Picts

Shortlisted for the EAA Book Prize and the Current Archaeology Book of the Year Award

The Picts have fascinated for centuries. They emerged c. ad 300 to defy the might of the Roman empire only to disappear at the end of the first millennium ad, yet they left major legacies. They laid the foundations for the medieval Scottish kingdom and their captivating carved stones are some of the most eye-catching yet enigmatic monuments in Europe. Until recently the Picts have been difficult to trace due to limited archaeological investigation and documentary sources, but innovative new research has produced critical new insights into the culture of a highly sophisticated society which defied the might of the Roman Empire and forged a powerful realm dominating much of northern Britain.

This is the first dedicated book on the Picts that covers in detail both their archaeology and their history. It examines their kingdoms, culture, beliefs and everyday lives from their origins to their end, not only incorporating current thinking on the subject, but also offering innovative perspectives that transform our understanding of the early history of Scotland.



Gordon Noble is Professor in Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen and has undertaken award-winning landscape research and field projects, working on projects from the Mesolithic to Medieval periods. He is author of Neolithic Scotland: Timber, Stone, Earth and Fire (Edinburgh University Press 2006), Woodland in the Neolithic of Northern Europe: The Forest As Ancestor (Cambridge University Press 2017) and co-author of King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce (Birlinn 2019). He works on two current major projects: Northern Picts and Comparative Kingship, the research for which won the Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year 2021, a highly prestigious accolade. His research has featured on BBC 2 Digging for Britain, BBC Radio 4 In Our Time and many other media outlets.

Nicholas Evans is a Research Fellow on the Leverhulme Trust funded Comparative Kingship: the Early Medieval Kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland project at the University of Aberdeen. He is a historian whose research and teaching have focussed on the medieval Celtic-speaking societies of Britain and Ireland. He is the author of The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles (Boydell Press, 2010), A Historical Introduction to the Northern Picts (Aberdeen University/Tarbat Discovery Centre, 2014) and co-author of King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce (Birlinn 2019).



'Picts is an extraordinary work that covers seven centuries of Pictish history and archaeology, but is also engagingly written with the general reader in mind'



'An impressive book that brings together between its covers pretty much all that is currently known about its elusive and enigmatic subject'



'This book is a triumph. It marks a milestone in Pictish studies, and will be the starting place for all those interested in the Picts. We will be indebted to Noble and Evans for many years to come.'



'A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated volume'



'Both archaeologically and historically rich and provides an entirely new synthesis and viewpoint on a critical era of Scotland's history'



'this intriguing study by two Aberdonian academics will help to dispel the myth that Pictland was merely rough and unsophisticated'



'This is an irresistible glimpse into their [the Picts'] shadowy world'



'You'll discover fascinating info about, and images of, some of the beautifully carved Pictish artefacts that have been discovered in the North of Scotland'



'This is a volume that scholars of early-medieval Britain have needed for many decades now... not only accessible, but thoroughly enjoyable, and one that should be on the bookshelf with other essential books of early medieval Britain'