Were the Picts of Scotland ethnically Celtic?
The Picts were a confederation of tribes in central and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde. They were the descendants of the Caledonii and other tribes named by Roman historians or found on the world map of Ptolemy. Pictland, also known as Pictavia, became the Kingdom of Alba during the 10th century and the Picts became the Albannach or Scots. The name by which the Picts called themselves is unknown. The Greek word Πικτοί (Latin Picti) first appears in a panegyric written by Eumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean “painted or tattooed people” (Latin pingere “paint”). This may, however, be due to early folk etymology and the term likely has a Celtic origin, perhaps Pehta, Peihta (meaning “fighters”). The Gaels of Ireland and Dál Riata called the Picts Cruithne, (Old Irish cru(i)then-túath), presumably from Proto-Celtic *kwriteno-toutā. There were also Cruithne in Ulster, in particular the kings of Dál nAraidi. The Br
Here’s a quote from a decent site: “The second theory of the Picts is that their origins were Celtic. Believers in this describe the two branches as Q-Celts and P-Celts. Both origins were that of Indo-European qu being Q-Celtic and the other transforming the qu into p became P-Celtic. Examples given of this are Q-Celtic were Goedelic languages such as Irish, Scottish, Gaelic and Manx and the P-Celtic were Gaulish and Brittonic that of British, Welsh, Cornish and Breton.” Check it out with the link below. I did watch an episode of Time Team (great UK archeology show) where the experts suggested that the picts were just an earlier stage of the same people who later occupied the land. They were excavating some pict carvings in caves. Really cool. Sources: http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/origin1.html, http://www.channel4.
