- Chapter Thirty-Four -
of historical references and surviving British names, and Nicolaisen presents some of
the data more clearly as distribution maps (1976: ch. 8). For example, the region of the
distinctive early historic people known as the Picts is well defined by the distribution
of the place-name element pit (ibid.: 153, map 17); these are heavily concentrated
immediately north of the river Forth (in Fife and Aberdeenshire and adjacent
regions), east of the central highland massif and south of the Dornoch Firth;
the far northern mainland is almost free of them. The early British place-name
element carden is also found restricted to a very similar area, as are the monumental
stone slabs carved in the distinctive Pictish style and dated to the mid and late first
millennium.
However, apart from one striking form of post-Roman bronze armlet (p. 659),
this region is beyond the zone of iron age Celtic decorated metalwork, presumably
the clearest indication of the presence of prehistoric Celts. As we shall see, there is
archaeological evidence for a specific population living in what later became Pictland
and whose roots lie very far back, at least as early as the Late Bronze Age.
Other early British names are more widespread and include the elements pert,
lanerc, pevr and aber (Nicolaisen 1976: 163, map 20). These are found throughout
Pictland but also in southern Scotland, especially in the central lowlands, and they
give a clearer indication of a more widespread ancient population which spoke a
p-Celtic tongue akin to ancient Welsh. However it is striking that these place-names
are almost completely absent from the highlands north-west of the Great Glen and
from all the islands.
Iron Age Tribal Names in Scotland
In fact we know that this absence is not due to p-Celtic speakers never having been
in these north-western regions because of the evidence of iron age tribal names. The
Greek geographer Ptolemy compiled his well-known verbal descriptions of the
British Isles - by means of place-names and geographical features identified by
latitude and longitude - in the second century and included information about the
native tribes in the various regions (Thomas 1876; Rivet 1978; Mann and Breeze
1988). It is generally agreed that the information he had about Scotland dates from
the late first century and was obtained from officers and others who had campaigned
in the north with Gnaius Julius Agricola, Roman governor of Britain, between about
AD 79 and 86. During its campaigning the army had penetrated far up the east coast
and the navy went right round Scotland, calling at many islands including the
Orkneys. Most of these names are of p-Celtic type. 'The ancient tribal names
recorded by Ptolemy and others are all of the same type as the tribal names of Gaul- plural in form' (Watson 1926: 15; Powell 1962).
Another important piece of evidence given by the tribal names is of clear
connections between Scotland and the south. For example the Damnonii of south-
western Scotland must surely be connected with the Dumnonii of south-western
England and the Cornavii of Caithness seem identical to those of North Wales (Rivet
1978: fig. I).