I live in Shetland and honestly this is so interesting. There is brochs abseloutly everywhere I mean in the village I live there is three including Mousa Broch ,the most well preserved one. It's so interesting hearing more about Pictish culture!
I still find it extraordinary that the Romans fought these folks for centuries and yet there are so few written sources to tell us who they were and whether, for example, their language was mutually intelligible with Irish for example?
The word for Britain in modern Welsh and proto-Welsh; Brythonic is Prydain. Pryd means tinted or coloured in Welsh. This Irish word for the Picts Cruthain (spelling?) I’m certain is the Irish version of the word Prydain, as this is the main difference between Brythonic and Gaelic: the P and Q Celtic forms. The modern Welsh word for Briton is Prydeinwr, meaning ‘painted man’ in its literal form. The moniker and name survived long after the Romanised Britons had (more than likely) stopped the old custom of tinting the body with dye obtained from the woad plant. The word Picti is simply the Latin translation of Prydeinwr. I’m therefore certain that these people would have referred to themselves as Prydeinwyr (plural) which at least has the identical meaning of the Latin Picti.
@@Edarnon_Brodie but the word British actually means tattooed or painted. That’s the point. There are two words we have in use for Pict in Welsh, Prydyn and Prydwr. Pryd=tinted (or painted) Gwr=man (the G in Gwr is mutated out of the agglutination) Modern Welsh for Britain is Prydain, literally translated to painted land or land of the painted.
Prydyn is the Welsh term for Pictland while Prydain is the homeland of the Britons, now known as England, Wales and Cornwall. In some Old Welsh manuscripts there are refernces to Britons living in Prydyn most likely referring to the descendants of the Votadini, Selcovae and other tribes.
What is now called Scots-Gàidhlig was once spoken in most of Scotland because as much as 87% of Scottish place names come from Scots-Gàidhlig (Albannach), though many call it 'Gaelic' - which in reality only started to be called that in the 16th century as a foreign slur word and more inaccurately many still pronounce it as "Gaylick" which is the Irish pronunciation of it (the Scottish one is pronounced as "Gah-lik". To English (Inglis) speakers it would still be called 'Scottis' up till the 16th century based on that, but the true name for the language in the actual language itself would be "Albannach" (Ireland's is 'Eirennach') as 'Albannach' literally came to mean 'Scottish' in the language after Scotland's alternative name of 'Alba' which is still used today on all official govt correspondence and in the old Albannach language of Scotland. So it really should still be called Albannach today, the term 'Gaelic' gets in the way and adds more confusion. That's "Albannach" with a guttural 'ch' at the end by the way, like you would pronounce "Loch" in the Braid Scots Leid, most people with a non-Scots tongue cannot pronounce that. The Hiberni ('Irish' in Latin) of Hibernia (originally called 'Ierne') scholars of the 'Annals of the Four Masters' knew the name of 'Alba' also as the name of the old Pict Kingdom of Scotland, and Scotland's alt name 'ALBA' also etymologically directly derives from Great Britain's oldest and most ancient name - 'ALBION'. So same places essentially, just different languages, with the change of languages came the change of perceptions.
@Murray David The whole concept of Wales didn't exist then, though the name 'Wallace' does mean Welshman but the word 'Welsh' itself was used by Eastern tribes like the Anglo, Saxons and Jutes etc to refer to those 'foreign' to themselves, even though their initial first people were actually more foreign technically. Though some aspects of British history like King Alfred and Merlin the Wizard etc were preserved better in the older British languages, one of which later became called 'Welsh' (even though they would technically be more Scottish by geographical heritage) as before English was born in Britain as a language from Germanic elements (like the old braid Scots leid in the north) early Welsh continued to evolve seperately and didn't have as much influence on the development of English as the other languages like Cumbric or even Cornish, then of course old English later adopted more Latin elements brought in from the 'Frenchified' Normans (North men, who further back came from mostly ancestors who were themselves from Norse men - i.e., people from the further up north lands like Norway), which is why English is such a confusingly illogical language nowadays.
Great stuff - cheers. The Votadini were the principal local tribe where I grew up, in East Lothian, and built a series of fortified settlements on the hills there - not tall ones by any means, but they're striking and stand out on the relatively flat landscape. A beautiful, underrated part of the country. Climbing these hills as a boy, I'd imagine the rugged Iron Age people living in those settlements seeing Romans approaching for the first time (maybe a scout on horseback rather than a column of legionaries?) and what that must've felt like to witness - not as dramatic as, say, the Aboriginal Australians meeting the Europeans, but history is even more fascinating when it's that local.
@@PredatorUpHill The guy who translated the Book of Invasions from Gaelic into English said "There is not a single element of genuine historical detail, in the strict sense of the word, anywhere in the whole compilation." Irish archeologist R.A Stewart MacAllister 87% of scottish place names are not gaelic behave yourself, place names are mixed between Cumbric, Northumbrian, gaelic, Pictish and Norse Where did ye get that 87% quote from ?
Very interesting, especially the suggestion that the more southern Caledonians were a different people from the more northerly Picts. Possibly the southern lot were Brythonic Celts and the northern peoples predominantly earlier non-Indo European peoples. The matriarchal lineages, plus Goddesses, are definitely not Indo-European - IEs tended to have dominant male Gods, e.g. Thor, Jupiter and apparently this extends to some IE Indian Gods. It was the hunter-gatherer peoples who had goddesses, female fertility figures, etc. The q-Celtic peoples are only supposed to have reached Ireland about 1,000 BCE and by then the Brythonic lot were all over Britain, so there was plenty of time for much intermingling and adoption of each others ideas and practices.
Thank you so much for these videos! I come from Clan Grant, and we have a great many stories of our Pictish connection, as well as our Viking connection. I have always been fascinated about the Picts and have just recently begun following the archaeological work being done in Northern Scotland. The more I learn, the more I wish to know! It's not easy finding more reliable sources, so it's nice to see work done by someone who is making an effort to learn and present a variety of theories!
No problem at all Brianne, I'm glad you're finding them interesting! I've read that this is the case with many of the Clans who still tell tales of heroes of old that may even be so old as the days of the Picts. Indeed, up until the '45 many of the Clans lived in much the same way as their Pictish ancestors had done. That sounds really interesting, which sites are they currently excavating? You are like me then, a thirst for knowledge that leaves me ever hungry for me ;) Thanks again for your feedback!
History With Hilbert I've been following Gordon Noble. He has a great Facebook group called Northern Picts where he discusses the work he and his team does. They've been doing a lot of work in Burghead and Rhynie. It's funny that you mention the clan stories. I grew up in a little town in Maine in the US. Every year, we would have a huge family reunion and our family historians would always bring the Clan Grant stories with them. My ancestors descend from a Grant captured during the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and was sent to the Colonies as an indentured servant, but even then, there were little tidbits about the mysterious Picts that we descended from!
interesting. the people on my mom's side of the family, the Visayans of the central philippines, were known as the "Pintados" (painted) by the first spanish explorers because they were tattooed from head to toe
That is interesting! Perhaps it was something so memorable to the people who saw them that in both the Pintados and Pictish cases the newcomers defined them by it? Thanks for sharing this :)
The area on the Pictish map Fib is now in modern times is called Fife. I live in Fife and most of the old Town names and places actually derive from Auld Scots, Celt ( or in this case) Pictish.
I'd like to see something about the Pictish Beast, an animal that doesn't look like any real animal but appeared so frequently in Pictish art that it represents 40% of all their animal forms.
@@StevieAch Yes, but it usually has forelegs and a tail like a lion or cattle. And that long, curly thing stuck to its head. I wonder if it's possibly an interpretation of the sea-goat, the half-goat half-fish creature that is the ancient-Babylonian-then-Greek zodiac "animal" symbol for the sign of Capricorn. Edit: ??
