In the Beginning
by Donald D. Erwin
The story of the people who lived in what would be Scotland begins in the Northern Isles. There is evidence of human habitation there as far back as c. 8000-7000 BC. In 1984-1985, archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones conducted an excavation on the Island of Rum in the Inner Hebrides. The dig resulted in the discovery of the earliest human settlement site in what is now Scotland. Little is known of these early Stone Age people, but it is thought that they migrated from the Low Countries of Europe. They were not settlers as such, although they did reside in small family groups or communities. They were nomadic hunters-gatherers and established temporary camps where they could spend the colder periods. Then, during the warmer months, they struck out on hunting and gathering sorties.
Wickham-Jones and her group uncovered a large camp site rather than a permanent settlement. There were circles of stake or post holes that indicated the locations of numerous shelters. It was evident that these first peoples had built shelters of wood, skins, and probably mud, perhaps not unlike the early hogans of the North American Navajo tribe. Also found were traces of campfires and hearth-stones. The climate in that time-period was moist and relatively warm; several degrees warmer than now.
The first settlers of mainland Scotland, arriving at the onset of the postglacial period (as early as 7000 BC), found that the best access to the interior was provided by estuaries and rivers, with the Forth being among the most important. Its shoreline and mudflats show evidence of Stone Age explorers, who did not yet need the protection of the region’s steep hills.
Around 5000 BC, the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) people appeared on the scene. These nomadic people lived in caves or rough shelters and used stone implements. They ate what they could find or catch: deer, eggs, berries, nuts and often shell-fish. Some of their village sites contain millions of shells. Beyond the coasts forests covered much of the land, so they traveled by boat as journeys by foot would have been slow, difficult, and often dangerous.
Sometime around 4000 BC, the New Stone Age (Neolithic) people from the eastern Mediterranean area reached Scotland. They may have also emigrated from The Danube Valley and parts of the Ukraine. They settled and made their homes along the western coast, in the Forth and Clyde estuaries, as well as in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. They were farmers who understood how to grow crops such as wheat and barley, and they knew about rearing domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. This new way of life involved clearing some of the land. These new settlers were also hunters and fishermen. They fished in the sea, in the rivers and in the lochs. They used stone and flint tools, utensils and weapons, and they were skilled at making simple forms of pottery, which they decorated with grooved patterns. Their settlements have left little or no trace – other than a few caves – except in Orkney where remains of early Neolithic stone houses can still be seen at Skara Brae and Knap of Howar. These dwellings are made of dry-stone masonry and central hearths. The inhabitants also built elaborate chambered tombs, covered by a cairn of stones, to bury their dead.
About 2500-2000 BC, the Beaker People, so called from the shape of their drinking vessels, reached Britain and northeast Scotland. It is thought that they may have been some of the earliest to bury their dead in individual graves. They were farmers and settled where there was cultivatable land. They were accomplished archers as well, wearing stone wrist guards to protect their arms from the sting of the bowstring. They were also the first metal smiths in Britain. They were pioneers in metal working, first in copper and gold, and later in bronze which gave its name to this era.
They made their own pottery, and eventually the first woven garments in Britain. They also seem to have introduced the first known alcoholic drink into Britain, a form of honey-based mead. The islands have never been the same since.
The Bronze Age began in Scotland about 2300 BC, when new invaders arrived from the North Sea area. They introduced swords, knives, chisels, buckles, cauldrons and buckets, all evidence of a high level of civilization and creature comfort that would be enhanced by the metal craft of the subsequent Iron Age. These people lived in round houses, which now only survive as hut circles, or indentations, in the ground. The walls were either of sod or stone, and a wooden post held up a thatched roof. A central hearth contained a fire for cooking and warmth. Remains of their farm systems survive, as wells as the piles of stones they removed to clear their fields for cultivation. Burials were in a stone box-like coffin with a stone lid, the body being placed in the grave in a crouched position, usually with a food pot. Cremations replaced burials toward the end of the Bronze Age, with the deceased’s scorched bones placed in large urns, many of which have survived.
The Celts – The origin of the Celts (pronounced Kelts) is shrouded in mystery, but they were part of the “barbaric hordes” so often referred to in ancient writings. Celt (Keltoi) was the name applied by ancient Greek writers, from the 5th century BC on, to a group of peoples who inhabited central and Western Europe. The Romans called them Galli, or Gauls. The Celts generally spoke two dialects of the Indo-European language family. Gaelic (or Goidelic) – which later included Irish, Scottish and Manx – is spoken even today in parts of Ireland and Scotland and on the Isle of Man. Brythonic (also called British) includes Welsh and Breton, and is spoken in Wales and on the Brittany Peninsula in France.
