Origins of the Picts and Scots

Prologue-
The Picts were definitely not Gaels, they spoke a different language and had different customs. Their origins are unknown, although there are many theories, and the Picts themselves had their myths and traditions which compounded their mystery. One theory is that they were an earlier form of Celt, others contend they were a hybridization of the beaker people and the earlier aboriginal peoples. Still others feel they came from Norway, which would account for their pale skin.Pict war chariot with Highland ponies
Another theory is that they were the early "Chaldees" or Galat" of Eastern Asia Minor. Their western elements seem to have retained their title of "Khaltis " or "Galati" or "Gal," when in the Old Stone Age, they penetrated westward into Gaul on the Atlantic and formed there the Kelts or Celtæ of Gaul, and the Gauls and Gaul are actually called "Galatæ" and "Galat" by Strabo.

History records; At a later period, the Sarmatians invaded Gaul from the Rhine and Switzerland and drove out the Picts. The name "Celt" does not appear in the fragmentary surviving history of ancient Britain under that exact spelling, it, nevertheless, is represented in its dialectic variant of "Caled" and "Culdees," coincidently the title of the Pictish mission of Columba.
Recent dna tests have proven the Picts were closely related to the Basques of northern Spain. If it is determined some day where the Basques came from, then we will know where the Picts came from also. This relationship had been suspected for some time as it was known that the two groups were uniquely non Indo-European. What is in a name? The north of Briton (today's Scotland) was called Caledonia by the Romans. This name was derived from the Celtic "Caoillaoin", signifying "the men of the forest", a name which was given to the northern inhabitants by their more southerly neighbours, on account of the forest nature of the north.

Later, Scotland was referred to as "Albann." In Celtic, Al or Alba means high, whereas "Inn" means large island. The Pictish and later Scottish kings referred to themselves as "Kings of Alba" up until the Norman usurpation of the Scottish throne after MacBeth.

As for the inhabitants, the Romans first called them "Caledonians," then "Picti." Pict referred to the habit of the Picts to paint themselves in times of battle to present a more fearsome image to their enemies. When the Romans first ventured to Briton, this painting habit was also widespread amongst the more southern Celts but as they became domiciled into the Roman culture, this cultural activity was extinguished. It remained prevalent in the north. The term no doubt means "painted people" in Latin. Romans reported the Picts called themselves "Kaltis". When the Picts became Christians, they adopted the Roman term "Pict."



The Scots, on the other hand, were a branch of the Irish Celts or Gaels. Ireland was divided between the earlier Cruithne (Picts, who migrated from Scotland around 200AD) and later arriving Goidels (Gaels), who were constantly at each others' throats. As Ireland never experienced a Roman invasion, it was a safe haven for raiders who plundered Roman provinces in England and Wales.

All Celts in western continental Europe were subdued by the Romans. However, the Irish branch maintained their cultural development free of the Roman yoke. After the Romans left Britain in about AD453, the Romanized (subdued) Gaels of England became easy targets for the fierce Scotic sea raiders. Scotic is related to the term Scythic and was pronounced the same in some areas of Britain. It is an interesting observation that the German word for both Scottish and Scythian is "Scutten", as the 6th century Saxon invaders of Alba spoke a form of lower German.
Recent dna tests have proven the Scots are closely related to the Berbers of North Africa, whose own ancestry is still also unknown. It is theorized that the heartland of the Celts was transalpine area in what is now Austria in the forth and fifth centuries B.C., when they achieved their greatest prosperity and expansion across Europe. They subjugated all those before them from Spain to the eastern Steppes, and certainly enjoyed the more temperate climate of western Europe, compared to the more severe climate of their Asiatic fatherland.

They pillaged Rome, invaded Persia and Macedonia, and developed contacts with Greeks, and have been: officially recorded by many distinguished historians as having originated from westward flowing Scythians, either through merchants or entire clans fleeing the marauding Sarmatians, themselves an eastern fringe element of the Scythian culture.

The Scythians.

About 750 BC, a warlike Mongoloid people were expelled from their home territory in the north of China and moved westward. The pressure they exerted on other peoples began a mass movement westwards of scores of tribes. Much like the waves of the incoming tide pounding on a beach, each tribe arriving in Europe was followed by another, usually more fierce and violent than the one before.

Arriving with dust and thunder, fierce horsemen from the east burst upon the European steppe around 700 BC. Invincible for four centuries, these proud marauders grew rich on the dividends of conquest, decking even their horses with gold. Then, mysteriously, they vanished, leaving only tales of their courage and cruelty - and imposing tombs lavishly provisioned for eternity.
These were the Scythians In their time, they were invincible.



Migrating from eastern Asia, the Scythians were masters of the steppe for 400 years. They plundered their way across Asia until they settled in the area north of the Black Sea. Their empire reached from the Danube east across Ukraine all the way to the Don River and the Caucasus Mountains.



They introduced Europe to oriental advances in horse equipment and influenced the emerging Celts in many ways not yet understood or appreciated. They were a pastoral people, not inclined to establish large urban areas. This feature alone affected the Celts so much that they too developed into a self sufficient pastoral/ agricultural culture.



The Scythians sold cereals grown by their sedentary non-equestrian subjects to the Greek merchants who had set up shop in strategic locations around the Black Sea. They soon became the prime source of grains for the Greek city states of the Adriatic. We know that in the fourth century BC, the Sarmatians, a later-emerging branch of the Scythian people encroached on the eastern Scythian lands.

It isGilded adversaries clash on the crest of a 2,400 year old comb from a Scythian tomb suggested that in the west, Scythians warred with Macedonians. Historians disagree why their Empire suddenly collapsed, it is known that for 100 years after they disappeared, their heartland was devoid of any human occupation. It may have been due to a severe climatic change, severe drought, over-grazing, or simply an implosion from within.