Water beastie or Kelpie it was a water diety that resembles a long haired horned horse with a bill it resided in bodies of water and dragged souls and people into the water. You avoided them by making token payment to bodies of water lochs. They attacked in the early morning or evening mists and made a high pitched scream.
@@stuartpage8517 yesss!!! I get all kinds of weird shit on the closed captions. I don't want them on but for some reason with my three-year-old phone when I cast to the TV I have to have closed captions they just pop up and stay there!
Of course he was and this guy knows he was. He got a bit tongue tied in the first of these pictish videos and said the vulnerable bead that's why he said I won't say vulnerable bead this time! Duh.
Thank you for your kind words :) I will continue my series on the Picts in the near future :) Mind you I have some videos coming soon about some prehistoric sites in England if that's also an interest of yours :)
Very informative! I have been wondering about the Picts for years and nobody on this side of the "pond" seems to give a hoot. Thanks for synthesizing all the scholarly research!
@@caledonianson927 As in? What is now called Scots-Gàidhlig was once spoken in most of Scotland because as much as 87% of Scottish place names come from Scots-Gàidhlig (Albannach), though many call it 'Gaelic' - which in reality only started to be called that in the 16th century as a foreign slur word and more inaccurately many still pronounce it as "Gaylick" which is the Irish pronunciation of it (the Scottish one is pronounced as "Gah-lik". To English (Inglis) speakers it would still be called 'Scottis' up till the 16th century based on that, but the true name for the language in the actual language itself would be "Albannach" (Ireland's is 'Eirennach') as 'Albannach' literally came to mean 'Scottish' in the language after Scotland's alternative name of 'Alba' which is still used today on all official govt correspondence and in the old Albannach language of Scotland. So it really should still be called Albannach today, the term 'Gaelic' gets in the way and adds more confusion. That's "Albannach" with a guttural 'ch' at the end by the way, like you would pronounce "Loch" in the Braid Scots Leid, most people with a non-Scots tongue cannot pronounce that. The Hiberni ('Irish' in Latin) of Hibernia (originally called 'Ierne') scholars of the 'Annals of the Four Masters' knew the name of 'Alba' also as the name of the old Pict Kingdom of Scotland, and Scotland's alt name 'ALBA' also etymologically directly derives from Great Britain's oldest and most ancient name - 'ALBION'. So same places essentially, just different languages, with the change of languages came the change of perceptions.
How can he know how it happend? Tell it like it was...what a joke, we know so little. He can only throw out oppinions. Just Christian hate is all he is pushing out.
I read that the Romans - no strangers to blood and war - were terrified of the Celtic peoples. Evidently, they didn't much like the Celtic tradition of head-hunting, objected to human sacrifice, and really didn't trust the priest class (Druids). Could you mention something about these cultural traits of the Celts?
This video series on the Picts has been so interestng. I heard of them before but I never really looked into them. This has brought so many new information to me, with is wonderful. Would you have any recommendations on books on the Picts? I really love to read more on them.
My grandmother claimed she was a direct descendant of a Pictish leader. Not provable. Family lore. However, she did say that they were not Celtic. She said they were a shorter, darker people. She had darker skin and dark hair. It is was a running joke in our family on my fathers side that we were the reasons that the Romans built Hadrians Wall. All blather? I cant prove anything, but it meant a lot to her. I find it very frustrating finding historical information on these ancestors.
Jamie Hume Very interesting! But also quite odd! as it's widely acknowledged that the insular celts are darker than their saxon and norse counterparts, so that would support the assumption the picts are celtic!
Jamie Hume I heard the same claims on both sides of my family...the Romans built a wall to keep the Picts out. These were oral histories in Nova Scotia told by people growing up in rural areas where schools went at most to grade 8. Generally the same story but there are a few differences. But wow so surprising when I realized it was probably Hadrian's Wall 😂
One possible consideration worth bearing in mind is that from the last glacial maximum global sea levels would have been 100 meters plus lower which would have made for a continual land mass between present day Great Briton and France rendering more plausible that the tribe of Pictones merely spread along the western coastal region of a once contiguous geography. Cheers
Yeah if the Pictones tribe is tens of thousands of years old. Not likely. Other individuals belonging to older extinct tribes South of the British Isles maybe, if at all.
I do not really think that it would be possible. Their languages are in no way related, their customes are totally different, the rare things we know about their way of living has nothing to do with the drasticly different way of the Scyths( and Sarmations for that matter.). Another thing is that there is no documumentation of Picts being that different of other Brythonnic people, what means that they had way more celtic things. The only link I can see is the fact that Scythians had big and many tatoos covering their body's ( Kings and priest's normally) but this isn't even sure if the Picts actually did this too ( But I think they did it, because other Celtic cultures did it too.). Anyway, I dont think it is possible, but just search for the truth yourself. Maybe you will find clear evidence that I am wrong.
lampo the raptor Thanks for your reply. I only wondered if there might be a connection because they were obviously accomplished cavalry and warriors. The Romans employed Sarmations for their Cavalry. Some of them were stationed at Ribchester which is not too far from where I live. When they retired they were given plots of land in the area. These men were warriors and l often wonder what part they might have played in post Roman Britain, with their knowledge of armour and weapons. The forerunners of our ' Knights in shining armour ' maybe. It's all speculation of course but very interesting. It's unfortunate that we don't know a lot about the early medieval period apart from what can be gleaned from monastic records of King lists and the Anglo Saxon Chronicles etc. I also wonder where their art form came from. Where did the artisans learn their craft. Did it filter down from places like Assyria /Babylon? Was there a Norse/Scandinavian connection. Similar artwork can be seen on hogback tombstones and early Christian crosses in the north of England. Fascinating topic. I have read that the ' Celts ' ( a word that I personally think is used too generally) were a branch of Indo Europeans. They operated a caste system as explained at the beginning of this video, similar to India today. Priests, Kings down to slaves. They possibly displaced the indigenous Britons and enslaved them as well. ' Hobs' ie like the untouchables, possibly the origin of the word hobgoblin. We still have a caste system today except we just call it a class system, it doesn't sound as bad 😕 I'm particularly interested in stone circles and bronze age sites as there are lots of them not too far from me and even less is known of their origins. What a fascinating island we live in 😀
Enjoyed the video! I've subscribed too as I enjoy your ways of sharing information. I liked seeing the photo of the pict cross at the church in Aberlemno! Angus has a lot of pictish history. Aberlemno has 4 stones alone and another in a museum. It has Dunnichen nearby too, which had a big battle. Nearby is also Restenneth Priory which they believe had a church built for King of Picts, King Nechtan. There's more Stones still standing out for people to see in Angus elsewhere. Fascinating area!
Thank you for watching and commenting - I really do have the best subscribblers out there, such a crowd as you are will undoubtedly attract many more to bask in our glory ;)
I would suggest to those interested in the Picts that they read the works of L. A Waddell a graduate of Glasgow University who served as a medical officer in India, Tibet and China. He was a multi linguist and like most people of his class and generation had a fascination for ancient history. He believed that the Picts were the original inhabitants of Britain and Ireland. They may have called themselves the Ban or Van. Much later in the Bronze Age Britain was invaded by Phoenicians, Hittites and similar people. www.jrbooksonline.com/pob/pob_ch10.html For what it's worth I've got a feeling the Picts were refugees from Doggerland who settled Britain as their own lands went under the sea and Britain's ice finally disappeared. They were from the very early days.
@@Lordpeyre Hi Buddy, Quite a lot of ancient Mediterranean types settled here. There is a school of thought that says the Pharonic Egyptians, (who may be historically, 'the jews') settled the west of Britain. DNA evidence backs this up. Research Alan wilson and Baram Blackett.
Great video Hilbert, just as I like it, down to earth with no histrionics! Living as I do on an old Pictish site, on the Kingdom of Fife boarder with Perthshire, there is quite a lot of areas that we can explore the past of these enigmatic peoples. Just one thing, in Scottish Gaelic, the word Gaelic is pronounced Galic like garlic without the R Can you do something about the Outer Hebrides please?
