The Pictish Arts Society Conference—Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October 2024
We are delighted to present the agenda for this year’s Pictish Arts Society Conference, held online via Zoom on the afternoons of Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October 2024.
This year’s agenda is inspired by responses to our Member Survey earlier this year. Day 1 will provide a ‘back to basics’ overview of the Picts and their world, drawing on the latest academic scholarship and archaeological discoveries. On Day 2 we’ll dive deeper into some fascinating topics surrounding life, death, art and climate in Pictland.
We hope to see you there!
Tickets
Tickets are £12 members/£15 non-members. You can buy them from TicketSource here.
Agenda
Day 1 – Saturday 5th October
13:30–13:40 Log on
13:40–13:50 Opening remarks from Professor Jane Geddes, President, Pictish Arts Society
13:50–14:30 Daniel MacLean, Problem Solved? An Introduction to the Picts
14:30–14:40 Q&A
14:40–15:20 Hugh Levey, The Historiography of Pictish Symbols: Analysis and Interpretation of Pictish Symbols Through Time
15:20–15:30 Q&A
15:30–15:50 BREAK
15:50–16:30 Dr Victoria Whitworth, How to Read a Pictish Cross-Slab
16:30–16:40 Q&A
16:40–17:20 Professor Gordon Noble, Latest Updates from the Northern Picts Project
17:20–17:30 Q&A
Day 1 – Sunday 6th October
13:30–13:40 Log on
13:40–13:50 Opening remarks from Professor Jane Geddes
13:50–14:30 Allen Fraser, Did ‘Fimbulwinter’ Eradicate Shetland’s Picts?
14:30–14:40 Q&A
14:40–15:20 Dr Juliette Mitchell, The Landscapes of Barrow and Cairn Cemeteries and Symbol Stones in Early Medieval Scotland
15:20–15:30 Q&A
15:30–15:50 BREAK
15:50–16:30 Professor Jane Geddes, What is David iconography doing in Pictland?
16:30–16:40 Q&A
16:40–17:20 Jordyn Patrick, A Glimpse into Pictish Polychromy
17:20–17:30 Q&A
Abstracts and Speaker Bios
Problem Solved? An introduction to the Picts
Daniel MacLean
The Picts are best known for their amazing symbol stones which can be found throughout Scotland. However, until recently the number of known Pictish settlements lay far behind those in early Medieval England, where hundreds of Anglo-Saxon buildings are known, or Ireland, where tens of thousands of ringforts, settlements, cemeteries or other dwellings have been identified. However, recent research has uncovered fantastic new settlements, trade links to the Mediterranean, discovered Pictish monasteries and even managed to provide dates for these famous stones from around 300 AD to their disappearance in the 10th century. Using this new information and focusing on sites such as Burghead and Lair this talk will guide you into the everyday life of the Picts looking at the houses they lived in, the animals they hunted, their methods of farming and how they may have produced textiles for clothes. These case studies will also highlight the different methods they used to travel and even how they may have looked. The craftworking skills of the Picts will be analysed looking at the evidence from Clatchard Craig, Kings Seat and Rhynie amongst others, where recent evidence shows just how accomplished the Picts were in the traditions of fine metalworking. These sites will also show how the Picts were connected to long distance trade networks with the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to the south, the Irish to the west and even pottery from North Africa! Finally, using the evidence from sites like Collessie, Portmahomack and Tarradale we will look at how the Picts treated their dead over time, looking at the burial of warrior elites to the communities of Christians and church burials, giving us an idea of how the Picts lived and died as communities over 600 years.
Daniel MacLean MA (Hons) M.Litt studied Celtic and Viking Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and participated in the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) Project, one focus of which was understanding the early medieval archaeology centred around Forteviot. Subsequently, Daniel is currently working with the Northern Picts Project assisting in the excavations of sites such as Rhynie and Burghead with a particular focus on the material culture uncovered and the community engagements side of the project.
The Historiography of Pictish Symbols: The Analysis and Interpretation of Pictish Symbols Through Time
Hugh Levey
This paper introduces the Pictish symbols and discusses how scholars and antiquarians have viewed, analysed, and interpreted them over the years. Their competing interpretations include a lost Pictish language, personal names, tribal badges, marriage alliances, territorial markers, badges of rank, signposts, burial markers, and personal memorials. It has been argued that the symbols are Pagan, early Christian, and anti-Christian. Clearly, they cannot be all these things. This paper tries to clarify what we know and what we do not yet know about the symbols.
Hugh Levey was awarded a M.Litt. in Scottish History (distinction) by the University of Glasgow in 2019. His dissertation on Pictish Symbol usage, supervised by Katherine Forsyth, identified a new Pictish symbol and the principal ‘rules’ of symbol usage across different media. Prior to his Masters, Hugh worked in Information Technology where his data handling and analytical skills were honed. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Manchester University and remains an active classical and jazz musician. Hugh is Treasurer of the Pictish Arts Society and represents the Society on the Tayside and Fife Archaeological Committee.
How to Read a Pictish Cross Slab
Dr Victoria Whitworth
There is no definitive way to read a Pictish cross-slab. However, this paper will offer some ways in. It will consider the overall layout, the relationship between the 'front' and the 'back', figurative, animal, and abstract ornament, and symbols, and the way these relate to each other, on a range of sculpted stones from across Pictland.