Notwithstanding, many of the present day peoples of the Caucasus identify with the Scythians, and maintain many of those ancient tales and myths, also referred to by early Greek historians, such as Jason and the Golden fleece. (It is recorded in both their histories that Jason took a Scythian woman as his wife.)

The Greek historian Strabo, wrote that, at the sunset of their empire, some Scythians migrated to the mouth of the Danube and dispersed with other peoples in that vicinity, which would have been the coincidentally emerging Celts.



Claims of Ossetians to have been the founding race of Britain

Note: This section is written from the Ossetian viewpoint of history-

Hundreds of years ago, Ossetians (Sarmatians) roamed all over Western Europe, from the Caucasus to Scotland. The folk memories of these wanderings have lingered down the centuries, so that it can be hard to tell where myth ends and history begins.

When the nights draw in in the high Caucasus, when the flocks are gathered in the shadow of the ancient stone towers that dot the wooded hillsides, and there is no sound outside but the chattering of the fast streams that run down from Ossetia towards Georgia, there is nothing the people like better than to settle down on the settee to watch an old DVD of Braveheart.

Centuries ago, possibly during the great migrations of the Dark Ages, some of their ancestors went down from the Caucasus and set sail through the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and arrived eventually in a landscape they recognized: Caledonia.
In fact, though, they did not just occupy Scotland. They occupied the whole of Western Europe on their fast horses, spreading the chivalrous respect for women that is originally an Ossetian concept.

And how do we know they reached Britain? Easy: place names. London, In Ossetian, London means "standing water". Belfast, in Ossetian, means "broken spade". (King) Arthur in Ossetian means "solar fire". Orleans in France is "stopping place", because the Ossetians stopped there.

Ossetian children know all about their forefathers' wanderings around Europe and how eventually their territory diminished again to those two little pockets on either side of the great Caucasian watershed.

But the Ossetians, in their glory days of continental mastery, were not known by that name. They were previously called Sarmatians, and sometimes Alans. Every third Ossetian you meet now seems to be called Alan, and the north Ossetian republic, within Russia, is officially "Alania".

Author's note:

The above may be a case of popular Ossetian folk-lure, but there certainly was a connection between the Sarmatians and the early Celts. It was verified by the horse gear of the Celts which was definitely of eastern origin (Scythian/Sarmatian), not western European nor Mediterranean. There are many other Scythian/Sarmatian influences on Celtic/Pict culture, which are explained in this chapter.

Alan was a popular Cornish/Breton name, meaning "rock".

Celts arise in the West.

The oldest surviving references to the Celts are by Hecataeus and Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC. Therein, the Celts were reported to have been established in southern France and around Styria in Austria. In 390 BC, the Celtic Gauls of present day France invaded Etruscan territory and sacked Rome. Three Celtic Tribes, called the Galati invaded Asia Minor and settled there. Another tribe invaded Macedonia. Contacts were made with the Scythians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. All these contacts resulted in advances in Celtic culture and sophistication.

Linguistic similarities between Gaulish (early Celt) and Latin (the parent race of the Romans) exist that prove the Celts and the Romans were the same people 60 generations before the time of Caesar.

They are recorded to have reached Scotland by the first millennium BC, and chose the best areas for themselves. They called themselves "Kaldis" or "Kaltis." (The later British Celts had to take second best.) They absorbed the earlier tribesmen who were known as Orcades (who were definitely Celtic), and soon dominated the northern half of Scotland. The first to record their existence in Alba were sea-faring Greek merchant, who called them "Albiones" (pale-skinned ones).

When the Romans ventured into their domain, these warrior people were called "Caledonii", then "Picti" (painted or tattooed ones.) They were well organized, fierce warriors, and had several unique characteristics which differentiated them from other Celts, so some historians have not considered them Celts at all.

Bedes reported they recorded their family genealogies along their female lines, similar to the Scythians. They also included female warriors in their standing armies as did the Scythians, but not the Scottish or Germanic peoples. They were not as quarrelsome amongst themselves as were the Scoti. They painted their bodies blue for battle, as was the ancient custom of the Celts. (This practice had died out in the more central areas of Celtic civilization.) They constructed huge hill forts of timber and stone. Their language was not identical with other Celts and, some scholars believe that the Picts were not Celts at all..
Picts had a tradition their ancestors were from Scythia. There are several confirming clues as to this claim:

• Relief's of Pictish warriors on Orkney gravestones have a decidedly 'Assyrian' appearance.Oriental bronze bridle found in Celtic settlement in Mindelbeim, Bavaria

• Celtic art drew its inspiration from Scythia, especially about animal representation; i.e. Stylized beasts, abstract geometric decorations.

• The Pictish wood-built burial chamber under a barrow was similar to that of the Scythians.

• After the Scythians were overwhelmed by the nomadic Sarmatians, many migrated into Hallstatt (early Celtic) territory in Styria in present day Austria.

• Both Scythians and Picts had an extreme equestrian culture, (more so than other Celtic tribes.)

• Trousers and woolen cloaks were worn by Picts and other Celts, which were especially convenient when riding horses. They were not derived from the Mediterranean nor from temperate Europe. They were obviously from horsemen of the cold eastern steppes, probably the Scythians.

• Both Pict and Scythian armies used women warriors, other Celts did not.
(Incorrect, BTW)
• Celtic, and Scythian societies were agricultural-pastoral as each tribe was engaged in its own food production. Therefore no large urban centres were realized.Pictish 'Broch' (hillside fort)

• The Celts achieved a standard in arts and crafts unparalleled amongst the ancient inhabitants of trans/Alpine Europe, rivaled only by their Eurasiatic neighbours and mentors, the Scythians.