During the first millennium BC these peoples spread throughout much of Europe. From a heartland in central Europe, they settled an area known as Gaul (France), penetrated the northern Iberian Peninsula (Spain), while at the same time others crossed the body of water that we know as the English Channel, gradually settling an area that would come to be known as the British Isles. Their arrival on the Island of Briton can never be determined exactly, but there is evidence that they were there, and in Ireland, prior to 500 BC. In the Lowlands of Scotland they overran and enslaved many of the earlier inhabitants and drove the rest into the Highlands.
There are many hill forts throughout Scotland that are believed to have been constructed by the Celts. Often these structures consist of a series of ramparts surrounding a hill. Some were constructed of dry stone walls – using no mortar – and some were made with timber frames. Some were small, suitable only for one family, while others could hold a small town. It is thought that these forts were more to protect against a sudden attack rather than a long siege.
In the fourth century BC, the Celts began a series of migrations that increased the size of their territory and brought them into immediate contact with the Greco-Roman world. By about 390 BC, the Celts started to push south and east into the Mediterranean lands and Eastern Europe. The archaeological record shows them moving farther south in the Iberian Peninsula, east into present-day Poland and Ukraine, and taking over Illyrian and Thracian lands in the Balkans. They advanced into northern Italy, founding settlements that became the cities of Milan, Turin, and Bologna. Roman historians tell of an invasion of “Gauls” at this time, formidable fighters who defeated Rome’s army at the Allia River and plundered the city. These Cisalpine Celts remained a threat to Rome until their final defeat in 295 BC.
Celtic tribes invaded Greece in 279 BC, penetrating as far south as Delphi before they were routed and driven back. Others migrated to central Anatolia in Asia Minor. King Antigonus I settled them, about 275 BC, in an area that became known as Galatia. It was there that the Celts founded the kingdom of Galatia, and it was to the Celts in Galatia that Saint Paul addressed his Epistle to the Galatians. One of their hill forts, Angora, is today Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Many Celts were employed as mercenaries in the armies of the Hellenistic states. A Celtic shield has been unearthed in Egypt, and a representation of a plaid-wearing Celt in Morocco.
Moving south and southwest, the Celts raided communities on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the fourth and third centuries BC, but by the first century BC they were on the defensive. The Romans, advancing from the south, and the Germanic peoples, moving down from the north, gradually subjugated most of them. Thereafter Celtic culture was confined mainly to the “Atlantic fringe,” which included Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the British Isles, and Brittany in France.
The area occupied by the Celts was never in any sense an empire but was simply the habitat of different politically independent tribes. Even their name is arbitrary, for it is fairly certain that the people generally known as Celts was actually a group of scattered tribes, much like our North American Indians, but bound loosely together by blood ties, Druidic beliefs and common myths. Celtic societies functioned as groups of autonomous units, each under a paramount chief.
The people were organized into loose family units, or clans, which were then subdivided into lineages (fine), stressing the paternal side of kinship reckoning. They were divided into three social classes: the royal clans, the warrior aristocracy, and the common people. Slaves comprised a small portion of the population. Persistent themes in Celtic culture included rural settlement, hospitality feasting, and fellowship drinking. Pork was a common item of diet, and plaid designs in clothing were favored.
The weapon of choice was the sword. Archaeological finds corroborate classical authors who described the Celts as using chain-mail armor and a machine for reaping grain.
The Celtic tribes who lived in what we know as Great Britain and Ireland spoke Irish, Manx, Scots-Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and Cornish. There is no way to know what the Celts called themselves, for although they had a written language of sorts around the third century BC, the materials that they may have written on did not survive the ravages of time. No record of their written language survived their subsequent invasion and assimilation by other peoples. Nor have any of the organic materials they used in everyday life survived, such as wood, cloth, leather and foods. Scientists can only gain a partial idea of their culture from the few things that have survived…those which were made from stone, pottery and metal. Although these objects were often decorated, some quite elaborately, they have not given researchers any clue to the Celts’ written language.
To the civilized peoples of the Mediterranean world the Celts were barbarian tribes, but they learned much from their contacts and trade with the civilized world. Over time the Celts had developed a superior knowledge of iron working and iron weapons, and modern historians credit them with spreading their knowledge over the more backward regions of Europe and Britain. And though only faint hints of their spoken dialects remain in the more backward regions of Great Britain and Ireland, there is much evidence of the very striking art.
