Who were the Picts?

[Thunder_shock]

One of a number of celtic tribes that inhabited northern Britain (modern day - Scotland). And they havent been replaced, but have experienced genetic influence from tribes across the sea. They're exactly like the celtic Gauls as in their identity, culture and language have changed and have experienced influx into their lands from foreign tribes.

[XenophobicPrussian]

I don't know why anybody thinks they know what the Picts looked like or thinks that they would have looked any different to other British Islanders.

Least amount of Anglo-Saxon/Viking admixture, most amount of native Briton = Cornwall and Devon. Least amount of light eyes/light hair in the British Isles = Cornwall and Devon.

Most amount of Anglo-Saxon/Viking admixture, least amount of native Briton(and this can be backed up) = eastern England, eastern Scotland. Most amount of light eyes/light hair in the British Isles = eastern England, eastern Scotland.

Picts were also historically depicted as being very short, almost Pygmy like(source: that Scottish historian who did the documentary on the People of the British Isles genetic study, if you need me to go look up his name I can)

1+1=2

[Gooding]

Bumping it up for additional insights..

[Neon Knight]

Least amount of Anglo-Saxon/Viking admixture, most amount of native Briton = Cornwall and Devon. Least amount of light eyes/light hair in the British Isles = Cornwall and Devon.

Most amount of Anglo-Saxon/Viking admixture, least amount of native Briton(and this can be backed up) = eastern England, eastern Scotland. Most amount of light eyes/light hair in the British Isles = eastern England, eastern Scotland.

Picts were also historically depicted as being very short, almost Pygmy like(source: that Scottish historian who did the documentary on the People of the British Isles genetic study, if you need me to go look up his name I can)

1+1=2

Genetically, the differences throughout Britain are quite petty. If Germanic = Scandi + German + (Belgian/2) then the English are 47% Germanic, the Welsh are 43% Germanic and the South Scots are 55% Germanic. There is no difference between eastern and central England (apart from western Yorkshire which is the most Germanic of all). The Picts would have been very similar to the invading Ulstermen anyway, with significant ancient Scandinavian influence but not much German. I don't know the truth about which parts of England have more light eyes and hair and it would take an up-to-date comprehensive study to convince me.

The notion of the Picts being pygmies is obviously some kind of tribal myth.

[Al-Meksiki]

I'd posit that the modern Scots are just gaelicized Picts with some Irish, English, and Norse ancestry thrown into the mix.

[Graham]

Here are Picts from Fife. Which would be a normal height for time & diet.

The average height of the 12 definite females could be estimated as 156 cm (5 ft 1D in), ranging
from 4 ft 10 in to 5 ft 5 in. Wells (1957) has commented on the presence of diminutive women in
other long cist burials. Of the four definite males the average height was 173.5 cm (5 ft 8 in),
ranging from 5 ft 5 in to 5 ft 10 in.

The cephalic indices ranged widely from 69 to 82. Nine out of 18 were clustered between 74 and
77, that is the border between dolichocephaly and mesaticephaly. However, three skulls were
frankly brachycephalic at 82, and one was markedly dolichocephalic at 69. Two of the
brachycephalic skulls were reconstructed from fragments and the measurements are not reliable.
The vertical indices ranged from 65 to 75, the majority lying in the middle of the range. Other
features of the skulls were a characteristic narrow highly arched palate with a prominent chin
showing flanging of the lower border of mandible on each side of the mental symphysis. The male
skull of skeleton LL3 from the Dumb-bell Complex illustrates these characteristics in an extreme
form.

[Neon Knight]

Item of interest I just read:

Goidelic [Gaelic] was once restricted to Ireland and, possibly, the west coast of Scotland. Medieval Gaelic literature tells us that the kingdom of Dál Riata emerged in western Scotland during the 6th century. The traditional view was that Dál Riata was founded by Irish migrants, but this is no longer universally accepted. Archeologist Ewan Campbell, says there is no archeological evidence for a migration or invasion, and suggests strong sea links helped maintain a pre-existing Gaelic culture on both sides of the North Channel.

It makes sense, because the Irish Scots had only crap weapons due to lack of metal resources.

[Graham]

That is one theory, The Irish did help spread the Catholic religion to those Western parts though. St Columba is a big part in Scottish History.

Non-Irish St Ninian was another in other parts of Scotland.

[Gooding]

Item of interest I just read:

Goidelic [Gaelic] was once restricted to Ireland and, possibly, the west coast of Scotland. Medieval Gaelic literature tells us that the kingdom of Dál Riata emerged in western Scotland during the 6th century. The traditional view was that Dál Riata was founded by Irish migrants, but this is no longer universally accepted. Archeologist Ewan Campbell, says there is no archeological evidence for a migration or invasion, and suggests strong sea links helped maintain a pre-existing Gaelic culture on both sides of the North Channel.

It makes sense, because the Irish Scots had only crap weapons due to lack of metal resources.

Well, I'm not saying that the history of Clan Donald is the history of Scotland ( just the western seaboard and the offshore Isles ), but a lot of clansmen have ancient Irish ancestry, with a minority having Norse. http://dna-project.clan-donald-usa.org/