The Picts: Culture, Language and Lifestyle

Another episode of the Pictish Culture Analysis, this time looking at the actual culture, language and lifestyle of those most elusive Picts! Hope you all enjoy this video!

Pictish Cultural Analysis:

Sources used:

Picts - Anna Ritchie
A New History of the Picts - Stuart McHardy
Pictish Warrior - Paul Wagner
The Historical Atlas of the Celtic World - John Haywood
Music:

Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod
Dhaka - Kevin MacLeod
Past the Edge - Kevin MacLeod
Echoes of Time - Kevin MacLeod
Rites - Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Patreon:

[eilidhmouat]

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!

[thecaveofthedead]

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?

[mishapurser]

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!

[TreforTreforgan]

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.

[dawnprinsloo]

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.

[callumwynne]

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.

[Anttimation]

This channel is excellent. Glad it exists and I found it.

[lonelyelk]

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

[elathien]

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!

[moragmacgregor]

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.

[Seactor]

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.

[cloudburststrife]

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.

[garychynne]

ya pict a winner here hilbert. enjoyed it twice. ha. have fun gare

[boobear]

Here because I recently discovered I’m a descendent of the Picts. :) happy to discover my history

[yarmo]

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?

[evenitao]

love it, tell me more. I can't get enough of there history.Thank you

[joshuahoward]

I truly enjoy the way the information is presented in your vids. You explain things very well, easy to understand.

[suzannetol]

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.

[mikesnyder]

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!

[joegill]

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.


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.