Painted pebbles are a class of
PictishThe Picts were a confederation of tribes living in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from before the Roman conquest of Britain until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, and spoke the extinct Pictish language, thought to have been related to...
artifactAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
unique to northern
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in the first millennium AD.
They are small rounded beach pebbles made of
quartziteQuartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts...
, which have been painted with simple designs in a dye which is now dark brown in colour. The size varies from 18 mm by 22 mm to 65 mm by 51mm. It has not proven possible to analyse the dye itself from the stains that remain.
The motifs are carefully executed and the most common are dots and wavy lines.
Painted pebbles are a class of
PictishThe Picts were a confederation of tribes living in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from before the Roman conquest of Britain until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, and spoke the extinct Pictish language, thought to have been related to...
artifactAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
unique to northern
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in the first millennium AD.
Appearance
They are small rounded beach pebbles made of
quartziteQuartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts...
, which have been painted with simple designs in a dye which is now dark brown in colour. The size varies from 18 mm by 22 mm to 65 mm by 51mm. It has not proven possible to analyse the dye itself from the stains that remain.
The motifs are carefully executed and the most common are dots and wavy lines. Other motifs are small circles, pentacles, crescents and triangles, showing strong relationships with the Pictish symbol stone motifs.
Distribution
Over the last ninety years nineteen painted pebbles have been found in sites in the
Northern IslesThe Northern Isles are a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland.The group includes Shetland, Fair Isle and Orkney...
and in
CaithnessCaithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
. Most have come from
brochA Broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
sites which have been shown to have had an extensive post-broch occupation. An
oghamOgham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic ancestor of Welsh...
- inscribed spindle-whorl was associated with one find at Buckquoy in the Orkneys (see Buckquoy spindle whorl). Several have been associate with
wheelhouseIn archaeology, a wheelhouse is a prehistoric structure from the Iron Age found in Scotland. The term was first coined after the discovery of a ruined mound in 1855. The distinctive architectural form related to the complex roundhouses, constitute the main settlement type in the Western Isles, in...
s or their outbuildings. An example was found at a Pictish site at Buckquoy in Orkney as reported in 1976. It had the 'small ring' type decoration.
Cultural significance
Painted pebbles have been dated to the period 200 AD to the eighth century AD, the Pictish period. They may have been magically enhanced sling-stones, however local traditions suggest that they were '
charmA blessing, is the infusion of something with holiness, divine will, or one's hope or approval.- Etymology and Germanic paganism :...
-stones', often known as 'Cold-stones'. Such stones were used within living memory (1971) to cure sickness in animals and humans.
In the
Life of St. Columba it is recorded that he visited
King BrideiBridei son of Maelchon, was king of the Picts until his death around 584–586.Bridei is first mentioned in Irish annals for 558–560, when the Annals of Ulster report "the migration before Máelchú's son i.e. king Bruide". The Ulster annalist does not say who fled, but the later Annals of...
in Pictland in around the year 565 AD and taking a white stone pebble from the
River NessThe River Ness is a river flowing from Loch Ness in Scotland, north to Inverness and the Moray Firth.-See also:*Rivers of Scotland...
he blessed it and any water it came into contact with would cure sick people. It floated in water and cured the king from a terminal illness. It remained as one of the great treasures of the king and cured many others.
The belief in charm-stones is well documented in medieval
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
(Proc Soc Antiq Scot).
Examples of 'charm-stones' or 'cold-stones' are held at
National Museum of Rural LifeThe National Museums Scotland and partners have developed the National Museum of Rural Life, previously known as the Museum of Scottish Country Life, which is based at Wester Kittochside farm, lying between the town of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire and the village of Carmunnock in Glasgow.-...
, Kittochside, near
East KilbrideEast Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area, Greater Glasgow, Scotland. It is Scotland's first new town, and lies on high ground on the south side of the Cathkin Braes, about southeast of Glasgow city centre. The area borders close to the boundary with East...
.
See also
- Amulets
- Apotrope
Apotrope refers to objects such as amulets and talismans or other symbols intended to "ward off evil" or "avert or combat evil."...
- Magic
Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is the practice of consciousness manipulation and/or autosuggestion to achieve a desired result, usually by techniques described in various conceptual systems...
- Touch pieces
Touch pieces are coins and medals that have attracted superstitious beliefs, such as those with 'holes' in them or those with particular designs...
See the 'Lee Penny'
External links