Random Facts About Picts, A Scottish Tribe That Gave Roman Empire Hell (14 items)

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  (#1) They Might've Painted Themselves Blue And Been Covered In Tattoos

  Although whether this was the case has been the subject of much historical debate, invading Romans - including Julius Caesar - described the Picts as dyeing themselves blue in order to give themselves a "wild look in battle." 

  In Latin, the Picts were originally called the "Picti," or "the painted ones," because they supposedly had lots of tattoos in addition to staining their entire bodies blue. What did they use to achieve this? Woad, a cool, dark blue dye.
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  (#2) They Were Hardcore Pirates

  Apparently, the Picts were pretty bad about blurring the line between "traders" and "pirates" in their coastal commerce with the Romans along the southern shores of the British Isles. Citizens of Londinium (the Roman name for London) recounted watching as hardcore bands of Pictish pirates would sail by after a successful raiding expedition in some small Roman British community - spoils and captives in tow.

  Although the Roman Brits attempted organized counterattacks against the Pictish pirates, their diffuse, guerilla style of piracy made them incredibly difficult to quell.
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  (#3) They Vanished In The Middle Ages

  By the beginning of the Middle Ages, Scotland didn't have people called "Picts" anymore. Under the control of the Scots-Irish King Kenneth MacAlpin (who might have had a Pictish mom), Scotland became a relatively unified realm; it appears that the newly Gaelic kingdom simply absorbed the Picts, as focus shifted to a different cultural perspective. But was it all peaceful?

  Legend has it that Kenneth and his Scots-Irish forces actually massacred Pictish nobles at a banquet using collapsible seating then took power for themselves.
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  (#4) They Might've Chosen Royalty Through Female Bloodlines

  Pictish kingship didn't pass from father to son but from random relative to random relative. Some scholars have opined that royal blood wasn't patrilineal for the Picts, but matrilineal, meaning that the women of the clan (sisters, nieces, etc.) were the only ones who could give birth to kings.

  Matrilineality allowed the Picts a larger pool of kingly candidates to choose from, as opposed to one or two sons of a single monarch. Although scholars aren't completely sure exactly how the Picts chose their kings, it's worth noting that if power passed through the mother's bloodline, this didn't necessarily mean that women were given more power in society. 
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  (#5) What The Picts Called Themselves Remains A Mystery

  The Picts weren't a unified group of people but a confederation of tribes that the Romans lumped under one name. The term "Picti" - or "the painted ones" - was a disparaging moniker that the Romans gave their enemies; the name implied that the Picts were barbarians for painting themselves.

  What the Picts called themselves - or if they even saw themselves as a single group and gave themselves a name - is unknown.
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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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  (#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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  (#8) They Probably Didn't Wear Tartan Kilts

  When people think of Scottish men today, they tend to think of plaid kilts, but sadly, there's no evidence for their Pictish ancestors donning these sexy skirts. There's a ton of evidence that ancient people in Western Europe wore checked fabrics, but none to support the idea that each clan had its own pattern or that tartans then had the same significance they have now.

  In fact, some scholars have asserted that the individual clan tartans are an early-modern invention, spurred on by a poetic interest in Highland culture in the 18th century.
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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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  (#10) The Picts Were A Real Problem For Roman Britons

  Roman sources record that the Picts were a troublesome group when it came to raiding northern Britain. For example, in 367 CE, the Picts allied with a group of other tribal confederations from Ireland, Germany, and beyond to create what was called "the Barbarian Conspiracy."

  Using secret agents to get intelligence, the Picts got one over on the Romans, but soon after, the emperor sent troops over and restored control.
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  (#11) They Were Expert Sailors

  Located as they were on the coast of northern England and southern Scotland, the Picts were bound to take to the seas. And so they did, building fleets that took to the water like ducks to... well, water.

  It was their seafaring skill that enabled the Picts to create alliances with Western European peoples against the Romans. This also meant that the Picts were some of the first people to get raided by the folks we now call the Vikings.
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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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  (#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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  (#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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