Pictish Stones - Classification

Classification

In The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (1903) J Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson first classified Pictish stones into three groups. Critics have noted weaknesses in this system but it is widely known and still used in the field. In particular, the classification may be misleading for the many incomplete stones. Allen and Anderson regarded their classes as coming from distinct periods in sequence, but it is now clear that there was a considerable period when both Class I and II stones were both being produced.

• Class 1 — unworked stones with symbols only incised. There is no cross on either side. Class 1 stones date back to the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries.
• Class 2 — stones of more or less rectangular shape with a large cross and symbol(s) on one or both sides. The symbols, as well as Christian motifs, are carved in relief and the cross with its surroundings is filled with designs. Class 2 stones date from the 8th and 9th centuries.
• Class 3 — these stones feature no idiomatic Pictish symbols. The stones can be cross-slabs, recumbent gravemarkers, free-standing crosses, and composite stone shrines. They originate in the 8th or 9th century. Historic Scotland describe this class as "too simplistic" and say "Nowadays this is not considered a useful category. A surviving fragment may belong to a monument that did include Christian imagery".

Later Scottish stones merge into wider medieval British and European traditions.