The Pictish Arts Society
LightNews LightNews
banner
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
The Pictish Arts Society
@pictishartssociety.bsky.social
290 followers 81 following 48 posts
Founded in 1988 to affirm the importance of Pictish culture in Scotland's past. Monthly lectures through winter and spring. Annual conference in October. Newsletter 3-4 times/year. Join us: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk. (Posts by fortrenn.bsky.social)
Posts Replies Media Videos
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
The next lecture in our 2025-2026 season is coming up on Friday 21 Nov! Professor Jane Geddes will present her research on the lost libraries of Pictland. (Lectures are for PAS members only - find out about the many benefits of PAS membership here: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us.)
Flyer for the Pictish Arts Society lecture on Friday 21 November at 7.30pm via Zoom. Professor Jane Geddes will present a lecture entitled 'The lost libraries of Pictland'. The lecture abstract reads: 'Picts produced some of Europe’s finest sculpture between the fifth and ninth centuries and yet no contemporary manuscripts survive from Pictland. This talk reconstructs evidence for the lost libraries of Pictland whose images and ideas informed the sculpture. Behind the vivid imagery on cross slabs lie sources from a cosmopolitan visual world of manuscript illuminations. Picts both invented their own art form, their enigmatic ‘symbols’, and were inspired by Christian liturgical manuscripts from abroad. Influences went both ways whereby the distinctive features of Pictish animal art were adapted to become Evangelist symbols in Insular manuscripts elsewhere, while Pictish sculptors scoured incoming church documents for an expanded artistic repertoire of abstract pattern, monsters and holy men. Even without illustrations, it is possible to deduce which literary sources Pictish artists were aware of.' There is an illustration of the prophet Ezra in his scriptorium from folio 5r of the Codex Amiatinus.
October 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
Next week! Still time to join the Pictish Arts Society in time for our new season of lectures starting next Friday, when Dr Mike King will talk to us about textual and narrative influences on Pictish sculpture. Find out more and join the Society at: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/lectures-202...
Flyer promoting the upcoming Pictish Arts Society lecture, on Friday 24 October at 7.30pm via Zoom. The lecture title is 'Symbols of life: Pictorial prayers on Pictish stone sculpture', and the speaker is Dr Mike King. It's illustrated with a photograph of the apse mosaic on the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, taken by Dr King.
October 17, 2025 at 2:40 PM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
The first lecture of our new season is coming up on Friday 24 Oct. Dr Mike King will talk to us about texts that might have influenced Pictish sculpture - from ancient tales to pseudo-scientific treatises. Lectures are for members only, but you can join here: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us
Flyer promoting the upcoming Pictish Arts Society lecture, on Friday 24 October at 7.30pm via Zoom. The lecture title is 'Symbols of life: Pictorial prayers on Pictish stone sculpture', and the speaker is Dr Mike King. It's illustrated with a photograph of the apse mosaic on the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, taken by Dr King.
October 9, 2025 at 6:14 PM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
Final online lecture of our 2025 season! Dr Emma Mackinnon will talk to PAS members on Friday 18th April about the trumpeters on the Aberlemno 3 cross-slab, using other iconographic and textual evidence to interpret their significance. Become a member here: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us
Poster advertising a Pictish Arts Society online lecture on Friday 18th April. The title of the lecture is 'Sound Propositions: Musical evidence and the wider context of Aberlemno 3'. The speaker is Dr Emma Mackinnon. The abstract is 'Aberlemno 3 is a fascinating monument, rich in musical evidence. Commentators have noticed striking similarities with the Hilton of Cadboll cross slab, with which it may share a sculptor, as well as stylistic features reminiscent of the Vespasian Psalter. This discussion will focus on the musical representations on the slab, particularly the two trumpeters. By doing so, we will consider the many interpretations proposed for the scene in which they appear, but also explore wider archaeological, iconographic and even wider insular textual evidence that may help us to interpret the significance of the two figures, locating them in their local and Insular context.' The speaker details are: 'Following undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the RSAMD and University of Glasgow, Emma is a recent PhD graduate of The University of Edinburgh's Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies. At Edinburgh, she was a Wolfson Scholar supervised by Anja Gunderloch and Rob Dunbar (University of Edinburgh) and Thomas Clancy (University of Glasgow). Her research focused on lip-vibrated instruments and examined the archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence for instrumental music-making in early medieval Gaelic societies from a symbolic as well as performance-practice perspective. Emma undertook her PhD whilst juggling parallel careers in music and education. She is now based in Harris, in the Outer Hebrides, where she continues to work on research activities alongside a full-time role in educational research and policy.' Lectures are for PAS members only but you can join the Society at https://www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us. ​