I really enjoyed this video about the Picts. I liked the photos of the ancient Pictish cross, forts, and house! I find ancient history fascinating! Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us! ~Janet in Canada
I really enjoy your videos about the Picts (my DNA shows I am mainly Pict from Aberdeenshire despite living in Northumberland). I look forward to your next one. By the way the subtitles (which I need due to hearing problems) are hilarious & keep putting pigs for Picts.
Can you explore relations between the Picts and the "Vikings"? You touched on it at the end with regard to the Viking raiding, Ring Forts and even social heirarchy. Finally, the Pict script writing on Rock is very similar to the Scandinavian Runes. All this and more suggest the two groups had strong relations from at least as early as 500 AD.
Thank you for getting in touch :) I really do need to talk about the Late Pictish Era where they did interact with the Norsemen in such as places as Orkney. Likely my next video on the Picts will be a general overview of their history, so I'll touch on the Vikings there, although I might make another video about the Pictish interaction with the Norse because it is an interesting and important part of their story. Thank you for raising this point! Though trans-North Sea trade is possible with such early merchants as the Frisians who used Anglo-Frisian Runes, I think another source of this could be from the Kingdom of Deira which is likely to have been a Germanic enclave of Roman mercenaries in and around York who may have fought with or against the Picts as they pushed south after the Romans left Britain in the late 4th century. I might make a dedicated video about that - thanks for bringing it up, I'll get back to you when I've done more research!
Chris my surname Urquhart is Pict meaning I come from the Pict blood line since my surname is not Scottish or Irish word and few other ones come from the Pict like Forbes,Mckay as well and all are other sub familes. I looked into this idea of Scandivavian that's not true. Techinally speaking depending how far you want to take before the Picts and Celtic moved to Scotland and Ireland many of the first people to live in in countries from Ireland all the way to Ukraine was shown by research the first people in the area were Celtic A lot of growing information Slavic and Celtic same people is coming up..
@@blairseo1 Same, my surename is Angus, which was first reported being used as a surename by some pictish clan, and later a pict king of an area aptly named "Angus".
Why have you only relied on non Irish historical sources? We knew them better than anyone... English narrative on that Islands history is usually through a narrow narrow lens. Ogham was used by the Irish. It is a Celtic writing system...the oldest in Western Europe. A fact well known by academics.
Great video. Good content in hard-to-find content. I would also like to know about their clothing. I can't find information about it, do you have a video about?
I've recently discovered much to my amazement the the Romans lead 3 campaigns by three different Emperors into Scotland !! They got to Raedykes marching camp (I believe they had 20,000 soldiers) which is located 3 miles from Stonehaven which is south of Aberdeen! and Normandykes camp at Peterculter is just a few miles past Aberdeen. Even more amazing is there was a Roman fort at Cawdor ( beside Cawdor Castle of Shakespeare's Macbeth) which is by Inverness and the famous Culloden Moor where the 1746 Jacobean Rebellion met it's defeat to The Duke of Cumberland (AKA The butcher Cumberland) head of the English army, it was the last civil war fought in United Kingdom.
Good stuff - thought to share The Caledonians (Northern Picts), We were told, used Woad as a skin paint- hence the term painted people, Sounds mystical for Jocks, but not when other early tribal people did similar, to camoflage themselves
My mother's family were descended from the Picts. In Britain, her family lives on the same piece of land, in the Border Region, that they have always lived on. They say they have been there since the Stone Age and there are caves on that land that have Pictish Cave Paintings on them, that my ancestors drew, thousands of years ago. Interestingly, this was her mother's family (that descended from the Picts, so it's in my Matrilineal Line). Her family have a swarthy skinned, dark haired, green or brown-eyed appearance. They tend to be tall, thin and wiry, and very energetic people. They make good soldiers, good farmers and good fishermen, and these are the main family trades. My mother had olive skin, black hair and green eyes and was often mistaken for a New Zealand Maori or an Australian Aborigine. She enjoyed being around these indigenous tribal women, preferring their company to that of White women and they accepted her as one of their own. They told her that she had their Spirit and she said it must have been her Pictish Ancestry that they were picking up on.
Third time watching. Again, Excellent ! I very much appreciate the professional-grade narration: you speak in complete sentences and dont say "UM" three times in every sentence. This descendant of Pictland, now living in the US, appreciates your videos. Thanks for doing them.
Have enjoyed all your You Tube videos! Please keep up the most excellent work!! By all means, make more videos on the mysterious Picts and their culture!!! Thanks.
I love your video. You put together the information so well, it flows very nicely and I feel I really learned something about the Picts. So much detail, well done. You also have a very nice voice
Did enjoy the video, it told alot of information but not to confusing (I'm new). I'm starting to obtain more and more information, thanks to you for your information. Have a great day.
Scythians are Indo-Iranian peoples. Later relatives include the Sarmatians and Alans. The only people who still speak a language related to Scythian are the Ossetes in the Caucasus (with Persian as a more distant relative). I don't think Picts have anything to do with them.
Interesting video but there's an interesting facet of Pictish culture that set them well above the contemporary Irishmen, one that for a long time gave them a centralizing advantage over other Celtic tribes. That was their administrative system. The inheritance system in Ireland was so that a recently enthroned king would always negotiate with other strongmen of his distant family for who was to be his crown prince - the "tanaiste". And then the reigning king would always look for a political opportunity to anull this deal... The kingship of the Picts was on the other hand elective among the royal clan whose prominent members were petty kings of the other six kingdoms, when a king and his "tanaiste" died or was disgraced the petty kings came together and elected one of themselves to be the new high king and they also elected his tanaiste. Now the fact is that the Pictish society was to the bottom divided in halves, "moieties" called "Horse" and "Cat", where one of them was junior and the other one senior. So the high king would govern the northern - or sometimes southern - part of the kingdom and his tanaiste the other part. In the petty kingdoms the same principle - two parts - one superior and reigning and one inferior but learning the ropes and in waiting for promotion. Same principle in the clan - senior and junior parts. And in subclans too. Result was that a ruler, on each administrative level, mostly had gone through a training under supervision of his senior authority so that he was competent when succeeding.
Thanks for the video, I have one question. can you elaborate what you mean when you say Matrilineal succession was much more common in history? do you mean it was much more common than we assume or was it straight up more cultures in history that practiced matrilineal sucession than patrilineal succession?
Marcelo Martins m.a.martins@live.com the language of the Caledonians was Brythonic, but the Caledonians and Picts are not the same thing, anybody living north of Hadrian’s wall was a Caledonians but Picts only lives north of the Forth-Clyde line
That's one of many ideas about the origins of the Picts, and he touched on it above where he said it's been speculated that they may have been a pre-Celtic (and pre-Indo-European) people, but that seems to be unlikely given the evidence we have.
I only just stumbled upon picts a few months back, because of family research, and with my Surname being clan of the chattan confederation. I found out that MacPherson/McPherson's would of likely being of a pitctish descendants. On my Father's Side McPherson (Grandad) Scottish, Collins (Nan) Irish. Mother's Side Corbett (Nan) English, ? (Grandad) ?. No one knows. But i've mostly researched the Scottish McPherson family. Tartan, Jacobite war. And so forth. Btw, I'm well English Born and Live in Middlesbrough.
Macpherson is a Cattanach name or clan Chattan one and definitely Pictish in origin,it is a Cat people name very similar to the English sounding Parson and means much the same
Pictones were not in the region of Bordeaux but in the region of Poitiers (in the East) to Vendée (in the West), modern day Poitou in all three départements of Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne which is roughly the size of Slovenia. Poitou is halfway distance between Paris and Bordeaux
Pictland and Pictish culture and language may of died for know but well revive it soon but it may be dead but the genetics Live on through us Scottish people
Very interesting video, indeed! I think Breton is a Brythonic language. It does not come from Gaulish, and it is not a Continental Celtic language, but an Insular one, very close to Cornish actually. It came to Brittany with the migrations from Britain, during the Anglo-Saxon conquests.