Much of the folklore of Western Europe – as well as early America – is based on the beliefs of the early Celts. Ancient Celtic trained professionals – bards and druids – using elaborate mnemonic (memory enhancing) devices, transmitted this folklore in oral form. Christian scribes first preserved the rich heritage of the Celts in narrative form. They later wrote down poems praising the deeds of historic rulers, and fictional heroes whose actions and deeds portrayed the behavioral codes of the people. Their poems convey powerful universal sentiments, many of which we find rooted on our own modern western society. There is considerable Celtic wisdom to be found in accounts by later Christian chroniclers, and in the tales and poetry of medieval literature.
The Celts were certainly a warrior race with colonial ambitions, but it seems that their colonization happened peacefully over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Knowledge of the early history of Scotland is thus very sketchy, but much was learned when Jarlshof, an Iron Age village, was discovered in the nineteenth century on the southern tip of Shetland. This is one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain, as it shows the development of civilization from the earliest times through to the medieval age.
The Romans – For centuries the mighty Roman Empire ruled the ancient world, and at the height of its power the far-flung empire controlled western Asia, northern Africa, and in Europe Rome was master – though disputed at times – of all of the land west of the Rhine and south of the Danube River.
The various peoples who lived north of the Roman world were very different from the Romans. They were taller, with yellow hair and blue eyes. Their clothing was usually made of the skins of animals or coarsely woven woolen cloth, with the arms and shoulders left bare. Their houses were simple huts of roughly cut timber, often grouped together in a clearing in the forest to form a straggling village. These Germanic tribes were fierce fighters, and the Romans, who had conquered so many nations, were never able to exert control over these barbarians. The Roman Army had to content itself with keeping them out of the empire by the use of strong fortifications placed along the Rhine and Danube rivers.
After successfully invading southern Britain in 55 BC, under Julius Caesar, the Romans moved north. In 79 AD, Julius Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain, advanced into what would be Scotland and built forts at strategic locations. They gave the country north of present-day Stirlingshire the name of Caledonia. Researchers believe that there were many tribal groups in Caledonia (also known as Alban) who, during the early centuries AD, grouped and re-grouped. The major ethnic group was probably the Picts, a non–Celtic and non–Aryan group of people who descended from the aborigines of Britain. Tribal boundaries probably changed frequently, with first one tribe and then another having supremacy over its neighbors.
A long time since, eighteen hundred years ago and more, there was a brave and warlike people, called the Romans, who undertook to conquer the whole world, and subdue all countries, so as to make their own city of Rome the head of all the nations upon the face of the earth. And after conquering far and near, at last they came to Britain, and made a great war upon the inhabitants, called the British, or Britons, whom they found living there. The Romans, who were a very brave people, and well-armed, beat the British, and took possession of almost all the flat part of the island, which is now called England, and also of a part of the south of Scotland.
Tales of a Grandfather, by Sir Walter Scott c. 1850
Tacitus, (Gaius Cornelius Tacitus) the Roman historian and chronicler who did most of his writing near the zenith of the Roman Empire, wrote an account of the campaigns against the Caledonians by Agricola in 65 AD, in which he illustrated the spirit and toughness of these early natives of what would be Scotland. In one translation it was his assessment that “while they were often defeated in battle, they were never subdued.” When unable to withstand the charges of the Roman legions in the open they would fall back to their forests and mountains and resort to guerrilla warfare.
Roman legions moved north, crushing all opposition, but the Caledonians established a fort at Dumbarton Rock and resisted, and the push north was stopped. Another invasion in 82 AD, ended with the almost total slaughter of the Ninth Roman Legion, probably at Galloway. At the Battle of Mons Graupius, in 84 AD, however, the Caledonians suffered a major defeat.
According to Tacitus, Calgacus – whom he described as a “Scot and leader of the Caledonians” – was killed in the battle along with ten thousand of his men, while only three hundred and forty Roman soldiers died. Although this defeat was a major setback for the native tribes the Romans were not able to capitalize on their victory, for although the Caledonian ranks were devastated, they continued to wage guerrilla war. But, by 85 AD, the Romans had conquered all Celtic lands except Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland.
In 121 AD, Rome gave up trying to defeat the Caledonians. Emperor Hadrian (r. AD 117-138) had a stone wall built from Solway Firth in the west to Tyne in the east. About 142 AD, the Romans constructed another wall north of Hadrian’s Wall. It was made of timber and earth and ran from the Firth of Clyde in the west to the Firth of Forth in the east. It became known as the Antonine Wall, and was in use for about twenty years before it was abandoned, leaving Hadrian’s Wall as the permanent northern frontier of Roman Britain.
