the wall at Dunnicaer was built.
鈥淲here did the Picts learn about written scripts? The obvious connection is the Roman Empire,鈥� says Noble.
Roman coins and other materials have been found in caves in northern Scotland, possibly gathered during Pictish raids. Noble鈥檚 idea is that seeing Latin script led the Picts to develop a writing system of their own.
Compelling or not?
There is precedent for this elsewhere in northern Europe: for instance, encounters with the Roman Empire are thought to have inspired the ogham script used in Ireland and the runic system of Scandinavia.
Karen Milek at Durham University, UK, thinks the argument is compelling. 鈥淭he dating evidence and contextual analysis of Pictish symbols significantly enhance our understanding of Pictish symbols, their origins, uses, and meanings,鈥� she says.
Alex Woolf at the University of St Andrews, UK, sees some flaws. He points out that the symbol stones at Dunnicaer weren鈥檛 directly dated, so we still can鈥檛 know for sure how old the carvings are. What鈥檚 more, Woolf remains to be convinced that they are a form of writing. 鈥淭he Pictish symbols almost never appear in clusters of more than four on any one object,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t beggars belief how this could be a script in any meaningful sense.鈥�
鈥淲ithout any Rosetta Stone,鈥� Noble admits, 鈥渨e may never be able to crack the code.鈥�
Antiquity