April 5, 2025 at 9:04 AM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
Our next lecture is a must-see for anyone interested in Pictish textiles, Pictish women, and/or everyday life in Pictland. Details in the alt text! #MedievalSky
Flyer for the Pictish Arts Society March online lecture, with images of the Orkney Hood in the National Museum of Scotland, and the Kirriemuir 1 cross-slab in the Meffan Museum in Forfar. The title of the lecture is "Pictish textiles: what can we learn from the surviving evidence?" The speaker is Dr Alexandra Makin. The abstract is: "Surviving evidence for the making, use and meaning of textiles in Pictish society is limited due to the environmental conditions in which tools, fibres and fabrics were buried or discarded. However, there are tantalizing hints in extant artwork and archaeological finds. In this presentation Alexandra Makin will draw on this evidence to give an overview of what we know and can learn about this important of art form. One that covered, protected and decorated people's bodies and homes, and sent powerful messages about individuals and groups to those who saw and could 'read' them." Alexandra Makin is a professional embroiderer and textile archaeologist specialising in the early medieval period (450-1100 CE). She holds a Ph.D. from Manchester University and was a Research Associate on Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard, an AHRC funded project run by National Museums Scotland and University of Glasgow. Currently, Alexandra is a Third Generation Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her book, The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery, was published in Oxbow’s Ancient Textiles Series in 2019. Her co-edited volume Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic: Analysis, Interpretation, Re-creation came out in April 2024. Alexandra also works as a finds specialists for archaeological units, and founded and runs Early Medieval Embroidery and its YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery
March 7, 2025 at 7:54 AM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
Our next lecture is coming up on the 21st Feb, delivered by Professor David Griffiths on the Pictish-Norse transition in Orkney. Lectures are for PAS members only - a benefit of membership! - but you can join the Society at www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us. Abstract in the alt text.
Flyer for the Pictish Arts Society lecture on 21st February at 7.30pm via Zoom. The speaker is Professor David Griffiths of the University of Oxford and his lecture title is 'The Pictish-Norse Transition in Orkney'. The accompanying photo is by Dr Anna Ritchie and shows excavations at the multi-period Buckquoy site in Orkney. Lectures are for PAS members only - if you are interested in joining, go to https://www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us. The talk will review some recent re-interpretations of Northern Isles' archaeology signifying the move from the Iron Age/Pictish era into the Viking Age. Initially focusing on the site of Buckquoy, where some new radiocarbon dates have been obtained, we will look critically at the various archaeological traits which have been taken as indicative of a Pictish or Norse presence. The clear boundaries which we once thought existed between these cultures and periods have begun to grow more complex and nuanced, with interpretations of the transition becoming more situational rather than all-encompassing or broad-brush. The talk will widen out to look at other areas, sites and landscapes, and examine the possibility that the Viking 'conquest' itself might have been a more localised and drawn-out affair than previously considered. David Griffiths FSA Scot is Professor of Archaeology at Oxford University. He has been active in archaeological research in Orkney since the mid-1980s, and directed a landscape research project at the Bay of Skaill, Marwick and Birsay Bay between 2003 and 2018, published in 2019 as "Beside the Ocean" (Oxbow), the data from which is continuing to generate spin-off scientific and interpretation projects.
February 6, 2025 at 10:11 AM
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
If you saw the Old Kilmadock Pictish cross-slab on Digging for Britain and would like to know more, you're in luck! Our monthly lecture next Friday from @stirlingdigger.bsky.social will dig deeper into Pictish Stirlingshire. There's still time to join: go to www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us
Flyer announcing the Pictish Arts Society's January lecture, on Friday 17th January at 7.30pm on Zoom. The speaker is Dr Murray Cook who will speak on Pictish Stirlingshire, the fords of Forthín and the Old Kilmadock cross-slab. Lectures are for PAS members only, but you can join at www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk. There are two photos in the flyer: one of Stirling Castle with the mountain of Stuc a'Chroin rising behind, and one of the Old Kilmadock cross-slab, lying on the ground with its interlace cross and part of its ogham inscripion showing.
January 10, 2025 at 4:17 PM