You're correct; Breton is a P-Celtic language. It split off from what's now Welsh and Cornish when some of the Britons fled the Anglo-Saxon incursion and settled in Armorica.
If the picts spoke a p celtic language then they were not pre celtic inhabitant but celtic inhabitants. Thus the term "pre celtic" must be called into question as a historical term?
Thanks! Potentially they might be as I explain in my video on the Origin of the Picts, although I think it more likely they were just descendants of the Celts and some pre-Celtic peoples of the area. Origin of the Picts: ua-cam.com/video/CeOcBRsiiG8/v-deo.html
Pictou , Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. Place name predates known european settlements. This clip doesn't mention the Picts but pay close attention around the 30 sec mark. See here: ua-cam.com/video/cAjPMBa80yY/v-deo.html
I'm try to learn as much as I can about the Picts because I believe a descendant of the Picts my own surname originates from Fortriu three of my grandparent's both my grans and one of my granda's all had one parent with a pictish origin surname I still live in Scotland live a way from 150 miles Kingussie where my surname comes from my family hasn't moved very far
What hasn't been mentioned is the name *Caledonia* - this was a Latinised version of the original name .It's been suggested that this comes from the Brythonic word ' *Caled* ' meaning 'hard' - the word has survived into modern day Welsh. The archaeologist, historian and broadcaster ,Neil Oliver suggests that Caledonians would translate as ' *the hard people* '
The rocks in North Scotland are the oldest in Britain. This means they will also be the hardest ones in Britain (on average), and sure enough thats where the Highlands are. I think the name Caledonia comes from the landscape, as everybody was 'hard' back then.
The iron age round house on view at 12:40 is actually near penzance in Cornwall. It is called Bodrifty, and you can stay there for a short break. It is glorious, but not 'pictish'.
Great video, I'm working on a viking exploration PC game and I love the concept of "Raid and trade". That's definitely gonna be a dialog when you pull up on a Pictish village.
I'm Irish and scottish, I took a dna test because people kept asking me if I was Italian,spanish, native the list went on!. It came out to be just Irish and scottish and northern english/welsh. My mother's side is all VERY short, myself being one of the tallest at 5 feet half an inch because of my Dad's Irish blood...thanks Dad for the half inch lol! .(He's 6 foot lol!) All the woman on the Mac Donald side in my Mom's family stands ( SO SHORT ALMOST DWARFISH!) at 5 feet or slightly under. Dark hair, greenish yellow tan, and greyish/yellowy brown eyes, high cheek bones and flat faces. They look almost Canadian Native? We always assumed until I took this blood test. ALL of the woman look like this? We are pure highlander but not what you'd traditionally think? We still get freckles too....but we have olive skin? I have to tell people continuously I'm not anything exotic just boring old Irish and Scottish, but they never believe me! It's odd? My Ancestry said our family has strong routes in the highlands and probably have been there for many centuries...specifically Argyll and Bute...a place I know nothing of since I'm Canadian lol! We are the Mac Donald Clan...also mixed with the Campbells in PEI Canada after we the jacobites were banished by britain and taxed out of our castles! lol! two warring tribes marrying each other in a new world ....kinda romantic! :p
@@mackenzierivercasey6752 Speaking of your mother’s side being so short, I think you’ll find Skara Brae very interesting. The village was built into a mound and the residents were apparently very short. You can go and visit it: the top of the mound was torn away so that visitors can look down into the village.
The focus on Matriarchal belief systems reminds me a little, tiny bit of Boudicca (sp?) the Druid priestess who led a gigantic insurrection against the Romans. Wonder if there's some sort of distant connection.
Boudicca was a queen and a sword-woman in her own right. She fought alongside the men as did most women warriors in pre Rome history. Boudicca was not a druid priestess.
Fuzzy Dunlop Boudicca was also the wife of Prusatugus, the tribal leader who died shortly before Boudicca assumes a leadership role due to Roman depredations. Boudicca’s wasn’t a matriarchal society.
The Picts weren't a matriarchal society. They chose their kings from the female side, but that didn't make them a matriarchal society. You notice, for instance, they were ruled by kings, not queens.
Boudicca inherited the leadership on the death of her husband who was leader before her. Women could be leaders just as men could if they had the position and respect. Boudicca was a warrior in her own right. To allow women into leadership positions is not the same as a Matriarchy where only women lead.
I live in Shetland and honestly this is so interesting. There is brochs abseloutly everywhere I mean in the village I live there is three including Mousa Broch ,the most well preserved one. It's so interesting hearing more about Pictish culture!
The aald name for Shetlaun was Innse Cat, the island of the Cat,or Cat people. It was also part of Cataibh province.
@@grahamfleming7642 "Cat People"? My Old Woman must have been Shetlander in a previous lifetime.. she certainly is a cat person! 😼 🤣
The Picts have long had an air of mystery for me that I've always hoped can be enlightened. Thanks for the video attempting to do just that!
I still find it extraordinary that the Romans fought these folks for centuries and yet there are so few written sources to tell us who they were and whether, for example, their language was mutually intelligible with Irish for example?
The word for Britain in modern Welsh and proto-Welsh; Brythonic is Prydain. Pryd means tinted or coloured in Welsh. This Irish word for the Picts Cruthain (spelling?) I’m certain is the Irish version of the word Prydain, as this is the main difference between Brythonic and Gaelic: the P and Q Celtic forms. The modern Welsh word for Briton is Prydeinwr, meaning ‘painted man’ in its literal form. The moniker and name survived long after the Romanised Britons had (more than likely) stopped the old custom of tinting the body with dye obtained from the woad plant. The word Picti is simply the Latin translation of Prydeinwr. I’m therefore certain that these people would have referred to themselves as Prydeinwyr (plural) which at least has the identical meaning of the Latin Picti.
Pryd ≠ paint, painted
Prydeinwr = nothing means
Man = gŵr
Modern Welsh word for Britain = prydain
@@Edarnon_Brodie what do you mean by ‘prydeinwr=nothing means’?
@@TreforTreforgan Actually it can mean British, or something, but not painted man.
@@Edarnon_Brodie but the word British actually means tattooed or painted. That’s the point. There are two words we have in use for Pict in Welsh, Prydyn and Prydwr. Pryd=tinted (or painted) Gwr=man (the G in Gwr is mutated out of the agglutination) Modern Welsh for Britain is Prydain, literally translated to painted land or land of the painted.
Prydyn is the Welsh term for Pictland while Prydain is the homeland of the Britons, now known as England, Wales and Cornwall. In some Old Welsh manuscripts there are refernces to Britons living in Prydyn most likely referring to the descendants of the Votadini, Selcovae and other tribes.
What is now called Scots-Gàidhlig was once spoken in most of Scotland because as much as 87% of Scottish place names come from Scots-Gàidhlig (Albannach), though many call it 'Gaelic' - which in reality only started to be called that in the 16th century as a foreign slur word and more inaccurately many still pronounce it as "Gaylick" which is the Irish pronunciation of it (the Scottish one is pronounced as "Gah-lik".
To English (Inglis) speakers it would still be called 'Scottis' up till the 16th century based on that, but the true name for the language in the actual language itself would be "Albannach" (Ireland's is 'Eirennach') as 'Albannach' literally came to mean 'Scottish' in the language after Scotland's alternative name of 'Alba' which is still used today on all official govt correspondence and in the old Albannach language of Scotland.
So it really should still be called Albannach today, the term 'Gaelic' gets in the way and adds more confusion.
That's "Albannach" with a guttural 'ch' at the end by the way, like you would pronounce "Loch" in the Braid Scots Leid, most people with a non-Scots tongue cannot pronounce that.
The Hiberni ('Irish' in Latin) of Hibernia (originally called 'Ierne') scholars of the 'Annals of the Four Masters' knew the name of 'Alba' also as the name of the old Pict Kingdom of Scotland, and Scotland's alt name 'ALBA' also etymologically directly derives from Great Britain's oldest and most ancient name - 'ALBION'.
