Picts: Scourge of Rome, Rulers of the North

Description

The mysterious and enigmatic Picts, who flourished in northern Scotland from c. 300 AD, have long been a subject of popular appeal. Their intricately carved symbol stones, whose meaning has remained an enigma for well over a thousand years, offer a tantalising glimpse into the culture of a highly sophisticated society which defied the might of the Roman empire only to disappear at the end of the first millennium AD. Yet historical sources are limited and there are few books on the Picts, and none that reflect the significant advances in our knowledge that have been made in the last ten years. This book redresses that balance. As well as including an historical overview of the Picts from the late Roman sources to the tenth century, it also covers kingship and elite culture, everyday life, burial traditions, pagan and Christian belief, art and crafting, and the end of Pictland during the Viking Age.

Gordon Noble is Professor in Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen and has undertaken award-winning landscape research and field projects, working on projects from the Mesolithic to Medieval periods. He is author of Neolithic Scotland: Timber, Stone, Earth and Fire (Edinburgh University Press 2006), Woodland in the Neolithic of Northern Europe: The Forest As Ancestor (Cambridge University Press 2017) and co-author of King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce (Birlinn 2019). He works on two current major projects: Northern Picts and Comparative Kingship, the research for which won the Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year 2021, a highly prestigious accolade. His research has featured on BBC 2 Digging for Britain, BBC Radio 4 In Our Time and many other media outlets. Nicholas Evans is a Research Fellow on the Leverhulme Trust funded Comparative Kingship: the Early Medieval Kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland project at the University of Aberdeen. He is a historian whose research and teaching have focussed on the medieval Celtic-speaking societies of Britain and Ireland. He is the author of The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles (Boydell Press, 2010), A Historical Introduction to the Northern Picts (Aberdeen University/Tarbat Discovery Centre, 2014) and co-author of King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce (Birlinn 2019).

'Picts is an extraordinary work that covers seven centuries of Pictish history and archaeology, but is also engagingly written with the general reader in mind' * Current Archaology Magazine * 'An impressive book that brings together between its covers pretty much all that is currently known about its elusive and enigmatic subject' * Undiscovered Scotland * 'A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated volume' -- Roger Hutchinson * West Highland Free Press * 'Both archaeologically and historically rich and provides an entirely new synthesis and viewpoint on a critical era of Scotland's history' -- Dawn Renton * Deeside Piper and Herald * 'this intriguing study by two Aberdonian academics will help to dispel the myth that Pictland was merely rough and unsophisticated' -- David Profumo * Country Life * 'This is an irresistible glimpse into their [the Picts'] shadowy world' -- Alexander McCall Smith * Little Brown Book Group *