• At about 700BC, there appeared in the vicinities of Celtic Hungary, Bavaria, and Austria, bronze horse-bits, and bridle mounts, which were identical to types found in Scythia.

• Who were these early Hallstatt Iron age Chieftains? Their horse-gear is an elaboration of their predecessors from the east.
(quote from 'The Celts" by T.G.E. Powell).

Pict Society


The Picts, including the Irish Cruithne, put more emphasis on female ancestry than on the male line, though they did not allow a Queen to rule over them as did the Ikeni and Brigantes of Britain, whose queens were almost demi-goddesses. The 'practical' Picts realized that a boy's best friend was his mother, and his father sometimes only a very fitful factor.

A great Pict King, Onnist, was fighting the Saxons, who were encroaching on Pict territory, when he had a dream of Saint Andrew bearing his cross in a saltern manner against a blue sky. The next day he beat the Saxons in a mighty battle and in gratitude proclaimed the Saltern cross (white on a blue background) as his national banner. It still is the national flag of Scotland.
Most of the names we now associate with being Scottish were in fact Pictish, i.e. Angus, Bili, Kenneth, Donald, Duncan, Hugh, Malcom, Ronald, Bryden, and many others which are unpronounceable in English. The surname Alpin is Pictish and means mountain. It began as 'Ailphin', then 'Elphin', then 'Alpin.'

Similarly, the "Alps" in Europe were originally named by the Kelts. In today's English, the term "Alpine" is synonymous to "mountainous".
The Picts maintained a system of succession whereby the crown was passed down to a brother or a nephew through the mother's line.

The Picts favoured two forms of execution: Drowning was reserved for unwanted Kings. Beheading was reserved for the most shameful of deaths and was used in a ceremony of retribution. The Picts compared very favourably with later peoples and their diabolical execution methods.



Enter the Scots

The 'Scoti' ventured across the north Irish sea to Argyll in the AD400s and called it "Dalriada" after their Royal House of "Dal Riata" in Ulster.

They were afterwards referred to derisively by the English as "Irish" for over one thousand years.) This marked the first time that Gaelic was spoken in what is now Scotland. The Picts were already established throughout northern Scotland and were not amused with these latecomers. For the next 400 years, Picts and Scots intermittently mingled and fought it out.

Scottish kings arose in Dalriada where they existed with the tolerance of local Pictish Governors. When threatened by outside forces, the Scots and Picts had no qualms re co-operating to beat off a common foe.

The Picts were better organized, more unified, and had a more powerful army. The Scots, on the other hand, were unruly, untrustworthy, cunning, but fierce fighters. When the 'heathen' Norse began pillaging northern Scotland, they hit the Picts harder as they had populated the north, and the western & northern islands, which were the prime targets of Viking plunder.

The Picts outnumbered the Scots and left to their own devices would have eliminated them. However, devastated by the Giant Norse raiders, the Picts became susceptible to infiltration by the Scots.

This resulted in many intermarriages and a blurring of racial lines. In a Scot/Pict marriage, the Pict line went on through the mother and the Scot line was carried on down through the males. In this way, the Picts were eventually 'married' out of existence, as official government records were patriarchal, the wife considered property of the husband.

The Role of the Britons

The Romans had developed an effective way of dealing with P-Celts after their horrific wars with the Gauls on the European continent. The "Britons" of southern Caledonia proved no exception, and the Romans eventually used them as a buffer to keep the Picts at bay.

Despite this arrangement, the Antonnine Wall was abandoned as a line to far, and a retreat was ordered back to the Hadrian Wall, leaving the Britons exposed to Pict reprisals. The Britons continued for a time to be Roman allies, but could not contain the Picts in their thirst for revenge on the Romans.

In this degenerating situation, some Britons were susceptible to an ingenious Roman manoeuvre.

The Romans had earlier developed an effective countermeasure to external threats to their empire, by transferring loyal subjects of one area to a threatened area to defend it from assault. They implemented this extraordinary measure about 200 AD by the wholesale voluntary movement of loyal Britons in southern Scotland, called the "Goddodin", to the territory of the "Gwynedd", modern "Wales."

This mass movement created a new elite in Gwynedd, since the previous Druids were ruthlessly annihilated by the Romans as part of their strategy to break the back of any possible future insurrection. This favoured new elite implanted their unique Briton language on the "Welsh", which remains in a somewhat modified version today.

Picts Win The Battles But - Lose The War

During the AD800s, the Picts constituted about 90% of the population of northern Scotland, (the Scots only about 10%). However they were constantly harried The Pict Empire, before its demise. Alba, then Scotland, maintained the trappings of Empire even after large sections in the west and north were seized by the Norse Vikings. and were under heavy pressure by Norse in the north, Scots in the south-west, and by Germanic tribes of Angles in the south. In battle after battle, they succeeded in repulsing all antagonists.

This land was defended many times after Rome's departure. The Picts fought invasions by the Irish-Gaelic Scots in the west, the Welsh Britons in the southwest, and German Saxons in the southeast, and the sea borne Norse and Danish Vikings in the north, northwest, and northeast.

They sometimes lost great battles and huge chunks of land, only to regain them later through perseverance in the vicious warfare of the dark ages.

In the 7th century, Scots pushed their frontier far north, and a victorious Gaelic army came within a half-day march of the Pict capital of Inverness before it was crushed. In the south, the Saxons marched their Teutonic armies north and held Pict lands for 30 years before they were butchered and sent fleeing south by an avenging Pict army.Pictic warrior painted for battle

However, in AD837, the Picts suffered their most devastating military defeat - by the Norsemen. They lost their King and most of their leaders. This one event marked the beginning of the end of Pict domination of Alban.

