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The Puzzle of the Picts

Were the Picts of Finnish, Baltic, Basque, Turkish orArabic origin?

Kai.Lindgren@metropolia.fiFeb. 2014

Much of the text and many pictures are from Wikipedia

Feb. 2014 by Kai Lindgren

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The ancient peopleof Picts lived in theBritain.

Britain & Ireland in the mid-late 400s CE.Red: mainly Brythonic areas.Green: mainly Goidelic areas.Blue: mainly Pictish areas.

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Pict (pikt) n. [LME. Pictes, pl. < LL. Picti (lit. ? paintedpeople), whence OE. Peohtas] any of ancient peopleof Great Britain, driven into Scotland by the Britonsand Romans. (*

Pictish (pikt’ish) adj. of the Picts, their language, ortheir culture –n. The language of the Picts: itsrelationship is not established. (*

*) Webster’s New World Dictionary of theAmerican Language: Second College Edition.William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc.,Cleveland 1976.

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Are the Picts of Finnish (Estonian) origin, forTacitus says in his famous book ”Germania”:

”Thus already on the right shore of the Suebian Sea(east shore of the Baltic sea) live the tribes of Eastivi(Estonians), who are similar to Suebians in their mannerof living and appearance, but their language resemblesthe language in Britain.” /1/ page 69.

/1/ Tacitus: Germania (in Latin AD 98), Finnish edition,Otava, Keuruu (Finland) 1976.

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End of Pictish Regime

• About 850 AD in a (civil) war, Scottish Kenneth MacAlpincrashed the military power of the northern Pictish area(coast and the islands) which was weakened by the newmilitary force, the Norwegians.• The Vikings took over the city of York in 866 and called itto ”Jorvik” and eventually took over the whole Britain.

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Venetic LanguageDeciphered based on Estonian by Andres Pääbo Andres Pääbo: The

Veneti Language:“The Venetic inscriptionshave been found aroundthe plain at the head ofthe Adriatic Sea “

“from the Po around toTrieste, up the Adige,Piave Rivers, and thenearby Carnic Alps.”

“Adige (Atesis) and laterPiave (Piavis) were themain Venetic traderoutes bringing tradegoods from bothWestern Europe and theBaltic Sea.”

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Simplicity of English Grammar

Could the simplicity of Grammar ofnouns in English and Scandinavianlanguages and French originatefrom an older language which wascommon to all of these. Could thisbe the language of the Megalithicculture, see the adjacent map *).Could the language be Phoenician.– Or was the reason simplyinfluences from many differentlanguages: Semitic, Basque,Finnish, Celtic, Latin, Germanic; Ibet for this latter explanation.

*) Norbert Strade: An Interdisciplinary Approachto the Role of Uralic Hunters and Gatherers in theEthnohistory of the Early Germanic Area.Historica Fenno-Ugriga, Turku 1997.

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Originally Romans called Picts asCaledonians

By 210 however, the Caledonians had re-formed their alliance with theMaeatae and joined their fresh offensive. There is no further historical mentionof the Caledonians for a century save for a c. AD 230 inscription fromColchester which records a dedication by a man calling himself the nephew (orgrandson) of "Uepogenus, [a] Caledonian".[3] This may be because Severus'campaigns were so successful that the Caledonians were wiped out, howeverthis is highly unlikely. In 305, Constantius Chlorus re-invaded the northernlands of Britain although the sources are vague over their claims of penetrationinto the far north and a great victory over the "Caledones and others"(Panegyrici Latini Vetares, VI (VII) vii 2). The event is notable in that it includesthe first recorded use of the term 'Pict' to describe the tribes of the area /6/.

- It comes in mind that Severus indeed succeeded to destroy the cultivationsand the language of the Caledonians; only the hunter-gatherers (thereforecalled as Picts) survived and started to use Old Irish, or maybe this was theirlanguage already. However, some of the old culture was preserved even in thesouthern Caledonia for the symbol stones of c. 670 – 870 AD depict animalsthere when the stones in the northern Caledonia depict geometrical motifs /7/.

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Old Scottish Tribe/Region NamesInterpreted as Finnish

TRIBE NAMES IN EAST-SOUTHERN CALEDONIA- Vacomagi – ”Vakomäki” in Finnish or sola, cove in

English- Taexali – ”Takana olevat”, in English people behind.- Caledonii – ”Kalevalaiset”, People of Kaleva (as

Estonians call them selves).- Or ”Kalliolaiset”, the People of rocky

mountains- Brigantes – ”Bri-kanttiset” or ”Brittien vieressä olevat”,

or people near Britons.- Maeatae – ”Mäen takaiset”, People behind the hill,

could this be the same asTaexali?