Dr Victoria Thompson Whitworth completed her D.Phil on Christian Anglo-Saxon death and burial in 2000 and has specialised in early medieval sculpture of the Pictish and Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms for the last 25 years. She is a former lecturer at the Orkney campus of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Her forthcoming monograph with Oxford University Press re-evaluates the sculpture of Northern England, Southern Scotland and the Isle of Man between c. 800 and c.1100.
Latest Updates from the Northern Picts Project
Professor Gordon Noble
In this talk Professor Noble will give an update on various projects conducted by the Northern Picts project. The University of Aberdeen Northern Picts project aims to uncover the archaeological traces of Pictish society in eastern and northern Scotland.
Gordon Noble is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen. He has undertaken landscape research and field projects working on projects from the Mesolithic to Medieval periods. The Northern Picts project run by Gordon won Research Project of the Year 2021 in the Current Archaeology Awards. His latest book ‘Picts: Scourge of Rome, Rulers of the North’ was shortlisted for the EAA and Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2023.
Did ‘Fimbulwinter’ Eradicate Shetland's Picts?
Allen Fraser
Norse mythology tells us that Fimbulwinter is the harsh winter that precedes the end of the world, and puts an end to all life on Earth. It is said to be three successive harsh winters without any intervening summers. Over the last decade or so, evidence from Arctic and Antarctic ice cores, seabed sediments and tree rings, as well as contemporary writings, have been fed into climate models. From these models researchers now believe that the myth is likely to be a memory of a real climate disaster that began in 536 AD.
My paper considers the cause and effects in Pictish Shetland of a catastrophic climatic downturn across Europe that began in the 6th century AD. This long 'volcanic winter caused by the outpouring of material into the atmosphere from multiple extra-tropical and tropical eruptions, is evaluated. Known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA), its devastating effects continued to affect the British Isles, Scandinavia and Europe throughout the 7th century. The impact on the vulnerability and resilience of Shetland’s Late Iron Age Pictish population from this, the severest climate downturn in the past 2500 years, is considered. It is highly likely that the population fell below a sustainable level and that the islands were deserted. By the time the first Norse landed on Shetland’s shores, Shetland had been rediscovered and occupied only by a few small Papar monk enclaves.
Allen Fraser is a Meteorologist, Geologist and Shetland Tour Guide. Obtained BSc Hons in Earth Sciences from the Open University. Worked for the UK Met Office in climatology and weather forecasting for 34 years. After early retirement from the Met Office wrote Shetland’s application to become a European Geopark, then set up a Tour Guiding business specialising in Shetland Geology, Landscape, Natural and Human History.
The Landscapes of Barrow and Cairn Cemeteries and Symbol Stones in Early Medieval Scotland
Dr Juliette Mitchell
Incised stones with Pictish symbols are found across eastern and northern Scotland, and although some were discovered in association with burial monuments, in those few examples the relationship is unclear. Rather than examining the direct relationship of symbol stones to cemeteries, this paper aims to re-assess the relationship through a closer look at the cemeteries. New research, discoveries, and radiocarbon dates together allow a fresh look at the linkages between monument types. A review of the landscape setting of barrow and cairn cemeteries is also used to shed light on how early medieval monumental landscapes might have been constructed.
Dr Juliette Mitchell is a Research Fellow at the SCAPE Trust, University of St Andrews, where she works on the archaeology, history and past environments of the coastal zone of Scotland alongside local communities and volunteers. Her PhD from the University of Aberdeen focused on the barrow and cairn cemeteries of early medieval Scotland and used GIS to place them in their wider funerary landscapes. Recently she has revisited the relationship between cemeteries and symbol stones in more detail, with an upcoming book chapter on the subject, and she is also working on a paper reviewing the dating of Pictish cemeteries.
What is David iconography doing in Pictland?
Professor Jane Geddes
Isabel Henderson looked in detail at the iconography of David in Pictland, finding the sources for its imagery mainly in Anglo-Saxon England, and understanding the David scenes as part of a theme of spiritual salvation. By comparing David iconography in the rest of the Insular world, this paper suggests the choice of David as a topic for public monuments had a particular emphasis in Pictland. Here the focus is on kingship rather than salvation. David provides a model both for the courageous fighter and sacral kingship, themes which gain influence in the era of the St Andrews Sarcophagus, King Onuist, and his immediate successors. These ideas are developed through the context of David scenes on their monuments, and the location of the monuments themselves.
Jane Geddes is professor emerita of History of Art from Aberdeen University. She is President of the Pictish Arts Society, and author of Hunting Picts: medieval sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus.
A Glimpse into Pictish Polychromy
Jordyn Patrick
In the 1st millennium CE in northern and western Europe, relief carved stone sculptures appeared in Scotland and England and inscribed stones in western and northern Britain. Finds like the Lichfield Angel demonstrate these were once highly coloured and ornamented, and modern use of photogrammetric recording has revealed many monuments still carry paint traces. Utilising techniques and approaches relevant to materials analysis and the archaeological study of objects, the ongoing research project analyses the paint traces that survive on these monuments using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopic analysis.
This paper will discuss the history of polychromy in Britian and look at specific examples from Scotland’s Pictish past. The project aims to identify regional and temporal variations in techniques, palettes and aesthetics, and help re-visualise how we might display and interpret these monuments for modern audiences.
Jordyn Patrick BA Hons, MLitt, FSA Scot is an early medieval archaeologist, specializing in the history and archaeology of Britain, AD 500-1100, with a particular focus on sculpture. Her doctoral studies at Durham University are generously funded through the Durham Doctoral Studentship Program (2021-2024).