The Picts

[Kardu]

How about the phenotype of the Picts? If I recall correctly they were described as small-framed and swarthy, in contrast with Celts... (Sardinian type comes to mind :))

[hope]

TARANIS... can you enlighten me in regards to St. Ninians stone. I was reading something on the net that I came across by chance. It was in German so I could only understand about three words out of every five or so. It was a theory (do not know by whom) that taking the meqq from Besmeqqnanammovvez as "son" and "...bes" as the person in question, rather than anammovvez being two names ( and this is the bit I wonder about) he takes this through a series of renderings and says it could be from the old Nordic word for mother ie; "mutter". Are you aware of this theory or the author? Before I could read it in full or find the source my computer closed down and I have been unable to find it again.
In my opinion this seems a bit out there.

[Taranis]

TARANIS... can you enlighten me in regards to St. Ninians stone. I was reading something on the net that I came across by chance. It was in German so I could only understand about three words out of every five or so. It was a theory (do not know by whom) that taking the meqq from Besmeqqnanammovvez as "son" and "...bes" as the person in question, rather than anammovvez being two names ( and this is the bit I wonder about) he takes this through a series of renderings and says it could be from the old Nordic word for mother ie; "mutter". Are you aware of this theory or the author? Before I could read it in full or find the source my computer closed down and I have been unable to find it again.
In my opinion this seems a bit out there.

I think any attempt to connect Pictish with Norse doesn't really make sense. About the St. Ninians inscription I cannot say anything in particular because I never saw it myself, only transcriptions (which are not always unambiguous). The phrase "maqq" or "meqq" occurs frequently in Pictish inscriptions and may be the same as Irish "mac" ("son"). This is surprising however, since we know from the Greek/Roman and Gaelic sources that Pictish was a P-Celtic language, so the expected Pictish word would be something akin to Gaulish "mapos" or Breton "mab".

The Norse obviously were in Scotland, eventually, and in fact the arrival of the Vikings was crucial for the demise of the Picts as a separate ethnicity. If we look at this map where Pictish rock art has been found, it is clear that the heartland of the Picts lay in the northeastern part of what today is Scotland, especially along the coast. These areas were hardest-hit when the Vikings began their raids. It is thus not surprising at all that what remained of the Picts by the mid-9th century was absorbed by the Gaels.

[hope]

I am inclined to agree, it was just that it being from the Shetlands made me wonder about possibilities. Thankyou for your insight.

[toyomotor]

So, the common consensus here seems to be that the Picts were a Celtic people - in that case, again, why does it seem like they are they so often referred to as separate from their surrounding Celtic neighbors?

I mean, if I had to guess, I would say that it's because since we know fairly little about the Pictish language, we can't be absolutely certain that it was, in fact, Celtic. But it seems like the lion's share of the evidence points to it being similar to the other Brythonic languages.

I don't think so. The Picts were a distinct people living in modern day Scotland, and were joined in the first half of the first millennium AD by Celtic Irish. The name "Picts" means "the Painted Ones" and it was given to them by the Romans. It was the Irish culture which came to be most prevalent in Scotland.