What do you think?
Rate this book
Picts
These easy-to-read books are a perfect introduction to the history of Scotland. Full of little-know facts and color illustrations, these books help bring history to life. The Stationery Office.An introduction to the life of the Picts and to the carved stones in the care of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
64 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Anna Ritchie
34 books6 followersDr Anna Ritchie OBE, BA, PhD, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, née Bachelier, is a British archaeologist and historian.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2020
This is an illustrated history of the Picts as told through their archaeology and particularly the many carved Pictish stones. This book was written in 1989 and consequently it was written before a number of recent ground breaking discoveries, which are well described in a recent episode of "In Our Time", available from the BBC web site or iTunes (as a podcast).
Many years ago I read a book looking at the ancient languages of the British Isles, and at the time that book was written, there was a belief amongst many scholars that Pictish was perhaps a pre-Celtic and non-indoeuropean language that preserved the language spoken in Great Britain (the island) in the Bronze Age. Some then tries to tie that in with evidence of migration from the Iberian peninsular and thus with the Basque language, although I doubt that was ever a widespread view amongst scholars.
This book, fortunately, does not come down on the side of such things but instead provides an interesting survey of the undecipherable Pictish carvings, and presents the archaeological evidence we had at the time of writing.
More recent discoveries have led to a belief that the Pictish language was almost certainly Insular Celtic (i.e. a dialect of Brythonic, and thus a close relative of Welsh). This actually makes much more sense when you look at the broad sweep of history from the time Roman writers first started reporting on Britain, through to the end of the Pictish Kingdom.
Anyway this is a beautiful book for all the illustrations of the Pictish monuments, and a nice introduction to the Pictish peoples.
Many years ago I read a book looking at the ancient languages of the British Isles, and at the time that book was written, there was a belief amongst many scholars that Pictish was perhaps a pre-Celtic and non-indoeuropean language that preserved the language spoken in Great Britain (the island) in the Bronze Age. Some then tries to tie that in with evidence of migration from the Iberian peninsular and thus with the Basque language, although I doubt that was ever a widespread view amongst scholars.
This book, fortunately, does not come down on the side of such things but instead provides an interesting survey of the undecipherable Pictish carvings, and presents the archaeological evidence we had at the time of writing.
More recent discoveries have led to a belief that the Pictish language was almost certainly Insular Celtic (i.e. a dialect of Brythonic, and thus a close relative of Welsh). This actually makes much more sense when you look at the broad sweep of history from the time Roman writers first started reporting on Britain, through to the end of the Pictish Kingdom.
Anyway this is a beautiful book for all the illustrations of the Pictish monuments, and a nice introduction to the Pictish peoples.
March 15, 2020
This small little book was a find. Now I want to read more about the Picts. Early history has always been fascinating to me, well at least since fourth grade.
This was a $1.00 book sale book at the library and I thought I'd read it and give it back but now I want more! Anna Ritchie has done her research and has very good drawing and photographic illustrations. I'm keeping this one, looking for the next one in the series, and doing more research myself!
This was a $1.00 book sale book at the library and I thought I'd read it and give it back but now I want more! Anna Ritchie has done her research and has very good drawing and photographic illustrations. I'm keeping this one, looking for the next one in the series, and doing more research myself!
August 9, 2014
For a short (64 page) book, this one packs in the information and photos. My wife and I were enchanted by the pictish stones we saw in Scotland, and spent a couple of days just trying to see how many we could find (and photograph). We probably saw about half of the stones pictured in this book. While this books is not just about the stones, but the history of the picts (at least as near as we can tell given they didn't leave much of a record behind), it has a lot of great photos and information on pictish settlements and how they fit in to present day Scotland. This book's a keeper and will probably accompany us on our next visit to Scotland.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews