'Dr Cummins has succeeded in writing a book with a refreshingly new approach in historical interpretation.'
DR ANNA RITCHIE

The Pictish nation, forged in the shadow of the Roman empire, was the dominant power in northern Britain for more than five hundred years. For this we have the contemporary authority of three neighbouring peoples: the British, who suffered the depredations of the Picts in the fifth century; the English of Northumbria, whose expansionist ambitions were thwarted by the Picts at the battle of Nechtansmere; and the Irish, whose annalists kept a record of the history of their own times. Much has been written about the archaeology and culture of the Picts in recent years, but the historical problems have received less than their fair share of attention. What made them such an effective military and political power? Why, after five centuries of power, do they disappear from contemporary records? Why was there no medieval Pictish kingdom?

Those who have failed to find a satisfactory account of Pictish history will find this book invaluable. It provides a fresh look at the whole Pictish story, placing it firmly in its true historical context and reassessing topics such as the legend of Drust son of Erp and St Columba's mission to the Picts. There are unusual but useful comparisons with contemporary events in Wales and England as well as new and controversial interpretations of Sueno's Stone and Pictish symbols, and a fresh explanation of what happened in 843 when the Scots took over Pictland.

Illustrated throughout by over forty maps, photographs and line illustrations, The Age of the Picts is a stimulating survey which will interest not only the student of Dark Age history but also anyone fascinated by the mystery of the Picts.

The big question that historians have been trying to answer for centuries is "Who were the Picts." Dr. Cummins offers the following as the beginning of an answer.

"The question posed by Wainwright in The Problem of the Picts was 'Who were the Picts?'. This question seemed to imply that there was something distinctively Pictish about the Picts, some racial characteristic or characteristics that set them apart from neighbouring peoples, something distinctive about their build or their colouring; the language they spoke1 the clothes they wore; their religion and customs; their history and prehistory. But Wainwnwright was careful to point out that he meant no such thing. Indeed after some discussion he concluded that, at the time of writing (1954) 'philologist, achaeolgists and historian, differing among themselves at man points, would probably all agree that the historical Picts were a heterogeneous people and that the antecedents of Pictland should not be sought in a single race or culture'.

If, instead of Wainwright's question, we ask, 'What were the Picts?', the answer is very simple. They were a nation created by the union of a number of tribes. This union, formed initially as a military alliance against the common enemy, stood the test of time and long outlived the threat of Roman invasion. For the last seventeen centuries the peoples of this union have been know collectively as the Picts, a name first recorded by the Romans. The name itself is a familiar part of the problem: did Picti really mean 'the painted men', or was it simply the Latin form of a long-forgotten native name? Putting this question on one side for the moment, we might refer to the Picts as 'The United Tribes of Caledonia', or UTC for short, a name which tells us just what they really were. The 'proto- Picts', the name coined for the peoples who were to become Picts in the third and fourth centuries, would then have been the various different tribes occupying Caledonia at the time of the Roman invasion. We know the names of some of these tribes, mainly from Ptolemy's geography. What we want to know is something about their racial connections and origins."

Dr. Cummins spend the rest of the book answering this question accompanied by many maps and photographs.

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