So same places essentially, just different languages, with the change of languages came the change of perceptions.
@Murray David The whole concept of Wales didn't exist then, though the name 'Wallace' does mean Welshman but the word 'Welsh' itself was used by Eastern tribes like the Anglo, Saxons and Jutes etc to refer to those 'foreign' to themselves, even though their initial first people were actually more foreign technically.
Though some aspects of British history like King Alfred and Merlin the Wizard etc were preserved better in the older British languages, one of which later became called 'Welsh' (even though they would technically be more Scottish by geographical heritage) as before English was born in Britain as a language from Germanic elements (like the old braid Scots leid in the north) early Welsh continued to evolve seperately and didn't have as much influence on the development of English as the other languages like Cumbric or even Cornish, then of course old English later adopted more Latin elements brought in from the 'Frenchified' Normans (North men, who further back came from mostly ancestors who were themselves from Norse men - i.e., people from the further up north lands like Norway), which is why English is such a confusingly illogical language nowadays.
Great stuff - cheers. The Votadini were the principal local tribe where I grew up, in East Lothian, and built a series of fortified settlements on the hills there - not tall ones by any means, but they're striking and stand out on the relatively flat landscape. A beautiful, underrated part of the country.
Climbing these hills as a boy, I'd imagine the rugged Iron Age people living in those settlements seeing Romans approaching for the first time (maybe a scout on horseback rather than a column of legionaries?) and what that must've felt like to witness - not as dramatic as, say, the Aboriginal Australians meeting the Europeans, but history is even more fascinating when it's that local.
@@PredatorUpHill The guy who translated the Book of Invasions from Gaelic into English said "There is not a single element of genuine historical detail, in the strict sense of the word, anywhere in the whole compilation." Irish archeologist R.A Stewart MacAllister
87% of scottish place names are not gaelic behave yourself, place names are mixed between Cumbric, Northumbrian, gaelic, Pictish and Norse
Where did ye get that 87% quote from ?
This channel is excellent. Glad it exists and I found it.
Thank you very much Antii!! I'm glad to have you with us :)
@@historywithhilbert I know this video is 3 years old but ogham was actually used by the irish
Same here. It’s improving the quality of my life lol
@Doloris Gruda what this has to do with the topic at hand is beyond me
Absolutely. I applaud you Hilbert!
Very interesting, especially the suggestion that the more southern Caledonians were a different people from the more northerly Picts. Possibly the southern lot were Brythonic Celts and the northern peoples predominantly earlier non-Indo European peoples. The matriarchal lineages, plus Goddesses, are definitely not Indo-European - IEs tended to have dominant male Gods, e.g. Thor, Jupiter and apparently this extends to some IE Indian Gods. It was the hunter-gatherer peoples who had goddesses, female fertility figures, etc. The q-Celtic peoples are only supposed to have reached Ireland about 1,000 BCE and by then the Brythonic lot were all over Britain, so there was plenty of time for much intermingling and adoption of each others ideas and practices.
Thank you so much for these videos! I come from Clan Grant, and we have a great many stories of our Pictish connection, as well as our Viking connection. I have always been fascinated about the Picts and have just recently begun following the archaeological work being done in Northern Scotland. The more I learn, the more I wish to know! It's not easy finding more reliable sources, so it's nice to see work done by someone who is making an effort to learn and present a variety of theories!
No problem at all Brianne, I'm glad you're finding them interesting!
I've read that this is the case with many of the Clans who still tell tales of heroes of old that may even be so old as the days of the Picts. Indeed, up until the '45 many of the Clans lived in much the same way as their Pictish ancestors had done. That sounds really interesting, which sites are they currently excavating? You are like me then, a thirst for knowledge that leaves me ever hungry for me ;)
Thanks again for your feedback!
History With Hilbert I've been following Gordon Noble. He has a great Facebook group called Northern Picts where he discusses the work he and his team does. They've been doing a lot of work in Burghead and Rhynie.
It's funny that you mention the clan stories. I grew up in a little town in Maine in the US. Every year, we would have a huge family reunion and our family historians would always bring the Clan Grant stories with them. My ancestors descend from a Grant captured during the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and was sent to the Colonies as an indentured servant, but even then, there were little tidbits about the mysterious Picts that we descended from!
ya pict a winner here hilbert. enjoyed it twice. ha. have fun gare
interesting. the people on my mom's side of the family, the Visayans of the central philippines, were known as the "Pintados" (painted) by the first spanish explorers because they were tattooed from head to toe
That is interesting! Perhaps it was something so memorable to the people who saw them that in both the Pintados and Pictish cases the newcomers defined them by it? Thanks for sharing this :)
The area on the Pictish map Fib is now in modern times is called Fife. I live in Fife and most of the old Town names and places actually derive from Auld Scots, Celt ( or in this case) Pictish.
I'd like to see something about the Pictish Beast, an animal that doesn't look like any real animal but appeared so frequently in Pictish art that it represents 40% of all their animal forms.
To me, it looks very much like a porpoise/dolphin. Can't see it any other way now.
@@StevieAch Now I want to look at the Beast again with that in mind.
@@StevieAch Yes, but it usually has forelegs and a tail like a lion or cattle. And that long, curly thing stuck to its head. I wonder if it's possibly an interpretation of the sea-goat, the half-goat half-fish creature that is the ancient-Babylonian-then-Greek zodiac "animal" symbol for the sign of Capricorn.
Edit: ??
Water beastie or Kelpie it was a water diety that resembles a long haired horned horse with a bill it resided in bodies of water and dragged souls and people into the water. You avoided them by making token payment to bodies of water lochs. They attacked in the early morning or evening mists and made a high pitched scream.
Bede was known as the "Venerable" Bede not vulnerable! : )
If I use subtitles Picts are pigs
@@stuartpage8517 yesss!!! I get all kinds of weird shit on the closed captions. I don't want them on but for some reason with my three-year-old phone when I cast to the TV I have to have closed captions they just pop up and stay there!
Of course he was and this guy knows he was. He got a bit tongue tied in the first of these pictish videos and said the vulnerable bead that's why he said I won't say vulnerable bead this time! Duh.
But he mayyyyyy have been vulnerable at times!?!……like when he was caught on the lavy!
Used to call him "vegetable"
love it, tell me more. I can't get enough of there history.Thank you
Thank you for your kind words :)
I will continue my series on the Picts in the near future :)
Mind you I have some videos coming soon about some prehistoric sites in England if that's also an interest of yours :)
I truly enjoy the way the information is presented in your vids. You explain things very well, easy to understand.
AGREED .
Very informative! I have been wondering about the Picts for years and nobody on this side of the "pond" seems to give a hoot. Thanks for synthesizing all the scholarly research!
This is a great depiction of the picts you're giving us.
I hate Gallic humour... ;)
aweeeeeeeeeeeeeee
History With Hilbert pict your own jokes then?😁
No it is not... Its speculation at the best.
@@caledonianson927 As in? What is now called Scots-Gàidhlig was once spoken in most of Scotland because as much as 87% of Scottish place names come from Scots-Gàidhlig (Albannach), though many call it 'Gaelic' - which in reality only started to be called that in the 16th century as a foreign slur word and more inaccurately many still pronounce it as "Gaylick" which is the Irish pronunciation of it (the Scottish one is pronounced as "Gah-lik".
To English (Inglis) speakers it would still be called 'Scottis' up till the 16th century based on that, but the true name for the language in the actual language itself would be "Albannach" (Ireland's is 'Eirennach') as 'Albannach' literally came to mean 'Scottish' in the language after Scotland's alternative name of 'Alba' which is still used today on all official govt correspondence and in the old Albannach language of Scotland.
So it really should still be called Albannach today, the term 'Gaelic' gets in the way and adds more confusion.
