For Volume 4 of ‘On Scottish Books’, we are joined by Fiona Campbell-Howes. Fiona is a fellow Pictish Arts Society committee member and a PhD student at University of Glasgow.
Thank you for this info. I am researching for a screenplay that tells a story about generational trauma and inheritance. The main character is an American of Scots/Irish/Pict descent who confronts her "home" growing up in the mountains of the Spokane tribal nation in the Northwest of the United States. I am viewing these pict symbols and wonder has anyone compared them to indigenous art in the North Americas? I am also researching the medicinal and healing arts of the character's ancestral past. Is there one of these books that contains such information?
Hi Hallie, that sounds like a very interesting project. I'm afraid we know nothing about the medicinal or healing arts of the Picts, since they left no writing and any traditions or pre-Christian beliefs they had were overwritten by later dominant groups. However, the archaeology is telling us more and more about the diet and lifeways of the Picts, especially through stable isotope analysis and analysis of midden deposits, etc. For that kind of information, the book Picts: Scourge of Rome, Rulers of the North has the best information. There has been no concerted attempt (that I am aware of) to study the Pictish symbols alongside American indigenous art. The symbols remain undeciphered, so you have free rein to make your own comparisons and interpretations of them! You may enjoy Helen McKay's Substack, as she has some interesting insights into the possible syntax of the symbols (if not their actual meaning): https://helenmckay.substack.com/ Good luck with the screenplay!
Thanks Lilly for inviting me to contribute!
Thank you for this info. I am researching for a screenplay that tells a story about generational trauma and inheritance. The main character is an American of Scots/Irish/Pict descent who confronts her "home" growing up in the mountains of the Spokane tribal nation in the Northwest of the United States. I am viewing these pict symbols and wonder has anyone compared them to indigenous art in the North Americas? I am also researching the medicinal and healing arts of the character's ancestral past. Is there one of these books that contains such information?
Hi Hallie, that sounds like a very interesting project. I'm afraid we know nothing about the medicinal or healing arts of the Picts, since they left no writing and any traditions or pre-Christian beliefs they had were overwritten by later dominant groups. However, the archaeology is telling us more and more about the diet and lifeways of the Picts, especially through stable isotope analysis and analysis of midden deposits, etc. For that kind of information, the book Picts: Scourge of Rome, Rulers of the North has the best information. There has been no concerted attempt (that I am aware of) to study the Pictish symbols alongside American indigenous art. The symbols remain undeciphered, so you have free rein to make your own comparisons and interpretations of them! You may enjoy Helen McKay's Substack, as she has some interesting insights into the possible syntax of the symbols (if not their actual meaning): https://helenmckay.substack.com/ Good luck with the screenplay!