At Housesteads, which is at about the midpoint of Hadrian’s Wall, archaeologists have uncovered a market where northern natives exchanged cattle and hides for Roman products. This allowed some Roman wares, and perhaps even some limited cultural influences, to find their way north. Even so the overall amount of this commerce was probably small, and Roman civilization – typified by the towns and villas of southern Britain – was unknown north of Hadrian’s Wall.
Two centuries later Emperor Valentinian (r. AD 364 to 375) sent a general, Theodosius, with a large force to relieve the province. Theodosius achieved his assigned task, but the smoldering resolve of the northern tribes was only diminished, not extinguished.
In 383, Magnus Maximus, then in command in Britain, declared himself Emperor. Scraping together all of the troops he could find, thus stripping the Wall and fortresses of their already scanty defenders, Maximus crossed the Channel to Gaul where he defeated Emperor Gratian near Paris. For five years Maximus struggled to maintain his gains, but after a time he was killed in battle by Theodosius who had succeeded Gratian as Emperor of the Roman Empire.
This was also a time when most of the Roman Empire’s outlying provinces felt pressure from all sides. Meanwhile the Wall was pierced again, and the Province of Britain lay open to raiders, from the north as well as from the sea. During the next twenty years or so Rome half-heartedly attempted to save the Province, but their efforts were too little and too late. In 407, Constantine further stripped the Roman garrisons for his purposes—legions needed for home defense—and by the year 409, the Romans ceased to effectively rule Britain. From that point on Roman soldiers gradually withdrew to the south. All of the Roman legions were gone from the island by 410, and the Roman Province of Britain was totally abandoned by Rome by about 450.
A lot of what the world knows about the Celts, as well as the native peoples can be credited to the invading Romans, for they, like the Nazis of the 20th Century, were very conscientious about recording everything about the people they conquered. After the Romans abandoned Britain, however, there was a long period for which there is little written history.
Picts – The Picts, one of the four major ethnic groups in early-day Scotland, were a people of obscure origin and one of the ancient groups that occupied the northern Highlands. It is generally believed that this non–Celtic and non–Aryan group of people were primarily descended from the aborigines of Britain, who had been forced ever northward by other peoples invading from mainland Europe. Little is known about them, but some historians believe that they originally came from Thrace, located in northern Greece, and crossed the English Channel on foot during the Ice Age. The Picts apparently spoke a form of Celtic that was similar to Welsh, but incorporating pre-Celtic elements.
The term “picti” was first used by the Romans in 297 AD, to describe the indigenous aboriginal people living north of the Forth-Clyde line. It was a term of abuse and derision and meant “the painted people.” It most likely referred to the designs with which they were said to tattoo their bodies. Whether the term was confined to a particular group of northern people, or much more loosely to any group that lived north of what had been the Roman-constructed Antonine Wall, is not clear. It seems most likely, however, that it was used to mean anyone in the area north of the Forth and Clyde who might be a threat to Roman-occupied Britain.
The Romans gave the country north of present-day Stirlingshire the name of Caledonia. Researchers believe that there were many tribal groups in Caledonia, or Alban, who, during the early centuries AD, grouped and re-grouped. Their tribal boundaries probably changed frequently, with first one tribe and then another having supremacy over its neighbors. Tacitus wrote an account of the campaigns against the Caledonians by Agricola in 65 AD, in which he illustrated the spirit and toughness of these early natives of what would be Scotland. In one translation it was his assessment that “while they were often defeated in battle, they were never subdued.” When unable to withstand the charges of the Roman legions in the open they would fall back to their forests and mountains and resort to guerrilla warfare.
In 121 AD, Rome gave up trying to defeat the northern aboriginal tribes, and Emperor Hadrian had a stone wall built from Solway Firth in the west to Tyne in the east. About 142 AD, the Roman governor of Britain constructed another wall north of Hadrian’s Wall. It was made of timber and earth and ran from the Firth of Clyde in the west to the Firth of Forth in the east. It became known as the Antonine Wall, and was in use for about twenty years before it was abandoned.
By around 500 AD, the Picts were organized in at least two kingdoms north of the River Forth. They had been converted to Christianity as a result of the efforts of Saint Ninian (fourth century) and Saint Columba (sixth century). In the seventh century the Picts recognized a single king, Brude, who stopped the encroachments of the Scots from the kingdom of Dalriada (Argyll). They reached the peak of their power under Angus, who established ascendancy over the Scots in 740. The matrilineal system of inheritance caused succession problems, however, and the kingdom declined. Kenneth I of Scottish Dalriada, who reigned from 843 to 858, united the Scots and Picts to form the kingdom of Alba (the nucleus of the kingdom of Scotland).
