[blam]

DNA studies of Scotland cannot detect any DNA that may have been the Picts. They're basically all the same people...some came earlier, some later.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[maine-iac7]

“When the Vikings came to Orkney they were as intrigued by these underground structures created by the original inhabitants, as we are now, and incorporated them in their folklore, as places where the Picts would go to regain their strength.
“

What with the weather and terrain of the Orkney's, it may be that they built underground structures to take advantage of the berm-effect - much easier to heat and to maintain that heat. It may simply be that they liked to keep from freezing to death.

But that would be too simple - first, the archaeologists and historians have to ascribe all sorts of mysterious possibilities -

[El Sordo]

Cooooooooooooolll...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. Orkneys are tougher to chew than, say, Orc chops.

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[Cold Heart]

Went to the Orkneys on my first command, 90,000 ton tanker to pick up a load of North Sea crude oil. The currents leaving there were of legend. Full powered ships spun around like toys.

[Fred Nerks]

The Orkney Islands An archipelago of 70 islands off the north coast of Scotland, Orkney's most amazing feature is the number of prehistoric sites which can be found there. As well as Britains oldest standing houses - 5500 years old on the island of Papa Westray - Orkney has stone circles, burial mounds, brochs and best of all the 5000 year old village at Skara Brae, preserved under a sand dune until 1850, when a violent storm exposed it.

[Fred Nerks]

View of Callanish (I), Lewis, looking along the ridge and up the avenue

http://www.orkneydigs.org.uk/dhl/papers/cr/index.html

[doodad]

Very interesting as my ancestors came from this area and John o’ Groats.

Google up Ocmulgee National Monument if you would like to see an ancient Indian structure that sounds identical to this souterrain. I wonder if the narrow entrance faces the Spring Equinox? Very curious.

[WoofDog123]

regarding the picts, the oddest issue the that their language, aside from some placenames and a king-list, has apparently vanished. It is widely suspected to have been a P-celtic variant (there is a contrary published argument that it is finno-ugric, but no other scholarship seems to agree with that).

Even the primary place-name market (pit, pith, which appears in a number of towns in central-eastern scotland) could be the normal b-p mutation in p-celtic bet (modern welsh bedd pronounced ‘beth’ IIRC) which meant thing or place, i don’t recall now.

Maybe all of britain, up to cape wrath, was settled by P-celts prior to the roman period, and the picts were just so isolated and far north geographically that they either had notable language mutation OR for other reasons were considered separate from more southern tribes.

If they were in fact p-celts from similar stock to other pre-roman british celts, they aren’t going to leave any distinct markers I would think.