Pictish Beast

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horizontal: Rodney's Stone , Brodie Castle

The Pictish Beast is one of around 50 different symbols that can be found primarily on the early medieval symbol stones of the Picts in northern Scotland . The figures were created between the 7th and 9th centuries. It remains unclear whether an animal species or a chimera is represented.

description

The picture shows a zoomorphic being. Characteristic are the long, beak-like snout, the rounded, rolled-up ends of the limbs, a long structure that hangs down from the back of the head and looks like a curl, a kind of rostrum or a braid, and the mostly hanging tail rounded at the end. The figure is often shown slightly or fully erect.

interpretation

Which living creature the Pictish Beast is modeled on is unclear in view of the occurrence of naturalistic representations of eagles, goose, fish (salmon) deer and bull. The rounded limbs and the mostly "swimming" appearance suggest that it could be an animal living in water, such as a beaked whale , a seahorse or a dolphin . The shape of the snout would also match this. A deer (swimming in the water) was also considered . Other suggestions go in the direction of depicting a legendary figure such as the Kelpie or the Each Uisge . But it is also possible that it is the final form of an artistic development that has lasted over a longer period of time, which resulted in an animal from an originally lindworm-shaped fibula . A Pictish Beast and a figure can be seen on the Mortlach 2 stone , which resembles such a primer. None of these proposals has been convincing so far, so the debate is not over.

The meaning of the symbols shown on the stones is also unknown. Among other things, mystical, religious, genealogical or political functions come into question. But it could also have been a peculiar script .

Occurrence and frequency

The University of Strathclyde's database of Pictish symbol stones lists 51 symbol stones on which the being is depicted. New images have been discovered occasionally recently, for example on the Black Isle in September 2011 . Among the 30 to 65 symbols, depending on how they are counted, it is one of the most common. The wide range in the number of symbols that exist in total is due, in particular, to the controversial question of which of the images that are rarely or individually encountered can be addressed as symbols.

An evaluation by the University of Strathclyde showed that the Pictish Beast , here titled as elephant , is the third most common symbol after "crescent moon with V-rod" and "double disk with Z-rod". If you look at the 13 most common symbols, the proportion is 13.5%. Within the group of animal symbols, it is by far the most common with three times the number of images compared to the second-ranked salmon (salmon). In the temporal position the beast belongs to the symbols used later. It only occurs more frequently on stones that are dated after 700 AD. It is completely absent on the ten oldest stones. Regionally, it has its highest share of the symbols on stones of class 2 from the combined area of ​​the regions of Perth and Kinross , Fife and Edinburgh with 10 of a total of 35 symbols. This is the southernmost of the area where symbol stones can be found across the board.

In general, the Pictish Beast is a figure from the southern part of the distribution area of ​​the symbol stones. Its main occurrence is between the Great Glen and the Tay , beyond that it is rarely found. The northernmost find comes from the Brough of Birsay in the Orkney Islands . An examination of the 40 best-preserved illustrations concludes that the origin of the symbol is most likely to be found in Angus or in eastern Perthshire .

In addition to symbol stones, images were also discovered on rock walls, for example in the Wemyss Caves . A use on other materials has not yet been proven, but so far only four treasure finds from the time of the Picts have been discovered. Most of these were also melted down before they could be scientifically documented. The fact that Pictish symbols were also engraved in metal artefacts is shown by seven individual pieces, including three from the silver hoard of Norrie's Law .

Other names

In the English language, the term beast , used in connection with an animal, is a neutral generic term for a wild animal , especially a larger land mammal. A translation of the expression into the German language as a Piktisches Best or Piktische Bestie is therefore incorrect.

Ever since scientific analyzes have been concerned with them, the Pictish symbols have been named based on what they represent: actually ( rectangle , serpent and z-rod (snake and Z-rod)) or at least with high probability ( mirror ) , salmon (salmon)). With the symbol discussed here, the problem arose that it was and is unclear what it shows. As a result, even if the neutral expression beast has become widely accepted, alternative terms have also been used. In addition to historical paraphrases such as Sun Boar (sun boar), the expressions dolphin and elephant are particularly common today . In monographs is this not a problem as clearly as a rule, what symbol is meant. Difficulties can arise with general overviews. The symbol on the Ulbster stone kept in Thurso is also referred to as beast in several relevant works . One work, on the other hand, describes it as elephant and instead uses the expression beast to depict another animal that is so unclassifiable that it is otherwise referred to as lion , dog or animal .

See also

literature

  • Craig Cessford: Pictish Art and the Sea In: Traders, Saints, and Pirates: The Sea in Early Medieval Northwestern Europe. The Heroic Age: A Journal of Medieval Northwestern Europe, Issue 8 (2005) ISSN  1526-1867 .

Web links

Commons : Pictish Beast  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Figure of such a primer , location Traprain Law , East Lothian . National Museum of Scotland website , accessed February 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Illustration of the stone in the database of Pictish symbol stones, accessed on February 17, 2012.
  3. ↑ The article by Cessford (see literature list) gives an overview of the various approaches with references to sources.
  4. ^ A b Earl of Southesk: Origins of Pictish Symbolism, with notes on the Sun Boar. ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Edinburgh 1893, p. 34. Retrieved February 25, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.blackcrescent.org
  5. ↑ a b c Katherine Forsyth : Some thoughts on Pictish Symbols as a formal writing system. In: I. Henderson, D. Henry: The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn. Pictish and related studies presented to Isabel Henderson, 1997, pp. 85-98. Digitized version (PDF; 4.2 MB), accessed on February 17, 2012.
  6. ^ Rob Lee, Philip Jonathan, Pauline Ziman: Pictish symbols revealed as a written language through application of Shannon entropy . Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 466 (2121), September 2010, pp. 2545-2560. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  7. ^ Pictish beast intrigues Highland archaeologists . BBC News, Highlands & Islands, September 14, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ See the fifty illustrations each in John Romilly Allen, Joseph Anderson: Early Christian Monuments of Scotland Edinburgh 1903 and in Toby D. Griffin: The Grammar of the Pictish Symbol Stones, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville . Digitized version (PDF; 939 kB)
  9. ^ A Dating for Pictish Symbols - The Distribution of Pictish Symbols by Region and by Class . Statistical analysis of Strathclyde University, accessed on February 18, 2012.
  10. ↑ Gordon Murray: The declining Pictish symbol. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 116 (1986), pp. 223-253. Digitized version , PDF file, 2 mb, accessed on February 22, 2012.
  11. ↑ Representation of the drawings from Jonathan's Cave (top right in the picture), at CANMORE. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  12. ↑ The term beast in the English Wiktionary
  13. ^ The term beast in Merriam-Webster , accessed February 18, 2012.
  14. ↑ The term beast at yourdictionary.com, accessed February 18, 2012.
  15. ↑ Entry on Pictish Beast  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
  16. ^ Synoptic comparison of several complete works on the Ulbster Stone as well as an overview of the cited writings (under "The Principle Sources") . Strathclyde University website, accessed February 18, 2012.