Mysterious Symbols in the North: An Analysis of Scotland's Pictish Symbol Stones

During the Roman occupation and conquest of regions that today form England and Scotland, Roman generals and historians wrote of the people they found living in these frozen regions of the world. The Romans referred to these populations as Pictii or the 'painted people', but provided little information about them. Nearly two thousand years after the disappearance of any mention of Pictish culture, the rocks that they inscribed with symbols are found in the archaeological record and scholars wonder about the meaning of these symbols. The distribution of some common symbols throughout Scotland may help provide an answer. In this study I investigate several characteristics of Pictish symbols, their distribution, and relationships.