That's "Albannach" with a guttural 'ch' at the end by the way, like you would pronounce "Loch" in the Braid Scots Leid, most people with a non-Scots tongue cannot pronounce that.
The Hiberni ('Irish' in Latin) of Hibernia (originally called 'Ierne') scholars of the 'Annals of the Four Masters' knew the name of 'Alba' also as the name of the old Pict Kingdom of Scotland, and Scotland's alt name 'ALBA' also etymologically directly derives from Great Britain's oldest and most ancient name - 'ALBION'.
So same places essentially, just different languages, with the change of languages came the change of perceptions.
"mercenaries", tell it like it is/was! Love it.
Mercenary missionary same thing
How can he know how it happend? Tell it like it was...what a joke, we know so little. He can only throw out oppinions. Just Christian hate is all he is pushing out.
Another great video, cheers for the entertainment and information you supply. Great job.
Thank you for watching again Chad, I'm glad you're still finding the Pictish videos interesting!
I read that the Romans - no strangers to blood and war - were terrified of the Celtic peoples. Evidently, they didn't much like the Celtic tradition of head-hunting, objected to human sacrifice, and really didn't trust the priest class (Druids). Could you mention something about these cultural traits of the Celts?
This video series on the Picts has been so interestng. I heard of them before but I never really looked into them. This has brought so many new information to me, with is wonderful. Would you have any recommendations on books on the Picts? I really love to read more on them.
My grandmother claimed she was a direct descendant of a Pictish leader. Not provable. Family lore. However, she did say that they were not Celtic. She said they were a shorter, darker people. She had darker skin and dark hair.
It is was a running joke in our family on my fathers side that we were the reasons that the Romans built Hadrians Wall. All blather? I cant prove anything, but it meant a lot to her.
I find it very frustrating finding historical information on these ancestors.
Jamie Hume Very interesting! But also quite odd! as it's widely acknowledged that the insular celts are darker than their saxon and norse counterparts, so that would support the assumption the picts are celtic!
Jamie Hume I heard the same claims on both sides of my family...the Romans built a wall to keep the Picts out. These were oral histories in Nova Scotia told by people growing up in rural areas where schools went at most to grade 8. Generally the same story but there are a few differences. But wow so surprising when I realized it was probably Hadrian's Wall 😂
I have found out that I have Pictish heritage but my family is quite fair skinned and tall with unruly curly hair lol
there are actually two walls. Hadrians wall and a later one , called Antonine wall running between Firth of Clyde and Firth of Forth
Jamie Hume would be interesting to know your DNA u should take a test
One possible consideration worth bearing in mind is that from the last glacial maximum global sea levels would have been 100 meters plus lower which would have made for a continual land mass between present day Great Briton and France rendering more plausible that the tribe of Pictones merely spread along the western coastal region of a once contiguous geography. Cheers
Yeah if the Pictones tribe is tens of thousands of years old. Not likely. Other individuals belonging to older extinct tribes South of the British Isles maybe, if at all.
Excellent video! I was worried I was going to be able to find a coherent analysis on the Picts before I found your videos.
Thanks very much :)
I'm glad it could be of use to you :D
the picts are, next to the goths ,huns, belgea,iberians and etrusks the most interesting europen tribe to ever exist.
They are very interesting when you look in depth into their respective histories :)
lampo the raptor I've sometimes wondered if the Picts were descendants of Sythians/Sarmations
I do not really think that it would be possible. Their languages are in no way related, their customes are totally different, the rare things we know about their way of living has nothing to do with the drasticly different way of the Scyths( and Sarmations for that matter.). Another thing is that there is no documumentation of Picts being that different of other Brythonnic people, what means that they had way more celtic things.
The only link I can see is the fact that Scythians had big and many tatoos covering their body's ( Kings and priest's normally) but this isn't even sure if the Picts actually did this too ( But I think they did it, because other Celtic cultures did it too.). Anyway, I dont think it is possible, but just search for the truth yourself. Maybe you will find clear evidence that I am wrong.
lampo the raptor Thanks for your reply. I only wondered if there might be a connection because they were obviously accomplished cavalry and warriors. The Romans employed Sarmations for their Cavalry. Some of them were stationed at Ribchester which is not too far from where I live. When they retired they were given plots of land in the area. These men were warriors and l often wonder what part they might have played in post Roman Britain, with their knowledge of armour and weapons. The forerunners of our ' Knights in shining armour ' maybe. It's all speculation of course but very interesting. It's unfortunate that we don't know a lot about the early medieval period apart from what can be gleaned from monastic records of King lists and the Anglo Saxon Chronicles etc.
I also wonder where their art form came from. Where did the artisans learn their craft. Did it filter down from places like Assyria /Babylon? Was there a Norse/Scandinavian connection. Similar artwork can be seen on hogback tombstones and early Christian crosses in the north of England. Fascinating topic.
I have read that the ' Celts ' ( a word that I personally think is used too generally) were a branch of Indo Europeans. They operated a caste system as explained at the beginning of this video, similar to India today. Priests, Kings down to slaves. They possibly displaced the indigenous Britons and enslaved them as well. ' Hobs' ie like the untouchables, possibly the origin of the word hobgoblin. We still have a caste system today except we just call it a class system, it doesn't sound as bad 😕
I'm particularly interested in stone circles and bronze age sites as there are lots of them not too far from me and even less is known of their origins. What a fascinating island we live in 😀
Hagoromo Otsutsuki You sound pretty stupid.
Enjoyed the video! I've subscribed too as I enjoy your ways of sharing information.
I liked seeing the photo of the pict cross at the church in Aberlemno! Angus has a lot of pictish history. Aberlemno has 4 stones alone and another in a museum. It has Dunnichen nearby too, which had a big battle. Nearby is also Restenneth Priory which they believe had a church built for King of Picts, King Nechtan. There's more Stones still standing out for people to see in Angus elsewhere. Fascinating area!
Great video as always, you have great content and deserve way more subs!
Thank you for watching and commenting - I really do have the best subscribblers out there, such a crowd as you are will undoubtedly attract many more to bask in our glory ;)
My grandparents helped build the Crannog shown here, in the late '90's. It's on Loch Tay and worth a visit.
I would suggest to those interested in the Picts that they read the works of L. A Waddell a graduate of Glasgow University who served as a medical officer in India, Tibet and China. He was a multi linguist and like most people of his class and generation had a fascination for ancient history.
He believed that the Picts were the original inhabitants of Britain and Ireland. They may have called themselves the Ban or Van.
Much later in the Bronze Age Britain was invaded by Phoenicians, Hittites and similar people.
www.jrbooksonline.com/pob/pob_ch10.html
For what it's worth I've got a feeling the Picts were refugees from Doggerland who settled Britain as their own lands went under the sea and Britain's ice finally disappeared. They were from the very early days.
Thanks for sharing this theory, I'll look into it :)
An invasion of the British Isles by the Phoenicians and/or Hittites is, shall we say, a bit far-fetched.
@@Lordpeyre Hi Buddy, Quite a lot of ancient Mediterranean types settled here. There is a school of thought that says the Pharonic Egyptians, (who may be historically, 'the jews') settled the west of Britain. DNA evidence backs this up. Research Alan wilson and Baram Blackett.
Great video Hilbert, just as I like it, down to earth with no histrionics!
Living as I do on an old Pictish site, on the Kingdom of Fife boarder with Perthshire, there is quite a lot of areas that we can explore the past of these enigmatic peoples.
Just one thing, in Scottish Gaelic, the word Gaelic is pronounced Galic like garlic without the R
Can you do something about the Outer Hebrides please?
I really enjoyed this video about the Picts. I liked the photos of the ancient Pictish cross, forts, and house! I find ancient history fascinating! Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us! ~Janet in Canada
I really enjoy your videos about the Picts (my DNA shows I am mainly Pict from Aberdeenshire despite living in Northumberland). I look forward to your next one. By the way the subtitles (which I need due to hearing problems) are hilarious & keep putting pigs for Picts.
