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Picts
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It was not long after this point that the influence of the Picts began to be felt in the north of the country. It is ... from this point that confusion can set in. While the Caledonians were the power in the north, the Romans called the country Caledonia. So when the Picts came into power they likewise called the country Pictavia. The people were also then called Picts. At the same time the Irish were still calling them Cruithne. In Watson's own words: "it is important to keep in view that while all Picts were Cruithne, all Cruithne were not Picts".
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As with most peoples in the north of Europe in Late Antiquity, the Picts were farmers living in small communities. Cattle and horses were an obvious sign of wealth and prestige, sheep and pigs were kept in large numbers, and place names suggest that transhumance was common. Animals were small by later standards, although horses from Britain were imported into Ireland as breed-stock to enlarge native horses. From Irish sources it appears that the élite engaged in competitive cattle-breeding for size, and this may have been the case in Pictland .... Carvings show hunting with dogs, and also, unlike in Ireland, with falcons. Cereal crops included wheat, barley, oats and rye.
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The Picts ... had conflicts with neighbouring peoples. The Angles were a Germanic race who had crossed the North Sea in waves mainly after the Romans left Britain and settled in England. After 600 AD these Angles began to push northwards. By 640 AD they had destroyed the Celtic kingdom of Gododdin. In 685 AD a huge army of these Angles marched north of Perth into Angus. Near Forfar they were met by a Pictish army and crushed.
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The disappearance of the Picts and their language has courted controversy. When the Gaelic prince, Cinaed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin), became king of the Picts in 843, contemporary sources make no suggestions that this was the end of Pictavia, but in the time of his grandsons, c. 900, the kingdom changed its name to Alba, and by the year 1000 all trace of the Picts as a living people had gone.
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By the year 750 AD the Picts ruled the largest kingdom in Scotland, yet 100 years later their kingdom had vanished. The reason for this is unknown, but many historians believe that in the 790’s the fierce Vikings began to raid the northern coast of Scotland. They took over large parts of the Pictish kingdom such as Orkney, Shetland and Sutherland. The invaders smashed many Pictish strongholds. Historians ... believe that the Picts lost a series of battles, and kings in the struggle for territory and domination.
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The early Picts are associated with piracy and raiding along the coasts of Roman Britain. Even in the Late Middle Ages, the line between traders and pirates was unclear, so that Pictish pirates were probably merchants on other occasions. It is generally assumed that trade collapsed with the Roman Empire, but this is to overstate the case. There is only limited evidence of long-distance trade with Pictland, but tableware and storage vessels from Gaul, probably transported up the Irish Sea, have been found. This trade may have been controlled from Dunadd in Dál Riata, where such goods appear to have been common. While long-distance travel was unusual in Pictish times, it was far from unknown as stories of missionaries, travelling clerics and exiles show.[37]
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Picts