Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Friends of Grampian Stones

Friends of Grampian Stones

Prehistoric Map

Friends of Grampian Stones

Prehistoric Map©1999FOGS

Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Moray and Kincardineshire are counties in NorthEast Scotland with the highest density of prehistoric and early-historic monuments per square mile in the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. Recumbent Stone Circles in Neolithic heartland are shown in red; Pictish symbol stones and other carved stones [Classes I and II, from ADc.600-840] are shown in purple.

pictcres.gif (974 bytes)ART OF THE PICTISH SYMBOL STONES
There is a marked preference for Class I stones [incised simple geometric and sacred animal shapes of earlier provenance] in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, presumed to be pre-Christian. Later Class II [cross-carved relief slabs, decorated symbols] are found clustering in Forfar, Montrose, Forteviot and Fife, and in isolated pockets in Moray, e.g. Kineddar, Dyke & Elgin and in Aberdeenshire's Maiden Stone. One other stone in Aberdeenshire, the Monymusk cross slab, is unique and may show the first transition between simpled incised carving and the later Christian art of decorated relief work.

If Class I stones range in time until AD7-8th centuries, with Class II following the Christianization of Pictland under King Nechtan (706-724, d.734), then Cross slabs without symbols are presumed to date from late 9th century after Scots takeover of Pictland and are known as 'Class III', as with Sueno' Stone. They are usually heavily decorated with 'Celtic' ornament in relief and feature horsemen, battle scenes, the royal hunt and have lost any connection with Pictish symbolism.
Simple incised crosses on rocks, slabs and undressed stone [sometimes known as Class IV] are usually found without any other ornament and may date from the late 7th-early 8th Century.
They may be contemporary with the first ogham inscriptions carved into Pictish symbol and cross-incribed stones.

All can be found in the Grampians stretching from inland Banffshire to the east coast.

While Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments such as the famous Recumbent Stone Circles are found on higher ground predominantly in the heartland of the Garioch [pronounced Gee-ree] and along the valley of the River Don, these radiate outwards in ripples covering the Northeast. Through Bronze Age, Iron Age and into early-Historic times, well after the Roman retreat, these monuments continued as sacred sites for the gathered populace. While the Picts (ADc.297-843) appear to have venerated the same ancestral places, their symbol stones were erected on better agricultural land, usually within a mile of running water.

pictcres.gif (974 bytes) Pictish placenames survive in profusion in this rich agricultural land and, if allowed to perpetuate without corruption or misrepresentation, can provide a unique resource in understanding the history of Northern Pictland. Our sister society, the Scottish Place-name Society, exists to foster research and perpetuation of the study and value of placenames.

 Return to Friends of Grampian Stones Index Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast