IMC 2013: Sessions
Session 1107: 'Foul Hordes': The Migration of Ideas and People in Pictland and Beyond
Wednesday 3 July 2013, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | University of Edinburgh |
|---|---|
| Organiser: | Bethan Morris, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh |
| Moderator/Chair: | James E. Fraser, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh |
| Paper 1107-a | 'Go West, Young Urguist': Assessing the Pictish Presence in Ireland (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic |
| Paper 1107-b | Foul Iconography: Religious Figures on Stone Sculpture (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life |
| Paper 1107-c | Reading the Stones: Literacy, Symbols, and Monumentality in Pictland and Beyond (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - Sites, Literacy and Orality |
| Abstract | The most visible legacy of Gildas's 'foul hordes' of Picts is their unique symbols. These have held an irresistible enticement for scholars for hundreds of years, leading to descriptions of the Picts as enigmatic, mysterious, and 'quite the darkest people in Dark Age Scotland'. The lack of known surviving Pictish documentary sources and the eventual eclipse of the Pictish language by Gaelic have created a vacuum into which imaginative historians could pour speculation about the Picts. However, this vacuum of imagination is slowly shrinking as art-historians, archaeologists, historians, and linguists determinedly piece together the evidence from northern Britain and beyond. |