Pictish Art
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Recent papers in Pictish Art
A warrior with his spear marches to the left across the land in four known instances. Three of these spearmen are in the south of Pictland, at Collessie, Bertha(Tulloch), and Balgavies, and only one in the north, at Rhynie. This story... more
The Pictish symbols are here provided with a list of each symbol’s occurence, together with a distribution map of that symbol. The symbol lists are divided for convenience of size into two papers, Part One and Part Two. This paper is... more
The axe-wielding and / or beast-headed human figures in Pictish sculpture-such as the Rhynie Man or the axe-brandishing centaur and men locked in combat on the Glamis Manse stone-continue to fascinate audiences, but their original... more
Dans cet article, l'auteur analyse comment les mois du calendrier de Coligny suivent de très près les lunaisons pendant les 62 mois des 5 années figurant sur la plaque de bronze, et, ce faisant, met en évidence la précision... more
This article is about the forms of rods on Pictish symbols, the V rod and the Z rod. Only four symbols have rods, each with a common form of rod ends. These rod ends change from their common form if the rodded symbol is the lower symbol... more
Mathematically, the frequency distribution of Pictish symbols shows that the symbol stones as a body do not hold a personal name, acting as some kind of burial or memorial marker in the form X mac/ui Y, where X and Y are the symbols of a... more
Recent analysis of the axe-wielding and / or beast-headed human figures in Pictish sculpture suggests that they represent Pictish gods. Depictions of these Pictish deities are found on both early incised Pictish stones (Class I) and later... more
Edinburgh Rhynie 0 500 N km 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... more
The Bell Beaker, the Cauldron of Regeneration, the Grail, are these all part of the same mythology? There may be a reason for the strength and longevity of this story. Around the start of the Bronze Age 5000 years ago, the stars around... more
The Cat-stane, a Neolithic menhir bearing a Christian period inscription in Roman letters, has been traditionally taken for a Latin lapidary text commemorating a Roman General or a Pictish king of the late fifth century CE. Throughout the... more
According to some scholars, the dedication found on the side of St. Vigeans Drosten Stone and inscribed in medieval Gaelic or Hiberno-Saxon script reads partially as Latin or Goidelic. Others argue that Pictish was a pre-Celtic language... more
This paper shows how the first layer of Pictish occupation in Britain can be dated the the 16th Century BC, & how the Picts can be traced back to Caucasian Albania via Thrace, Aquitaine & Ireland.
This paper argues that the sculptural evidence at Meigle suggests a Pictish royal mausoleum at the site, abandoned during the formation of the kingdom of Alba in the ninth century.
This article re-evaluates the two inscriptions and the mirror symbol on the Newton Stone. The ogham is unusual in that it is read from the top rather than the bottom. The alphabetic inscription is intended to be read with, or to... more
The Picts carved a pair of trumpeters on two of their stones. These trumpeters do not play a typical Celtic horn or trumpet known from Celtic archaeology and artwork, but are a pair of Salpiktai, the Roman and Greek sacral trumpeters,... more
The Pictish symbols are here provided with a list of each symbol’s occurence, together with a distribution map of that symbol. The symbol lists are divided for convenience of size into two papers, Part One and Part Two. This paper is... more
Pictland and Its Symbol Stones is the original paper in which we first proposed that the symbol stones are referencing something significant in the land in the stone’s immediate vicinity. The paper was written in 2002, presented at the... more
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... more
This paper examines the iconographical background of Adam's skull beneath Christ's cross in Byzantine art, its appearance as a motif in Irish texts and its possible occurrence on two Pictish artworks, the Portsoy whetstone and the... more
One of the most enduring and well-known aspects of early medieval Pictish society is the array of carved stone monuments scattered across eastern Scotland. Amongst the stones’ imagery of wild animals, mythical creatures, and abstract... more
(co-authored with Eva Grau-du Mont); Pictish Arts Society Journal 9, 1996
[For: Thomas Pennant and Enlightenment Networks A One-Day Research Workshop, Saturday 12th September 2015, University of Glasgow Location: School of Critical Studies, Room 202, 4 University Gardens Conveners: Prof Nigel Leask... more
My 1995 field report of the rock art of Galloway, Scotland, which is dedicated to the late Ronald Morris, the pioneer of Scottish cup-and-ring art. The book offers a detailed inventory (of course out of date in 2016) of most petroglyph... more
This paper concerns the early medieval sculpture of the northern Picts, in particularly that which is centred on the Beauly and Moray Firths. This region is home to some of the most celebrated pieces of Pictish sculpture, for example the... more
An interpretation as a composite symbol of Christ and specifically of resurrection, breaking the symbol down into component parts of crescent moon, fountain of life and budding rods.
The identification of particular Pictish symbols in relation to the symbolism of the Book of Jonah, and the use of Jonah as a type of Christ, in the tomb for 3 days, in Pictish art. Reference to other symbols with possible Christian... more