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(#7) The Romans Said They Battled In The Buff
The Romans claimed that the Picts and other peoples they deemed "barbarians" ran around naked in battle. This isn't as crazy as it might sound; there's actually a long history of people fighting nude. And the Picts appeared to have shown themselves naked on some of their stones, but who's to say they were fighting in those engravings?
Maybe they were just hanging out in the buff.
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(#9) Saint Patrick Wasn't Too Crazy About Them
St. Patrick, head religious honcho of Christian Ireland, was actually born in Britain. There, he came into contact with the Picts and other people who weren't yet Christians, and - surprisingly! - he wasn't a fan of them.
In his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, Patrick condemned his own countrymen, calling them as bad as the Irish and "the apostate Picts" for killing newly-baptized Christians. What exactly he meant by "apostate" (whether the Picts had accepted, then later rejected, Christianity, or if they denied it entirely) is up for debate.
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(#14) The Sound Of Their Language Remains A Mystery
A Pictish script appears occasionally on their gorgeously carved stones, but does that mean historians can decipher their language? Probably not, since there exist only a few dozen examples of how these symbols were used. But scholars do know the Picts had their own tongue; examples of it survive in place names around Scotland.
Places beginning with "Aber-, Cat-, Dol- and Pit-" are all Pictish in origin.
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(#6) They Were Master Stone Engravers
The Picts were master engravers and loved inscribing the many stones of Scotland with intricate designs. There are roughly 350 surviving Pictish stones, and they contain images that range from dragons to horses and swirls to crosses, showcasing a truly beautiful artistic style.
Although most just contain symbolic images, a few do have ogham, an ancient Irish alphabet, inscribed on them.
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(#13) Scientists Have Been Able To Reconstruct A Pictish Face
Scientists recently reconstructed the face of a brutally slain Pictish man. After being killed around 600 CE, one guy was buried in the back of a Scottish cave; his skeleton was uncovered in situ, stones holding down his limbs.
Reconstruction revealed that this Pictish dude was pretty decent-looking and rather young, and he died after five really hard blows to his head and mouth. Maybe the Picts sacrificed this young man - or was he murdered? That's just one of history's mysteries.
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(#12) 10% Of Scots Are Descended From The Picts
According to a 2013 genetic study, about 10% of Scottish lads are descended from the ancient Picts. A distinctive Y chromosome marker called R1b-S530, characteristic of the Picts, appeared 10 times more often in males of Scottish patrilineal descent than in other individuals.
In contrast, less than 1% of Englishmen and 3% of Irishmen tested had the gene from their paternal grandfathers.
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About This Tool
The Picts were the ancestors who lived in Pictavia north of the Forth River before the Scots, which is now the ancestor of Scotland. Historians have discovered that Pict’s history first appeared in the eulogy written by Numenius, a writer of Ancient Rome. In the absence of written records and historical sites, historians know very little about the origin of this ancient nation.
Only with strong physique and tenacity, they could resist the enemy and survive on the desolate Scottish island. The random tool shares 14 interesting known facts about Picts that you will be interested in.
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