The Picts were well organized. Their government was based on the clan (kin), a system seen in many early peoples, but one which became very involved and sophisticated under the Picts. They had strict laws of succession, which were different from those of most other peoples. Succession was passed not from father to son but through the female side of the family. This meant that a man became chief because his mother was the daughter of an earlier chief and he was succeeded not by his son but by his brother (his mother’s son) or by his nephew (his sister’s son).
Britons & Maeate – In 201, the Caledonians joined with the Maeate (Men of the Midlands) and northern Britons of Strathclyde in preparation for an attack on the northernmost Roman province. The attack never took place, however, because Virius Lupus, the Roman Governor, bought off the Maeate. The Maeate were allied with the tribes immediately north of the Roman wall between the Forth and Clyde, while the Caledonians were to the north and east.
In 208, the army of Severus penetrated as far north as the Tay. He fought no battles, but the guerrilla warfare carried on by the Pict natives during the march resulted in heavy losses of men and matériel. Severus was instrumental in stabilizing the Roman forces, but his death in 211, prevented further military action. His son and successor, was then forced to make peace with the northern tribes, which resulted in the Roman forces withdrawing south of Hadrian’s Wall.
Rome would occupy the southern part of the island of Britain for another two hundred years or so, but as the Irish raids escalated from across the Irish Sea, and the pressure from the barbarian Picts from north of Hadrian’s Wall increased, the Roman legions were hard pressed to maintain stability.
Beginning in 293, when Roman forces were battling troubles in Gaul, the Picts took advantage of the distraction and confusion. The Wall was pierced, and with fire and sword they devastated the northern districts of the Province of Britain. For two or three generations the Romans fought back, and although they were successful in slowing the incursions of the northern tribes, the raids were nevertheless taking a toll. Although the process of wearing down the resolve of the Romans was spread over many years, the year 367, probably marked the point when things began to go downhill rapidly for the Romans. Things were unraveling in other provinces as well and in 367, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons—normally enemies—banded together and fell on the Border provinces with horrific resolve. The Roman troops resisted valiantly, but a wide breach was made in the northern defense line and murderous hordes poured in upon the fine world of country houses and farms.
Emperor Valentinian sent Theodosius, a general, with a large force to relieve the province. Theodosius achieve his assigned task, but the smoldering resolve of the northern tribes was only diminished, not extinguished. In 383, Magnus Maximus, then in command in Britain, declared himself Emperor. Scraping together all of the troops he could find, thus stripping the Wall and fortresses of their already scanty defenders, Maximus crossed the Channel to Gaul where he defeated Emperor Gratian near Paris. For five years Maximus struggled to maintain his gains, but after a time he was killed in battle by Theodosius who had succeeded Gratian. This was also a time when most of the Roman Empire’s outlying provinces felt pressure from all sides. Meanwhile the Wall was pierced again, and the Province of Britain lay open to raiders, from the north as well as from the sea. During the next twenty years or so Rome half-heartedly attempted to save the Province, but their efforts were too little and too late. Consequently, Roman soldiers gradually withdrew to the south. The Roman legions were gone from the island by 410, and the Roman Province of Britain totally abandoned by Rome by about 450.
It is thought that it was about 449, that the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, three closely related tribes from Scandinavia and northern Germany, invaded and eventually conquered that part of Britain that is now England. Starting about 500, they set up a number of tiny kingdoms, made war on the native Britons, and drove them into the northwestern part of the island. The three tribes together merged into a people who would be known as Anglo-Saxons. They were much less civilized than the Britons, whom they conquered and displaced, but nevertheless they had come to stay. Some even settled in what would be the Border area of Scotland, on the east side between the Forth and the Tyne. One of the tribes, the Angles, gave England its name, which means, literally, “land of the Angles.”
The language of the Anglo-Saxons became the foundation of modern English. It was closely related to Danish and Low German. The oldest surviving piece of literature of any length in Anglo-Saxon is Beowolf. Those of us who took English Literature in college were exposed to a modern translation. It is alleged to be the oldest surviving complete literary work in any modern language.
By the mid-500s, Scotland was divided among four peoples. The Picts, whose territory was the largest; the Britons who occupied the area south of Hadrian’s Wall as well as the territory between Loch Lomond and Solway Firth, known as Strathclyde; the Anglo-Saxons, who had moved north from the Humber and Yorkshire areas of Roman-controlled Britain; and the fourth group was the Scots.