Their western and northern territories, including their island empire of the Hebridies, Orkneys, Shetland, and Faroes gone, they lost control of their own people and fell into a long period of civil wars and anarchy, and became fatally infiltrated by the Scots. As in a dying fire, they flickered back to life briefly through the 11 year rule of the last Pictish King of Alba, Grig the Great, Conqueror of all Alba, Hibernia (Ireland), Anglia (Lothian), and Northumbria. But by AD1000, their culture was gone, replaced through assimilation by the Scots, much of it through inter-marriage, from slave raids by the Vikings, and the rest through a state-sponsored genocide, much similar to the fate later designated for the Clan Gregor.

Historical records of that time tell of large Viking centres in Ireland such as Dublin and Belfast, that owed their existence to the trade in vast numbers of Pict slaves taken from Scotland, who, due to their white skin, knowledge of Latin, and their long history of Christianization, were in great demand by the Romans.

Derided inaccurately by many historians as "aboriginals", they established a hierarchal society, an island Empire, defeated the best Roman Legions, and sent them scurrying south behind "Hadrian's Wall", fought off successive invaders from all corners of their country, and traded extensively with mainland Europe.

Thus a sad end came to a magnificent people (and their beloved ponies) on the fringe of north-western Europe, a people who had become a shining light of Christianity, sent missionaries into a hostile northern Europe for 500 years, and helped prepare the groundwork for the Lutheran reformation.

Source

Hello,

A nice job of lifting images and written material directly from a chapter of the same name on my web site, www.rioghal.ca.

However, you could have given me the credit for it but no problem.

Hal MacGregor

I thought alphin/alpin meant white. The mountains were named alps because of the white tops. White seems like a more logical last name than mountain as well.

Another theory is that they were the early "Chaldees" or Galat" of Eastern Asia Minor. Their western elements seem to have retained their title of "Khaltis " or "Galati" or "Gal," when in the Old Stone Age, they penetrated westward into Gaul on the Atlantic and formed there the Kelts or Celtæ of Gaul, and the Gauls and Gaul are actually called "Galatæ" and "Galat" by Strabo.

Galatia was reached via Thrace in historic times after an invasion of Greece. There is no evidence or need for a Paleolithic migration of "Celts" westwards, even if they are presumed to have already existed as such under some form of Paleolithic Continuity Theory. A 1st millenium BCE origin is more commonly considered.

History records; At a later period, the Sarmatians invaded Gaul from the Rhine and Switzerland and drove out the Picts.

History does not record that and could not, because there were no Picts in Gaul.

The name "Celt" does not appear in the fragmentary surviving history of ancient Britain under that exact spelling, it, nevertheless, is represented in its dialectic variant of "Caled" and "Culdees," coincidently the title of the Pictish mission of Columba.

Caledonii and Κελτοί have distinct etymologies.

Recent dna tests have proven the Picts were closely related to the Basques of northern Spain.

Not more so than other peoples of the British Isles or Spaniards.

If it is determined some day where the Basques came from, then we will know where the Picts came from also.

It tells very little about their formation as Basques and Picts.

This relationship had been suspected for some time as it was known that the two groups were uniquely non Indo-European.

The Picts are not conclusively known to have been non-IE and there have been non-IE peoples in Europe other than the Basques.

The north of Briton (today's Scotland) was called Caledonia by the Romans. This name was derived from the Celtic "Caoillaoin", signifying "the men of the forest",

Caled, "hard".

Later, Scotland was referred to as "Albann." In Celtic, Al or Alba means high, whereas "Inn" means large island.

Originally Posted by rainman

I thought alphin/alpin meant white. The mountains were named alps because of the white tops.

Both are Latin terms, connected to albus, "white".

Romans reported the Picts called themselves "Kaltis". When the Picts became Christians, they adopted the Roman term "Pict."

It is not known what the Picts called themselves at any stage in their history.

Scotic is related to the term Scythic and was pronounced the same in some areas of Britain.

Their etymology is distinct, their pronunciation irrelevant.

It is an interesting observation that the German word for both Scottish and Scythian is "Scutten",

It is not and it is not.

as the 6th century Saxon invaders of Alba spoke a form of lower German.

The Angles in what had been Alba spoke Englisc, a form of North Sea Germanic / West Germanic.

Recent dna tests have proven the Scots are closely related to the Berbers of North Africa

More meaningless trivia.

They pillaged Rome, invaded Persia

When?

and Macedonia, and developed contacts with Greeks, and have been: officially recorded by many distinguished historians as having originated from westward flowing Scythians

Who claims an Iranic origin for the Celts?

About 750 BC, a warlike Mongoloid people were expelled from their home territory in the north of China and moved westward.

Which?

The pressure they exerted on other peoples began a mass movement westwards of scores of tribes. Much like the waves of the incoming tide pounding on a beach, each tribe arriving in Europe was followed by another, usually more fierce and violent than the one before.

A fantasy, possibly inspired by the Xiongnu theory of Hunnic origins, transplanted a millenium back in time. The archaeological evidence shows a few arrowheads that might indicate limited attacks by Scythians, nothing further.

If a Pontic-Caspian urheimat for Indo-European and a Central Asian origin for its Iranian branch can be assumed, a westward migration is indeed needed to explain the presence of Scythians in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, but they also expanded far eastwards and kept control there continuously until the Turco-Mongol expansion.

They introduced Europe to oriental advances in horse equipment

The Scythians were not "oriental", but it is likely that they passed on horse equipment developed by themselves, such as the trousers.

and influenced the emerging Celts in many ways not yet understood or appreciated. They were a pastoral people, not inclined to establish large urban areas.

The continental Celts were the most urbanised groups in Northern Europe.

This feature alone affected the Celts so much that they too developed into a self sufficient pastoral/ agricultural culture.