Can you explore relations between the Picts and the "Vikings"? You touched on it at the end with regard to the Viking raiding, Ring Forts and even social heirarchy. Finally, the Pict script writing on Rock is very similar to the Scandinavian Runes. All this and more suggest the two groups had strong relations from at least as early as 500 AD.
Thank you for getting in touch :) I really do need to talk about the Late Pictish Era where they did interact with the Norsemen in such as places as Orkney. Likely my next video on the Picts will be a general overview of their history, so I'll touch on the Vikings there, although I might make another video about the Pictish interaction with the Norse because it is an interesting and important part of their story. Thank you for raising this point! Though trans-North Sea trade is possible with such early merchants as the Frisians who used Anglo-Frisian Runes, I think another source of this could be from the Kingdom of Deira which is likely to have been a Germanic enclave of Roman mercenaries in and around York who may have fought with or against the Picts as they pushed south after the Romans left Britain in the late 4th century. I might make a dedicated video about that - thanks for bringing it up, I'll get back to you when I've done more research!
Chris my surname Urquhart is Pict meaning I come from the Pict blood line since my surname is not Scottish or Irish word and few other ones come from the Pict like Forbes,Mckay as well and all are other sub familes. I looked into this idea of Scandivavian that's not true. Techinally speaking depending how far you want to take before the Picts and Celtic moved to Scotland and Ireland many of the first people to live in in countries from Ireland all the way to Ukraine was shown by research the first people in the area were Celtic A lot of growing information Slavic and Celtic same people is coming up..
@@blairseo1 Same, my surename is Angus, which was first reported being used as a surename by some pictish clan, and later a pict king of an area aptly named "Angus".
@@preeperdeep705 Very true Angus is Pict
Fascinating information!
Thank you!
My pleasure, thank you for watching!
Why have you only relied on non Irish historical sources? We knew them better than anyone... English narrative on that Islands history is usually through a narrow narrow lens. Ogham was used by the Irish. It is a Celtic writing system...the oldest in Western Europe. A fact well known by academics.
Great video. Good content in hard-to-find content.
I would also like to know about their clothing. I can't find information about it, do you have a video about?
I've recently discovered much to my amazement the the Romans lead 3 campaigns by three different Emperors into Scotland !!
They got to Raedykes marching camp (I believe they had 20,000 soldiers) which is located 3 miles from Stonehaven which is south of Aberdeen! and Normandykes camp at Peterculter is just a few miles past Aberdeen.
Even more amazing is there was a Roman fort at Cawdor ( beside Cawdor Castle of Shakespeare's Macbeth) which is by Inverness and the famous Culloden Moor where the 1746 Jacobean Rebellion met it's defeat to The Duke of Cumberland (AKA The butcher Cumberland) head of the English army, it was the last civil war fought in United Kingdom.
Wasn't the battle of Mons Graupius supposedly fought near Bennachie?
British army not English army, most of the British soldiers at Culloden were Scottish
Good stuff - thought to share The Caledonians (Northern Picts), We were told, used Woad as a skin paint- hence the term painted people, Sounds mystical for Jocks, but not when other early tribal people did similar, to camoflage themselves
My mother's family were descended from the Picts. In Britain, her family lives on the same piece of land, in the Border Region, that they have always lived on. They say they have been there since the Stone Age and there are caves on that land that have Pictish Cave Paintings on them, that my ancestors drew, thousands of years ago. Interestingly, this was her mother's family (that descended from the Picts, so it's in my Matrilineal Line).
Her family have a swarthy skinned, dark haired, green or brown-eyed appearance. They tend to be tall, thin and wiry, and very energetic people. They make good soldiers, good farmers and good fishermen, and these are the main family trades. My mother had olive skin, black hair and green eyes and was often mistaken for a New Zealand Maori or an Australian Aborigine. She enjoyed being around these indigenous tribal women, preferring their company to that of White women and they accepted her as one of their own. They told her that she had their Spirit and she said it must have been her Pictish Ancestry that they were picking up on.
@Guineith Isaacs Hi ! My great grandmother - Helen Mar Douglas. Also Pictish descendant?
Third time watching. Again, Excellent ! I very much appreciate the professional-grade narration: you speak in complete sentences and dont say "UM" three times in every sentence. This descendant of Pictland, now living in the US, appreciates your videos. Thanks for doing them.
Have enjoyed all your You Tube videos! Please keep up the most excellent work!! By all means, make more videos on the mysterious Picts and their culture!!! Thanks.
Beautiful video! I for one need to hear this! Keep up the good work!
I love your video. You put together the information so well, it flows very nicely and I feel I really learned something about the Picts. So much detail, well done. You also have a very nice voice
This channel is great and your videos are easy to follow. Thank you for the information!
This is a great channel for history lovers
Did enjoy the video, it told alot of information but not to confusing (I'm new). I'm starting to obtain more and more information, thanks to you for your information. Have a great day.
Very interesting. I will watch more of your programs.
Could you also do a video series on the scythians? They've always seemed a mysterious bunch to me, especially in terms of their origins and ethnicity.
I'll add it to my list of ideas :)
I read the pics could have come from the sycthians?
Scythians are Indo-Iranian peoples. Later relatives include the Sarmatians and Alans. The only people who still speak a language related to Scythian are the Ossetes in the Caucasus (with Persian as a more distant relative). I don't think Picts have anything to do with them.
@@matmitch8255 They do share an origin, so there's the connection
@@sirkkusalomaa4644 very far back though, if they are in fact Indo european
Interesting video but there's an interesting facet of Pictish culture that set them well above the contemporary Irishmen, one that for a long time gave them a centralizing advantage over other Celtic tribes. That was their administrative system. The inheritance system in Ireland was so that a recently enthroned king would always negotiate with other strongmen of his distant family for who was to be his crown prince - the "tanaiste". And then the reigning king would always look for a political opportunity to anull this deal...
The kingship of the Picts was on the other hand elective among the royal clan whose prominent members were petty kings of the other six kingdoms, when a king and his "tanaiste" died or was disgraced the petty kings came together and elected one of themselves to be the new high king and they also elected his tanaiste.
Now the fact is that the Pictish society was to the bottom divided in halves, "moieties" called "Horse" and "Cat", where one of them was junior and the other one senior. So the high king would govern the northern - or sometimes southern - part of the kingdom and his tanaiste the other part. In the petty kingdoms the same principle - two parts - one superior and reigning and one inferior but learning the ropes and in waiting for promotion. Same principle in the clan - senior and junior parts. And in subclans too.
Result was that a ruler, on each administrative level, mostly had gone through a training under supervision of his senior authority so that he was competent when succeeding.
Thanks for the video, I have one question. can you elaborate what you mean when you say Matrilineal succession was much more common in history? do you mean it was much more common than we assume or was it straight up more cultures in history that practiced matrilineal sucession than patrilineal succession?
VERY interesting and educational! Good job
The descent of language Breton indicated in the video is incorrect. in fact, it is also a language Britonic as well as the Cornish and Welsh.
Marcelo Martins m.a.martins@live.com the language of the Caledonians was Brythonic, but the Caledonians and Picts are not the same thing, anybody living north of Hadrian’s wall was a Caledonians but Picts only lives north of the Forth-Clyde line
Good video. I'd heard the Picts and Basques where related.
That's one of many ideas about the origins of the Picts, and he touched on it above where he said it's been speculated that they may have been a pre-Celtic (and pre-Indo-European) people, but that seems to be unlikely given the evidence we have.
30 % of Basques and 20% of Scots have rhesus negative bloodlines the highest in Europe. They MUST have been related.
My grandmother always said the "Pict" name for themselves was "Cluithi" or followers of Cluidh.
Excellent, in every way ! Thank you.
I read somewhere the Picts were a confederation of Celtic tribes formed in order to combat Roman incursions.
