Tim Clarkson's Blog, page 4
December 21, 2015
On the trail of Scotland’s Merlin
New posts here at Senchus have been rather infrequent in recent months. This kind of slowdown has happened before and is usually due to my attention being distracted by a book-writing project. Last year’s distraction was Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age, published in October 2014. This year it was Scotland’s Merlin: a Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins, currently scheduled for publication in April 2016.
Some of you may recall an older blogpost (‘Did Merlin really exis...
November 30, 2015
St Andrews Pictish stones
To mark St Andrew’s Day, here is a small selection of images from the Pictish sculpture collection at St Andrews Cathedral.
Two of the monuments, the one on the left showing three carved panels.
A closer view of two of the panels…
…one of which shows a human head between two beasts, with two birds perched above.
Upper part of a cross-slab. The ring of the cross contains a key-pattern, as do the two rectangles at the top.
The famous Sarcophagus, described in an earlier blogpost.
And, to finis...
October 29, 2015
Drawing a Pictish symbol
John Romilly Allen (1847-1907)
Whenever someone adds a comment here at Senchus, a small picture or ‘avatar’ shows beside their name. These images are generated automatically, unless the person already has a WordPress account of their own with an avatar attached to it. My own avatar is a representation of the ‘Crescent & V-rod’, a Pictish symbol, which I also use on my Twitter profile. I’ve been using this for about 7 years. It’s my own variant on the symbol and was created on a computer using...
September 29, 2015
The real Macbeth
Macbeth in a painting by George Cattermole (1800-68).
With a new movie version of Shakespeare’s play due for UK release next month, it’s worthwhile to dust off the medieval history behind all the drama and tragedy.
The real Macbeth (Macbethad mac Findlaích) was a lord of Moray who became a prominent figure in Scottish politics in the middle decades of the eleventh century. His ambition gained him the kingship of the Scots in 1040, a position he held until his death in 1057 – except for a brie...
August 29, 2015
Free Pictish stuff
The good folk of Groam House Museum have made available as free downloads seven out-of-print titles from their Annual Academic Lecture series.
Groam House, as many of you will know, holds a superb collection of Pictish sculpture. The museum is located in the picturesque village of Rosemarkie in Easter Ross, on the shore of the Black Isle. Many of the museum’s carved stones come from a nearby ecclesiastical site known in early medieval times as Ros Maircnidh. This was a major monastery of the...
August 26, 2015
Rhynie Man
This month, a team of archaeologists is hoping to shed light on an ancient carving known as Rhynie Man. This mysterious figure, carrying an axe over his shoulder, appears on a slab of stone more than six feet high. The slab was found in 1978, on a field in the Aberdeenshire village of Rhynie, near the site of a major Pictish fortress.
The archaeologists are currently excavating in the area, to see if anything can be learned of Rhynie Man’s original location and purpose. One possibility is th...
July 29, 2015
A Roman reference to Pictish tattoos
Flavius Stilicho, with his wife and son, portrayed on an ivory carving of c.395 AD, now in Monza Cathedral, Italy. (photograph from L’art Byzantin, 1932)
At the end of the fourth century AD, the western half of the Roman Empire was in serious decline. Barbarian invasions by Vandals, Goths and other Germanic peoples were a constant drain on imperial resources. Internal revolts likewise removed any hope of stability or recovery. The emperor Honorius, whose reign spanned the years 384 to 423, wa...
July 26, 2015
Early settlements in Orkney and Caithness
Two fascinating archaeological projects have been going on in the far north of Scotland. Information can be found at their respective blogs via the links below.
In Orkney, this year’s summer excavation at The Cairns on South Ronaldsay ended a couple of weeks ago. The Cairns is the site of a substantial Iron Age settlement near Windwick Bay on the eastern side of the island. At its heart are the remains of a broch – a huge stone tower – which may have been built as early as the fourth century...
July 12, 2015
Dunadd
The River Add from the summit of Dunadd (Photo T Clarkson)
Many readers of this blog will be familiar with the hillfort of Dunadd. Some of you will have walked up the stony path to the famous carved footprint on the summit. It’s an enthralling place, with great views from the top and a rich aura of history all around. I’ve been there a couple of times, though my last visit was at least ten years ago.
Today I’m writing about Dunadd because I’ve recently been reminded of why it’s one of my fav...
July 8, 2015
Brunanburh on the Fylde?
Originally posted on Strathclyde & the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age:
In Chapter Five of Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age, I suggested that the battle of Brunanburh (AD 937) might have been fought somewhere in North Lancashire. I specifically highlighted Amounderness, the district between the rivers Lune and Ribble, as a possible ‘conflict zone’ containing the battlefield. Amounderness was a possession of the West Saxon king Athelstan, who granted it to the Archbishop of...