The Celts relied heavily on trade.

Note: This section is written from the Ossetian viewpoint of history-

Hundreds of years ago, Ossetians (Sarmatians) roamed all over Western Europe, from the Caucasus to Scotland. The folk memories of these wanderings have lingered down the centuries, so that it can be hard to tell where myth ends and history begins.

We need not bother then.

Linguistic similarities between Gaulish (early Celt) and Latin (the parent race of the Romans) exist that prove the Celts and the Romans were the same people 60 generations before the time of Caesar.

A Proto-Italo-Celtic stage is far from proven. It could be nothing more than mutual influence or even features independently retained from Indo-European.

Frederik Kortlandt sees Corded Ware (ca. 3200-2300 BCE) as ancestral to Proto-Balto-Slavic, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic, again without a narrow relationship between the latter two.

Picts had a tradition their ancestors were from Scythia.

When examined more carefully, it turns out to be a fanciful Irish legend about the Picts.

There are several confirming clues as to this claim:

Let's see them then.

Relief's of Pictish warriors on Orkney gravestones have a decidedly 'Assyrian' appearance.

Meaningless without a proper punch line.

Celtic art drew its inspiration from Scythia, especially about animal representation; i.e. Stylized beasts, abstract geometric decorations.

Such a vague description fits the art styles of many Indo-European peoples.

The Pictish wood-built burial chamber under a barrow was similar to that of the Scythians.

Nope, the Picts were buried in supine position in simple graves, lined and covered with slabs, without grave goods and perhaps a stone on top.

After the Scythians were overwhelmed by the nomadic Sarmatians, many migrated into Hallstatt (early Celtic) territory in Styria in present day Austria.

There is no evidence for that happening at all.

Both Scythians and Picts had an extreme equestrian culture, (more so than other Celtic tribes.)

Horse culture indicates IE influence, its intensity is a matter of circumstances.

Trousers and woolen cloaks were worn by Picts and other Celts, which were especially convenient when riding horses. They were not derived from the Mediterranean nor from temperate Europe. They were obviously from horsemen of the cold eastern steppes, probably the Scythians.

A good argument for a Scythian origin of trousers and woolen cloaks, but not for that of Picts and Celts. Germanics also wore trousers and cloaks.

Both Pict and Scythian armies used women warriors, other Celts did not.
(Incorrect, BTW)

Incorrect, yes, and inconclusive.

Celtic, and Scythian societies were agricultural-pastoral as each tribe was engaged in its own food production. Therefore no large urban centres were realized.

False, meaningless, inconclusive.

The Celts achieved a standard in arts and crafts unparalleled amongst the ancient inhabitants of trans/Alpine Europe, rivaled only by their Eurasiatic neighbours and mentors, the Scythians.

Ignorant nonsense.

At about 700BC, there appeared in the vicinities of Celtic Hungary, Bavaria, and Austria, bronze horse-bits, and bridle mounts, which were identical to types found in Scythia.

Proves trade and horse culture, nothing more.

Who were these early Hallstatt Iron age Chieftains? Their horse-gear is an elaboration of their predecessors from the east.
(quote from 'The Celts" by T.G.E. Powell).

Points to an IE origin of Celts.

The Picts, including the Irish Cruithne, put more emphasis on female ancestry than on the male line

The Picts maintained a system of succession whereby the crown was passed down to a brother or a nephew through the mother's line.

In a Scot/Pict marriage, the Pict line went on through the mother

Bede only claims that this happened in exceptional cases and he might have misunderstood that as well, for example when brothers succeeded each other based on their personal strength.

They implemented this extraordinary measure about 200 AD by the wholesale voluntary movement of loyal Britons in southern Scotland, called the "Goddodin", to the territory of the "Gwynedd", modern "Wales."

Only pertains to one legendary king and is probably ahistorical.

and by Germanic tribes of Angles in the south. In battle after battle, they succeeded in repulsing all antagonists.

They were almost certainly pushed down to tribute status by the Angles at one point.

and German Saxons in the southeast

Why are they suddenly Saxons?

However, in AD837, the Picts suffered their most devastating military defeat - by the Norsemen. They lost their King and most of their leaders. This one event marked the beginning of the end of Pict domination of Alban.

Good riddance.

Historical records of that time tell of large Viking centres in Ireland such as Dublin and Belfast, that owed their existence to the trade in vast numbers of Pict slaves taken from Scotland, who, due to their white skin, knowledge of Latin, and their long history of Christianization, were in great demand by the Romans.

In demand by the Romans in Ireland, who preferred to take fellow Christians as slaves, I suppose?

Thus a sad end came to a magnificent people (and their beloved ponies)

Oh no! Not the ponies!

a people who had become a shining light of Christianity, sent missionaries into a hostile northern Europe for 500 years

See, they had it coming.

I don't know which one of you to believe. But I definitely agree there were some corrections in order. However it has been genetically proven that the people of the British Isles, including the Pictish descendants, but mainly the Irish who are least diluted, are more closely related to the Basque, a non IE people, than are their Spanish counterparts. By as much as 98% similarity. This proves the entire indigenous population of the British Isles which migrated from the Iberian Peninsula and Atlantic Fringe, are NON-INDOEUROPEAN. The Picts were no more Christian than the Irish and don't blame them for that religion, blame the Romans and Jews. Their domination of the region ceased only due to a necessary peaceful merge with the DalRiadan Celts, the same genetic group of people just slightly different culture.

Originally Posted by TexasGerman

This proves the entire indigenous population of the British Isles which migrated from the Iberian Peninsula and Atlantic Fringe, are NON-INDOEUROPEAN.

