Who were the Picts - and Where did they Come From?

The Picts were good warriors. They were all hand-pict.

The Picts left us with some remarkable art....their carved stone still enhance parts of Angus and The Mearns.

My dad was Scottish and I was raised at the knee of Scottish history. He knew Scottish history like the back of his hand as his mother had traced the family back to ancient Kings. He would still ask me where did the picts come from? He wasn't even sure but he knew I studied Scottish history as well and would ask me because he thought maybe I found out. He would ask me every couple of years and I couldn't answer him. He's gone now and I wish I could answer him!

"King of the who?" "King of the Britons" "Who are the Britons?" "Well we all are, we are all Britons." "I didn't know we had a King. I though we were an autonomous collective."

Wonderful history lesson making the unique Scottish ancestry come alive. Grateful for your efforts.

You've nailed Celtic identity here Hilbert. I too believe that Celts were and are a cultural phenomena.

On the subject of Pictish language, I once read an account of a Roman general who had gone on a expedition (punitive?) into the far north of Scotland. He used translators, generally hiring people locally, then pushing north. The translators were generally able to translate the local (Brythonic) dialect reasonably well. However he said that up in the far north the translators were useless, saying the local language was unrelated to their (British) dialects. What I take from this is that a pre-Celtic language was surviving in the far north of Pictland in Roman times (but probably not too long afterwards, and wiped out by the Norsemen at the very latest).

"You don't win by winning a war. You win by writing that you won the war." So often true! 10:20 - Beautiful carved stone!

I was under the impression that the term Pict was taken from the roman name for these warring tribes "Picti" so called because they were covered in tattoos

The Battle of Nechtansmere, 685 A.D. One of the most significant encounters in Scotland's history. The Picts defeated the Northumbrians and halted their advance North.

I've binged watched most of your videos and learnt more than I ever did in conventional history lessons. I appreciate it 👌

The Pre Celtic of Scotland were Siberian’s, they came across an archipelago from Scandinavia as the ice caps retreated. The Sami of Finland are a close relation of the Scots. These settlers took with them, the now named, Highland cattle, whose closest relation is the Yak. The Picts are probably an integration of Siberian and Celtic people’s. Like most people in the north of Scotland, my DNA is Siberian, I’m related not just to the Sami, but the Inuits and Canadian Indians. I think that’s exotic!

Dear Hilbert, i enjoyed this video enormously! i've actually watched this third video about the Picts first, but look forward to watching the other two. This is fascinating, and cheerful, and just great. I hope you make lots of videos about all kinds of things! Thanks!

I think you have by far the most positive comment feedback or any youtuber I've seen so far. :)

I'm currently studying my ancestry, and this is where it has led me. Gotta say this is pretty cool! To go back with my family's history to it's original beginning, it opens up a whole new can of research and discovery.

The Picts never wore tattos they wore body painting. You can find evidence for tattooed Vikings, Egyptians and most people that used tattoos but non when it comes to The Picts and bodies have been found well preserved in bogs and such that didn’t have them so they most likely didn’t have tattoos but painted their bodies

the Scots and the Irish have always been intertwined it seems

I think this is a great channel but I think nowadays before people jump on the new wave bandwagon pertaining to celtic studies they need to analyse DNA. It appears to be overwhelmingly probable that the subhaplogroup R1B P312 and it's subclades can be classified as the Celtic branch of the indo European haplogroup R1B, just like R1B S21 is accepted to be the Germanic branch. Every ancient celtic skeleton that has been tested belongs to this specific genetic marker, and it perfectly reflects modern distribution across the continent, with highly varied concentrations where it has been replaced by Germanic lineages. P312 was the genetic signature of the Gauls, Gaels, Picts, Britons, Belgae, Galatians etc, which informs us that in the early bronze age when linguistic groups separated and the proto celtic culture developed in the alpine area, it was in isolation long enough from other peoples to undergo a polymorphism, making those of proto celtic descent recognisable within genome testing, and proving the existence of a Celtic "race", in the same sense that there is a Germanic, and Italic and Slavic "race"

Enjoyable! Great knowledge, and great work putting together this video!

Loved this presentaiton. Thoughtfully organized, professionally articulated. And the graphics (maps &c) helped immeasurably. Excellent job. Now I have to watch all your other presentations, as well !