Pictish Stones - Purpose and Meaning

Purpose and Meaning

The purpose and meaning of the stones are only slightly understood, and the various theories proposed for the early Class I symbol stones, that are considered to mostly pre-date the spread of Christianity to the Picts, are essentially speculative. Many later Christian stones from Classes II and III fall more easily into recognisable categories such as gravestones. The earlier symbol stones may have served as personal memorials or territorial markers, with symbols for individual names, clans, lineages or kindreds, although there are several other theories, and proposed explanations of the meanings of the symbols. A small number of Pictish stones have been found associated with burials, but most are not in their original locations. Some later stones may also have marked tribal or lineage territories.

Class I and II stones contain symbols from a recognisable set of standard ideograms, many unique to Pictish art, which are known as the Pictish symbols. The exact number of distinct Pictish symbols is uncertain as there is some debate as to what constitutes a Pictish symbol, and whether some varied forms should be counted together or separately. The more inclusive estimates are in excess of sixty different symbols, but a more typical estimate is around thirty, or "around forty" according to Historic Scotland. These include geometric symbols which have been assigned descriptive names by researchers such as crescent and V-rod, double disc and Z-rod, and outline representations of animals such as the adder, salmon, wolf, stag, eagle, as well as the apparently mythical Pictish Beast), perhaps intended as a sea-monster. There are also representations of everyday objects such as the mirror and comb, which could have been used by high-status Picts. The symbols are almost always arranged in pairs or sets of pairs, often with the object type, such as the mirror and comb, below the others, hence the thinking they could represent names, lineage or kindred (such as two parents/clans). According to Anthony Jackson the symbol pairs represent matrilineal marriage alliances. The animal group are generally only found in combination with the abstract types.

The symbols are found on some of the extremely rare survivals of Pictish jewellery, such as the pair of silver plaques from the Norrie's Law hoard found in Fife in the early 19th century, and the Whitecleuch Chain. The symbols are also sometimes found on other movable objects like small stone discs and bones mostly from the Northern Isles. Simple or early forms of the symbols are carved on the walls of coastal caves at East Wemyss, Fife and Covesea, Moray. It is therefore thought likely that they were represented in other more perishable forms that have not survived in the archaeological record, perhaps including clothing and tattoos. Some symbols appear across the whole geographical range of the stones while, for example, six stones with the single symbol of a bull found at Burghead Fort suggest that this represented the place itself, or its owners, despite other examples appearing elsewhere.

A team from Exeter University, using mathematical analysis, have concluded that the symbols in the Pictish image stones "exhibit the characteristics of written languages" (as opposed to "random or sematographic (heraldic) characters"). This claim has been criticized by linguists Mark Liberman and Richard Sproat on the grounds that the non-uniform distribution of symbols - taken to be evidence of writing - is little different from non-linguistic non-uniform distributions (such as die rolls), and that the Exeter team are using a definition of writing broader than that used by linguists. To date, even those who propose that the symbols should be considered "writing" from this mathematical approach do not have a suggested decipherment. However, earlier studies based on a contextual approach drawing on the identification of the pagan pre-Christian Celtic Cult of the Archer Guardian have been able to suggest possible clausal meanings for symbol pairs.