Cultures rise and decay again. In the course of their development, they involve varying groups of people and therefore do not correlate easily with racial types or haplogroups that are much older than the cultures they participate in. The notion that the peoples of the British Isles are "really" Celtic, or not even Indo-European to begin with, stems from a failure to grasp this dynamic.

I found this interesting article. I'm not sure how reliable it is though.

General History of the Highlands
Uniting of Scots & Picts - 843

Conal, the fifth king of the Scots in Argyle, the kinsman of St. Columba, and under whose auspices he entered on the work of conversion, and to whom it is said he was indebted for Hy, died in 571. His successor Aidan went over to Iona in 574, and was there ordained and inaugurated by the Abbot according to the ceremonial of the liber vitreus, the cover of which is supposed to have been encrusted with crystal.

To return to the history of the Picts, we have already observed that little is known of Pictish history for more than one hundred years after the Roman abdication; and even up to the union of Picts and Scots, the materials for the history of both are about as scarce as they could possibly be, consisting mostly of meagre chronicles containing the names of kings, the dates of their accession and death, and occasionally the names of battles and of the contending nations. Scotland during this period appears to have been the scene of unceasing war between the Scots, Picts, Britons of Strathclyde, English, and Danes, the two first being continually at strife not only with each other but among themselves. We shall endeavour to give, as clearly and as faithfully as possible, the main reliable facts in the history of the Scots and Picts until the union of these two nations.

The reign of Brude was distinguished by many warlike exploits, but above all, as we have seen, by his conversion and that of his people to Christianity, which indeed formed his greatest glory. His chief contests were with the Scoto-Irish or Dalriads, whom he defeated in 557, and slew Gauran their king. Brude died in 586, and for several ages his successors carried on a petty system of warfare, partly foreign and partly domestic. Passing over a domerstic conflict, at Lindores in 621, under Kenneth, son of Luthrin, we must notice the important battle of Dun-Nechtan, fought in 685, between the Picts under Brude, the son of Bili, and the Saxons, under the Northumbrian Egfrid. The Saxon king, it is said, greedy of conquest, attacked the Picts without provication, and against the advice of his court. Crossing the Forth from Lothian, he entered Srtathearn and penetrated through the defiles of the Pictish kingdom, leaving fire and desolation in his train. His career was stopt at Dun-Nechtan, the hill of Nechtan, a hill in the parish of Dunnichen, about the centre of Forfarshire; and by a neighbouring lake, long known by the name of Nechtan's mere, a short distance east from the town of Forfar, did Egfrid and his Saxons fall before Brude and his exasperated Picts. This was a sad blow to the Northumberland power; yet the Northunbrians, in 699, under Berht, an able leader, again ventured to try their strength with the Picts, when they were once more defeated by Brude, the son of Dereli, who had recently mounted the Pictish throne.

The wars between the Picts and Northumbrians were succeeded by various contests for power among the Pictish princes, which gave rise to a civil war. Ungus, honoured by the Irish Annalists with the title of great, and Elpin, at the head of their respective partisans, tried their strength at Monacrib, supposed by some to be Moncrieff in Strathearn, in the year 727, when the latter was defeated; and the conflict was renewed at Duncrei (Crieff), when victory declared a second time against Elpin, who was obliged to flee from the hostilities of Ungus. Nechtan next tried his strength with Ungus, in 728, at a place called Monacurna by the Annalists - possibly Moncur in the Carse of Gowrie - but he was defeated, and many of his followers perished. Talorgan, the son of Congus, was defeated by Brude, the son of Ungus, in 730, and in the same year the Picts appear to have entered into a treaty of peace with the English nation.

The victorious Ungus commenced hostlilities against the Dalriads, or Scoto-Irish, in the year 736, and appears to have got the better of the latter. The Scots were again worsted in another battle in 740 by Ungus, who in the same year repulsed an attack of the Northumbrians under Eadbert. In the year 750 he defeated the Britons of the Cumbrian kingdom in the battle of Cato or Cath-o, in which his brother Talorgan was killed. Ungus, who appears to have been a powerful and able monarch, but whom Bede characterizes as having conducted himself "with bloody wickedness, a tyratn and an executioner", died about 760. A doubtful victory was gained by Ciniod, or Kenneth, the Pictish king, over Aodh-fin, the Scottish king, in 767. Constantine, having overcome Conal, the son of Tarla, in 789, succeeded him in the throne.

Up to this period the Norsemen from Scandinavia, or the Vikingr, i.e. men of the voes or bays, as they were termed, had confined their ravages to the Baltic; but, in the year 787 they for the first ime appeared on the east coast of England. Some years afterwards they found their way to the Caledonian shores, and in 795 made their first attack on Iona, which frequently afterwards, along with the rest of the Hebrides, suffered grievously from their ravages. In 839 the Vikingr entered the Pictish territories. A murderous conflict ensued between them and the Picts under Uen their king, in which both he and his only brother Bran, as well as many of the Pictish chiefs, fell. This event, no doubt, hastened the downfall of the Pictish monarchy; and as the Picts were unable to resist the arms of Kenneth, the Scottish king, he carried into execution, in the year 843, a project he had long entertained, of uniting the Scots and Picts, and placing both crowns on his head. That anything like a total extermination of the Picts took place is now generally discredited, although doubtless there was great slaughter both of princes and people. Skene asserts indeed that it was only the Southern Picts who became subject to Kenneth, the Northern Picts remaining for long afterwards independent of, but sometimes in alliance with, the Scots. This is substancially the opinion of Mr E.W. Robertson, who says, "the modern shires of Perth, Fife, Stirling, and Dumbarton, with the greater part of the county of Argyle, may be said to have formed the actual Scottish kingdom to with Kenneth succeeded". The Picts were recognised as a distict people even in the tenth century, but before the twelfth they lost their characteristic nominal distinction by being amalgamated with the Scots, their conquerors.

