A high-status Pictish man, who was brutally killed 1,400 years ago and buried in a Highland cave, may have had links to Orkney. The “Rosemarkie Man,” named so because his remains were found in a recess of a cave near Rosemarkie three years ago, has recently undergone genetic testing.
New genetic analysis has been undertaken on his skull at the University of Huddersfield. Scientists extracted his DNA and while work is ongoing, part of the findings has been published.
Writing on the Rosemarkie Caves Project website, Katharina Dulias, who was a postgraduate researcher at the time of the analysis, and Dr. Ceiridwen Edwards, senior research fellow, said they compared his DNA with a worldwide dataset of ancient and modern populations. “He is most similar to other Iron Age individuals from the Knowe of Skea, Orkney. Further more detailed analyses are on-going,” they wrote.
“He is most similar to other Iron Age individuals from the Knowe of Skea, Orkney. Further more detailed analyses are on-going”
Previous analysis showed he had a high-protein diet suggesting he ate foods enjoyed by people of high status. It has been concluded that he was most likely a prominent member of the community, such as royalty or a chieftain.
The Pict was discovered in a cross-legged position with stones weighing down his limbs while his head had been beaten multiple times. He suffered a brutal death. He stood at 5ft 6ins and was aged about 30 when he died.
Tests have shown he died sometime between 430 and 630 AD.
Archaeologists found the man’s skeleton buried in a recess of a cave at Rosemarkie in the Black Isle, which is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands.
Latest genetic research on the Pictish skeleton dubbed the ‘Rosemarkie Man’ – who was found cross-legged in a Scottish cave after he was brutally murdered 1,400 years ago and ‘may have been royalty’ – suggests he may have had links to Orkney.
Simon Gunn, founder of the Rosemarkie Cave Project, then told reporters: “He was a big, strong fella – built like a rugby player – very heavily built above the waist.
“It’s rather peculiar that he had a very high-protein diet throughout his life, to the extent that it’s as if he had been eating nothing but suckling pigs.
“He was a bit special, that could be royalty or a chieftain.
“Obviously he had a rather brutal death, but he was buried quite carefully in that cave.”
A brief overview of the Picts
Their political motivations derived from a need to ally against common enemies such as the Britons and the Romans. Although they have long been depicted as fearless savages who fought off invaders as they refused to live in conventional society, the truth is that they were also highly skilled and capable of great art.
The Picts were a confederation of Celtic language-speaking peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late British Iron Age and early Medieval periods from around 270-900AD.
They were known as ‘Picti’ by the Romans, meaning ‘Painted Ones’ in Latin, which alludes to their tradition of using body-paint. However, the Picts fought stark naked, and there are records of them doing so up until the 5th Century. Their habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, enhanced their reputation for ferocity.
It is assumed the Picts descended the Caledonii and other Iron Age tribes that were mentioned by Roman historians or on the map of Ptolemy. They held the territory north of the Firth of Forth in Scotland – known as Pictland or sometimes Pictavia by other sources. It was their presence which meant even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer Scotland.
The Picts mysteriously disappear from written history around 900AD. It has been suggested that they likely merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). The Pictish language is now extinct, and was replaced by – or subsumed into – Gaelic in the latter centuries of the Pictish period. Some evidence suggests that Pictish was an insular Celtic language related to the Brittonic language spoken prior to Anglo Saxon settlement in southern Scotland, England, and Wales.