The Picts
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2023
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Emerging around the 3rd century CE and later designated official adversaries of the Roman Empire, the Picts wreaked havoc across the northern fringes of Roman Britain. But due to their limited presence in the archaeological record and the complexities of multiple kings, kingdoms, and languages involved, unravelling the true identity of the Picts and understanding why Rome harboured such animosity towards them can be challenging. So what sources can archaeologists turn to, and what does it show us about ancient Scotland?
In this episode, Tristan welcomes Professor Gordon Noble from the University of Aberdeen to shed light on the enigmatic culture of the Picts. By examining Imperial sources, ancient artwork, and even the earliest known form of daily 'tweets', what insights can we gather about the Picts? And why have they been obscured by the passage of time?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Who said, Dictatorship was dead? |
| 0:04.3 | In his new book, Big Seasers and Little Seasers, Ferdinand Mount draws on examples throughout |
| 0:09.2 | history, from ancient Rome to Donald Trump and Boris Johnson to open up a fascinating exploration |
| 0:16.0 | of how and why Dictators seize power and why they fall. |
| 0:21.0 | Big Seasers and Little Seasers is available now, wherever books are sold. |
| 0:26.1 | Welcome to the Ancients from History Hit. |
| 0:28.8 | To listen to all of our episodes Add Free and watch hundreds of history documentaries |
| 0:33.6 | download the History Hit app or go to historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:40.2 | And if you're an Apple listener, you can subscribe for new Add Free episodes within the app. |
| 0:56.6 | It's The Ancients on History Hit. |
| 0:59.4 | I'm Tristan Hughes your host. |
| 1:01.2 | And in today's episode, well, we're going back to ancient Scotland. |
| 1:06.0 | So talk about one of the most mysterious and enigmatic people of ancient Britain. |
| 1:12.6 | A people that also considered the bane of Rome in the north. |
| 1:17.1 | I am, of course, talking about the pics. |
| 1:19.8 | The pics are associated with striking art such as these beautiful carved stones called |
| 1:25.9 | the Pictist stones. |
| 1:26.9 | Just look up Pictist stones and you'll see what I mean. |
| 1:29.5 | They are absolutely stunning. |
| 1:32.0 | But overall, I think it is fair to say the archaeological evidence for the pics is limited. |
| 1:39.1 | However, more recently, these extraordinary professors and archaeologists, |
| 1:44.2 | especially in the north of Britain in Scotland, are unearthing more information about the pics. |
... |
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