The Scoto-Irish after their arrival in Argle did not long continue under the seperate authority of the three brothers, Lorn, Fergus, and Angus. They were said to have been very far advanced in life before leaving Ireland, and the Irish chroniclers assert that St. Patrick gave them his benediction before his death, in the year 493. The statement as to their advanced age derives some support from their speedy demise after they had laid the foundations of their settlements, and of a new dynasty of kings destined to rule over the kingdom of Scotland. Angus was the first who died, leaving a son, Muredach, who succeeded him in the small government of Ila. After the death of Lorn the eldest brother, Fergus, the last survivor, became the sole monarch of the Scoto-Irish; but he did not long enjoy the sovereignty, for he died in 506.

Fergus was succeeded by his son Domangart, or Dongardus, who died in 511, after a short but troubled reign of about five years. His two sons Comgal and Gabhran or Gauran, successively enjoyed his authority. Comgal had a peaceful reign of four and twenty years, during which he extended his settlements. He left a son named Conal, but Gauran his brother, notwithstanding, ascended the throne in the year 535 without opposition. Gauran reigned two and twenty years, and, as we have already observed, was slain in a battle with the Picts under Bridei their king.

Conal, the son of Comgal, then succeeded in 557, and closed a reign of fourteen years in 571. It was during his reign that Columba's mission to the Picts took place. A civil war ensued between Aodgan or Aidan, the son of Gauran, and Duncha or Duncan, the son of Conal, for the vacant corwn, the claim to which was decided on the bloody field of Loro or Loco in Kintyre in 575, where Duncha was slain. Aidan, the son of Gauran, had been formally inaugriated by St. Columba in Iona, in 574. In the time of Aidan there were frequent wars between the Dalriads and the English Saxons. Many battles were fought in which the Scots were generally defeated, the principal being that of Degsastan or Dalston near Carlisle, in 603, in which nearly the whole of the Scottish army was defeated. The wars with the Saxons weakened the power of the Dalriads very considerably, and it was not till after a long period of time that they again ventured to meet the Saxons in the field.

During a short season of repose, Aidan, attended by St. Columba, went to the celebrated council of Drum-keat in Ulster, in the year 590. In this council he claimed the principality of Dalriada, the land of his fathers, and obtained an exemption from doing homage to the kings of Ireland, which his ancestors, it would appear, had been accustomed to pay. Aidan died in 605 or 608, at the advanced age of eighty, and was buried in the church of Kil-keran, the ruins of which are still to be seen in the midst of Campbleton.

Aidan was succeeded in the throne by his son Eocha-bui, or the "yellow", who reigned sixteen years. He carried on war with the Cruithne of Ulster. After him came his brother Kenneth-Cear, or the "left-handed", who was followed by Ferchar, son of Eogan, of the race of Lorn.

Donal, surnamed breac or freckled, the son of Eocha'-bui, of the race of Gauran, succeeded Ferchar about 637. He was a warlike prince and had distinguished himself in the wars against the Cruithne of Ireland. Congal-Claon, the son of Scanlan, the king of the Cruithne in Ulster, having slain Suibne-Mean, a powerful king of Ireland, was attacked by Domnal II, supreme king of Ireland, who succeeded Suibine, and was defeated in the battle of Duncetheren, in 629. Congal sought refuge in Cantyre, and having persauded Donal-breac, the kinsman of Domnal, to join him in a war against the latter, they invaded Ireland with a heterogeneous mass of Scoto-Irish, Picts, Britons, and Saxons, commanded by Donal and his brothers. Cealach, the son of Maelcomb, the pephew of the reigning king, and as tanist or heir-apparent, the leader of his army, attacked Donal-breac in the plain of Magh Rath or Moyra in Down, in 637, and completely defeated him after an obstinate and bloody engagement. Congal, the murderer of his soverign, met his merited fate, and Donal-breac was obliged to secure his own and his army's safety by a speedy return to Cantyre. St. Columba had always endeavoured to preserve an amicable understanding between the Cruithne of Ulster and the Scoto-Irish, and his injunctions were, that they should live in constant peace; but Donal disregarded the wise advice of the saint, and paid dearly for so doing. He was not more successful in an enterprise against the Picts, having been defeated by them in the battle of Glinne Mairson, Glenmairison, or Glenmoreson, probably in West Lothian, during the year 638. He ended his days at Strath-cairmaic or Strathcarron, possibly in the neighbourhood of Falkirk, by the sword of Hoan or Owen, one of the reguliof Strathcluyd, in the year 642. His son Cathasuidh fell by the same hand in 649.

Conal II, the grandson of Conal I, who was also of the Fergusian race of Congal, next ruled over the tribes of Cantyre and Argyle; but Dungal, of the race of Lorn, having obtained the government of the tribe of Lorn, questioned the right of Conal. He did not, however, carry his pretensions far, for Conal died, in undisturbed possession of his dominions, in 652, after a reign of ten years. To Donal-duin, or the brown, son of Conal, who reigned thirteen years, succeeded Maolduin, his brother, in 665. The family feuds which had long existed between the Fergusian races of Comgal and Tauran, existed in their bitterest state during the reign of Maolduin. Domangart, the son of Donal-breac, was murdered in 672, and Conal, the son of Maolduin, was assassinated in 675.

