New Written Language of Ancient Scotland Discovered

Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | Jennifer Viegas

[SunkenCiv]

photo: Rob Knell and Rob Lee

The ancestors of modern Scottish people left behind mysterious, carved stones that new research has just determined contain the written language of the Picts, an Iron Age society that existed in Scotland from 300 to 843. The highly stylized rock engravings, found on what are known as the Pictish Stones, had once been thought to be rock art or tied to heraldry. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, instead concludes that the engravings represent the long lost language of the Picts, a confederation of Celtic tribes that lived in modern-day eastern and northern Scotland... Rob Lee... a professor in the School of Biosciences at the University of Exeter... and colleagues Philip Jonathan and Pauline Ziman analyzed the engravings, found on the few hundred known Pictish Stones. The researchers used a mathematical process known as Shannon entropy to study the order, direction, randomness and other characteristics of each engraving. The resulting data was compared with that for numerous written languages, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese texts and written Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Ancient Irish, Old Irish and Old Welsh. While the Pictish Stone engravings did not match any of these, they displayed characteristics of writing based on a spoken language. Lee explained that writing comes in two basic forms: lexigraphic writing that is based on speech and semasiography, which is not based on speech.

[potlatch]

Can’t read it, huh? Lol.

[SunkenCiv]

Barry Fell noted that this particular image from the Gundestrup Cauldron is holding up his hands and spelling “thunder” in Ogham — and the figure is a thunder deity. One view (which IMHO is correct) is that the method of writing began as fingerspelling, a way to communicate silently and (if others were unfamiliar with it) secretly.

http://www3.bell.net/sacredwheel/gundestrup.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

I used to enjoy that track.

I’d quibble, there aren’t any indigenous people, or rather, no uniquely indigenous people — we’ve all come from where we’ve come from (I live about a half mile from where I was born, by coinky-dinky); the Picts entered Scotland from Ireland, probably because they got their butts kicked out. :’)

[devolve]

.

Lots of stone

I wonder how they ran it through a photocopier

[potlatch]

Funny
No jokes from me, you never laugh, lol.

[SunkenCiv]

"I'm Sir Arnold Stirrup, and I'll be your supporter for the evening."

[GSP.FAN]

Gaelic in Eire was not taught to outsiders,in the 18 and 19 century the brits outlawed the speaking of the gaelic language..
So it went underground,when i went to school they taught it as a second language.
I believe it is dead now,we are all Europeans...

[devolve]

.

LOL!

My MUTE key is stuck - on MUTE

[wolfman23601]

Interesting stuff. I find your name on many of these history threads. If you have a ping list, please add me. I enjoy your postings.

[I Buried My Guns]

"...the Picts entered Scotland from Ireland, probably because they got their butts kicked out. :’) ..."

Freeper Iron Munro's last name is Scottish, it translates to "(originating or coming) from the River Ro". The river Ro is in Ireland. Maybe his people had a hand in this saga.

[afraidfortherepublic]

All the street signs in Ireland are in Gaelic, as well as the titles of government officials. How can you say the language is dead?

[potlatch]

I know.

[Beowulf9]

Oh, I think this is very cool! Weren’t the picts considered witches?

Did they have anything to do with the Druids? Wonder if it would shed light on the Druids?

[GSP.FAN]

They don’t teach it in schools anymore,when i was going to school 44 yrs ago the christian brothers taught me to speak it.
When i left school i never used it and now have largely forgotten it..
I believe there is one little community on the West coast that still speaks it..

[GSP.FAN]

The river Roe is in Ireland...;>)

[Lurker]

Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.... From the Ummaguumma album by Pink Floyd....

On Lurker's IPod.

[Hoffer Rand]

Me too.

[Sacajaweau]

here we go....once upon a time...there was a bunch of men and they had a bunch of horses....

[Sacajaweau]

if these pics are on stone, they should be on paper someplace