I only just stumbled upon picts a few months back, because of family research, and with my Surname being clan of the chattan confederation. I found out that MacPherson/McPherson's would of likely being of a pitctish descendants. On my Father's Side McPherson (Grandad) Scottish, Collins (Nan) Irish.
Mother's Side Corbett (Nan) English, ? (Grandad) ?. No one knows.
But i've mostly researched the Scottish McPherson family. Tartan, Jacobite war. And so forth.
Btw, I'm well English Born and Live in Middlesbrough.
Macpherson is a Cattanach name or clan Chattan one and definitely Pictish in origin,it is a Cat people name very similar to the English sounding Parson and means much the same
Pictones were not in the region of Bordeaux but in the region of Poitiers (in the East) to Vendée (in the West), modern day Poitou in all three départements of Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne which is roughly the size of Slovenia. Poitou is halfway distance between Paris and Bordeaux
Also where the Pictones are shown on the map is noticeably north of the Bordeaux area.
I liked it...I always wondered why I started getting tattoos from the age of 13 and was such a heartless pirate warrior when I was younger.
Very interesting video on a very interesting subject as usually! Good job!
We are Pict ! Thanks, well done!
Pictland and Pictish culture and language may of died for know but well revive it soon but it may be dead but the genetics Live on through us Scottish people
Very interesting video, indeed! I think Breton is a Brythonic language. It does not come from Gaulish, and it is not a Continental Celtic language, but an Insular one, very close to Cornish actually. It came to Brittany with the migrations from Britain, during the Anglo-Saxon conquests.
You're correct; Breton is a P-Celtic language. It split off from what's now Welsh and Cornish when some of the Britons fled the Anglo-Saxon incursion and settled in Armorica.
@@Lordpeyre Gaulish was also P-Celtic.
The picts used the woad plant for there blue body paint
Were they mistaken for Smurfs?
PG Woodhouse's surname is a derivative of "wode"
Amazing channel my friend. Keep it up!
If the picts spoke a p celtic language then they were not pre celtic inhabitant but celtic inhabitants. Thus the term "pre celtic" must be called into question as a historical term?
They trade, and raid,
they raid and trade and raid,
Trade trade trade,
Raid raid raid,
The Pictish and Briton Show!
Hilbert: sarcastically says "thanks Vikings".
Me: Ekki at thakka!
Very informative, thank you for posting.
Phenomenal videos, mate.
love your play on words; mercenary/missionary ha ha ha 😊👍🏻🙏🏻💓
That’s not the Bordeaux region in France 2:33. Bouche de la Loire, I believe.
Easy to follow and informative
Appreciate it!
Is there any D N A research on the over all European ancient peoples ?
5:03 Breton is not Gallic tho
Really really interesting!
Burghead... id love to know the etymology for that. Old Norse "borg" means fortified structure/hill... maybe a borrowing. ...or a cognate?
Could they be of ancient Gauls you think? I love your vids! I just finished this when you said Gaulish. lol
Thanks! Potentially they might be as I explain in my video on the Origin of the Picts, although I think it more likely they were just descendants of the Celts and some pre-Celtic peoples of the area.
Origin of the Picts:
ua-cam.com/video/CeOcBRsiiG8/v-deo.html
Pictou , Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. Place name predates known european settlements. This clip doesn't mention the Picts but pay close attention around the 30 sec mark. See here: ua-cam.com/video/cAjPMBa80yY/v-deo.html
Very interesting video, thank you
Yes, enjoyed it very much.
Alright dude , have you done any videos on Cornish history ?
Please make one or two more.
Pict DNA is very closely related to the Basque people of Northern Spain.
I'm try to learn as much as I can about the Picts because I believe a descendant of the Picts my own surname originates from Fortriu three of my grandparent's both my grans and one of my granda's all had one parent with a pictish origin surname I still live in Scotland live a way from 150 miles Kingussie where my surname comes from my family hasn't moved very far
What hasn't been mentioned is the name *Caledonia* - this was a Latinised version of the original name .It's been suggested that this comes from the Brythonic word ' *Caled* ' meaning 'hard' - the word has survived into modern day Welsh.
The archaeologist, historian and broadcaster ,Neil Oliver suggests that Caledonians would translate as ' *the hard people* '
The rocks in North Scotland are the oldest in Britain. This means they will also be the hardest ones in Britain (on average), and sure enough thats where the Highlands are. I think the name Caledonia comes from the landscape, as everybody was 'hard' back then.
Great video! Enjoyed it very much! :)
The iron age round house on view at 12:40 is actually near penzance in Cornwall. It is called Bodrifty, and you can stay there for a short break. It is glorious, but not 'pictish'.
Every Pict begins with Cait.
Great video, I'm working on a viking exploration PC game and I love the concept of "Raid and trade". That's definitely gonna be a dialog when you pull up on a Pictish village.
@@spoopify5560 I haven't worked on it in a while, it's sitting on my HD as a prototype, but I hope to get back to it someday :,(
really enjoyed this video, subscribed
My ancestors are from Northern Alba.
I wonder if they were Pitc's?
Thank you for much infirmatiin!!
"Pictatii" means "the painted ones" in Romanian. So the Latin etymology "Pictii" makes sense to me.
Great video you deserve alot more subs!
Thank you so much, let's make it happen eh :D
I'm Irish and scottish, I took a dna test because people kept asking me if I was Italian,spanish, native the list went on!. It came out to be just Irish and scottish and northern english/welsh. My mother's side is all VERY short, myself being one of the tallest at 5 feet half an inch because of my Dad's Irish blood...thanks Dad for the half inch lol! .(He's 6 foot lol!) All the woman on the Mac Donald side in my Mom's family stands ( SO SHORT ALMOST DWARFISH!) at 5 feet or slightly under. Dark hair, greenish yellow tan, and greyish/yellowy brown eyes, high cheek bones and flat faces. They look almost Canadian Native? We always assumed until I took this blood test. ALL of the woman look like this? We are pure highlander but not what you'd traditionally think? We still get freckles too....but we have olive skin? I have to tell people continuously I'm not anything exotic just boring old Irish and Scottish, but they never believe me! It's odd? My Ancestry said our family has strong routes in the highlands and probably have been there for many centuries...specifically Argyll and Bute...a place I know nothing of since I'm Canadian lol! We are the Mac Donald Clan...also mixed with the Campbells in PEI Canada after we the jacobites were banished by britain and taxed out of our castles! lol! two warring tribes marrying each other in a new world ....kinda romantic! :p
Have you looked up Skara Brae?
@@SkyquakeWolf No! But I will now! Now that I know my ancestry I'm so curious to learn more!
@@mackenzierivercasey6752 Speaking of your mother’s side being so short, I think you’ll find Skara Brae very interesting. The village was built into a mound and the residents were apparently very short. You can go and visit it: the top of the mound was torn away so that visitors can look down into the village.
The focus on Matriarchal belief systems reminds me a little, tiny bit of Boudicca (sp?) the Druid priestess who led a gigantic insurrection against the Romans. Wonder if there's some sort of distant connection.
Boudicca was a queen and a sword-woman in her own right. She fought alongside the men as did most women warriors in pre Rome history. Boudicca was not a druid priestess.
Fuzzy Dunlop Boudicca was also the wife of Prusatugus, the tribal leader who died shortly before Boudicca assumes a leadership role due to Roman depredations.
Boudicca’s wasn’t a matriarchal society.
The Picts weren't a matriarchal society. They chose their kings from the female side, but that didn't make them a matriarchal society. You notice, for instance, they were ruled by kings, not queens.
I don't think she was druid, but I don't know.
Boudicca inherited the leadership on the death of her husband who was leader before her. Women could be leaders just as men could if they had the position and respect. Boudicca was a warrior in her own right. To allow women into leadership positions is not the same as a Matriarchy where only women lead.
So interesting, thank you!
laughed, never knew that high land cattle existed, it looks so funny !
Your illustrations of Pict farmhouses look very similar to Frisian farm houses and some Low Saxon farmhouses.