Ferchar-fada, or the tall, apparently of the race of Lorn, and either the son or grandson of Ferchar, who died in 637, seized the reins of government upon the death of Maolduin. On the death of Ferchar, in 702, he sceptre passed again to the Fergusian race in the person of Eocha'-rineval, remarkable for his Roman nose, the son of Domangart. The reign of this prince was short and unfortunate. His sceptre was seized by Ainbhcealach, the son of Ferchar-fada, who succeeded Eocha' in 705. He was of an excellent disposition, but after reigning one year, was dethroned by his brother, Selvach, and obliged, in 706, to take refuge in Ireland. Selvach attacked the Britons of Strathcluyd, and gained two successive victories over them, the one at Longecoleth in 710, and the other at the rock of Mionuire in 716. At the end of twelve years, Ainbhcealach returned from Ireland, to regain the sceptre which his brother had by his cruelties shown himself unworthy to wield, but he perished in the battle of Finglein, perhaps Glen Fyne at the head of Loch Fyne, in 719. Selvach met a more formidable rival in Duncha-beg, who was descended from Fergus, by the line of Congal; he assumed the government of Cantyre and Argail, and confined Selvach to his family settlements of Lorn. These two princes appear to have been fairly matched in disposition and valour, and both exerted themselves for the destruction of one another, thus bringing many miseries upon their tribes. In an attempt which they made to invade the territories of each other in 719 by means of currachs, a naval combat ensued off Airdeanesbi, (probably Ardaness on the coast of Argyle), in which Selvach was overcome by Duncha; but Selvach was not subdued. The death of Duncha in 721 put an end to his designs; but Eocha' III, the son of Eocha'-rineval, the successor of Duncha, being as bent on the overthrow of Selvach as his predecessor, continued the war. The rival chiefs met at Irroisfoichne in 727, where a battle was fought, which produced nothing but irritation and distress. This lamentable state of things was put an end to by the death of Selvach in 729. This event enabled Eocha to assume the goverment of Lorn, and thus the Dalriadan kingdom which had been alternately rules by chiefs of the houses of Fergus and Lorn became again united under Eocha. He died in 733, after a reign of thirteen years, during nine of which he ruled over Cantyre and Argyle, and four over all the Dalriadic tribes.

Eocha was succeeded in the kingdom by Muredach, the son of Ainbhceallach, fo the race of Lorn. His reign was short and unfortumate. In revenge for an act of perfidy committed by Dungal, the son of Selvach, who had carried off Foria or Toria, the daughter of Brude, and the niece of Ungus, the great Pictish king, the latter, in the year 736, led his army from Strathearn, through the passes of the mountains into Lorn, which he wasted with fire and sword. He sized Duncad, in Mid-Lorn, and burned Creic, another fortress in the Ross of Mull, taking Dungal and Feradach, the two sons of Selvach, prisoners. Muredach went in pursuit of his enemy, and having overtaken him at Knock Cairpre, at Calatros, on he shores of the Linne, a battle ensued, in which the Scots were repulsed with great slaughter. Talorgan, the brother of Ungus, commanded the Picts on this occasion, and pursued the flying Scots. In this pursuit Muredach is supposed to have perished, after a reign of three years.

Eogban or Ewan, the son of Muredach, took up the fallen succession in 736, and died in 739, in which year the Dalriadic sceptre was assumed by Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha'III, and grandson of Eocha'-rineval, descended from the Fergusian race of Gauran. In 740 he measured his strength with the celebrated Ungus; but victory declared for neither, and during the remainder of Ungus's reign, he did not attempt to renew hostilities. After the death of Ungus, in 761, Aodh-fin declared war against the Picts, whose territories he entered from Upper Lorn, penetrating through the passes of Glenorchy and Breadlbane. In 767 he reached Forteviot, the Pictish capital in Strathearn, where he fought a doubtful battle with Ciniod the Pictish king. Aodh-fin died in 769, after a spendid reign of thirty years.

Fergus II, son of Aodh-fin, succeeded to the sceptre on the demise of his father, and died after an unimportant reign of three years. Selvach II, the son of Eogan, assumed the government in 772. His reign, which lasted twenty four years, presents nothing very remarkable in history.

A new soverign of a different lineage, now mounted the throne of the Scots in 796, in the person of Eocha or Auchy, the son of Aodh-fin of the Gauran race. Eocha' IV is known also by the latinized appellation of Achaius. The story of the alliance between Achaius and Charlemagne has been shown to be a fable; although it is by no means improbable that he entered into an important treaty with the Picts, by marying Urgusia, the daughter of Urguis, an alliance which, it is said, enabled his grandson Kenneth afterwards to claim and acquire the Pictish sceptre, in right of Urgusia his grandmother. Eocha died in 826, after a happy and prosperous reign of thirty years. He was succeeded by Dungal, the son of Selvach II, of the race of Lorn, being the last of that powerful family who swayed the Dalriadic sceptre. After a feeble but stormy reign of seven years, he died in 833.

Alpin, the last of the Scoto-Irish kings, and the son of Eocha IV and of Urgusia, now mounted the throne. He was killed in 836, near the site of Laicht castle, on the ridge which seperates Kyle from Galloway. The fiction that Alpin fell in a battle with the Picts, when asserting his right to the Pictish throne, had long been exploded.

In 836 Kenneth, the son of Alpine, succeeded his father. He was a prince of a warlike disposition, and of great vigour of mind and body. He avenged the death of his father by frequent inroads among the people dwelling to the south of the Clyde; but the great glory of his reign consists in his achievements against the Picts, which secured for him and his posterity the Pictish septre. The Pictish power had, previous to the period of Kenneth's accession, been greatly enfeebled by the inroads of the Danisg Vikingr; but it was not till after the death of Uven, the Pictish king, in 839, after a distracted reign of three years, that Kenneth made any serious attempt to seize the Pictish disdem. On the accession of Wred, Kenneth, in accordance with the principle of succession said by Bede to have prevailed among the Picts, claimed the Pictish throne in right of Urgusia, his grandmother; Wred died in 842, and after an arduous struggle, Kenneth wrested the sceptre from Bred, his successor, in 843, after he had reigned over the Scots seven years.

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