- Selgovae – ”Selkäpuoliset”, People on the back sideor people of the middle land.

- Otadini – ”Otsan puoleiset” or ”Etummaiset” or“Jyrkänteen ihmiset” or“Karhuihmiset. People on the front side oron the edge or people of the bear.

- Lugi – ”Luikkivat” or ”vaeltelevat”, People whichwanders

Peoples of Northern Britainaccording to Ptolemy's map

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TRIBE NAMES IN NORTH-WEST CALEDONIA- Orcades – Means place of walrus /8/- Cornovii – “People of the cornu (IE)”, the northern peninsula of Scotland.- Caereni – ”Kairalaiset” so ”Metsäläiset”, the people of forest.- Smertae – “Mertalaiset”, peole who use fish-traps.- Carnonacai – .- Decantai – .- Creones – .- Ebudae – “Pyytävät” or people who hunt/catch fish.- Epidi – “Pyytävät” or people who hunt/catch fish, the Picts /2/.- Damnonii – ”Patoihmiset”, the people with dams (IE).- Novantae – ”Uudet ihmiset” or new people (novus, Latin).

IN ADDITION:- Schiehallion - the "fairy hill of the Caledonians” could come from Finnish words“Hienokallio”. “Kallio” is rocky hill and “hieno” is fair. But more probably from words“Hiiden kallio” meaning rocky hill of the demon or rocky hill of the fairy; in thiscase Finnish “h” has changed to Irish “sch” and Finnish “iiden” to mere Irish “ie”.Synonyme to “Hiiden kallio” were “Hiisikallio”, “Hiisivuori”, Hiisimäki”… It would beinterested to know if there is in Finland a “Hiiden kallio” somewhere.

It is much easier to interpret the tribe names of South-East Caledonia with Finnish thanthe names in North-West. So there has probably been two different languages in theearly Roman time, Finnish and probably Old Irish. Note, these interpretations are onlysuggestions and they should be compared with the real on-site conditions.

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Hadrian’s Wall

Disappearing of ninth legionin Britain about 117 CE.

In a recently published analysis of thelimited evidence available, MilesRussell, senior lecturer in RomanArchaeology at Bournemouth University,concludes that "by far the mostplausible answer to the question "whathappened to the Ninth" is that theyfought and died in Britain, disappearingin the late 110s or early 120s when theprovince was in disarray". FromWikipedia at 28th of Sep. 2013.

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Newton Stone as copied from /11/

Characters in /7/ and /11/ should bethe same but they are not.

This transcription by KL is based on oldrunes in the book of M. Naddeo /12/ pp64, 79, 81, 83.A z zI A/A N M T M L U Y SI/K Y T O L O N O T I TH/N I L ES P V E I S I/AI U S S I/L O M O UT P N LT IE/This resembles Finnish best if read ininverted oder: from b->t and r->l:

EILTNP TUOMOL/ISSUIA/ISIEV PESLIN/ THITO NOLOTYK/SI YULMTMNA/AIzzA/

In modern Finnish: Edeltäpäin tuomallaJeesus isien pesiin tehnyt on nolotuksijulmat muassaan.

In English:Beforehand bringing Jesus to thehouses of fathers is embarrassed thecruel ones with him. (Interpretation isnot certain.)

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Referencies

1/ Tacitus: Germania (in Latin AD 98), Finnish edition, Otava, Keuruu (Finland) 1976./2/ Andres Pääbo: Writings in internet. http://www.paabo.ca//3/ Andres Pääbo: The Veneti Language. http://www.paabo.ca/veneti/index.html/4/ Veijo Meri: Sanojen Synty, Gummerus, Jyväskylä 2002./5/ List of country-name etymologies. From Wikipedia; June 2013./6/ Wikipedia; June, August 2013./7/ Anthony Jackson: The Symbol Stones of Scotland. The Orkney Press, Kirkwall (Orkney) 1984./8/ Farley Mowat: The Farfarers, A New History of North America. Skyhorse Publishing, New York

2011./9/ Norbert Strade: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Role of Uralic Hunters and Gatherers in the

Ethnohistory of the Early Germanic Area. Historica Fenno-Ugriga, Turku 1997./10/ Kalevi Wiik, Suomalaisten juuret (The Roots of the Finnish People). Atena, Keuruu (Finland) in

2004./11/ L.A.Waddell: The Phoenician Origin of the Britons, Scots &Anglo-Saxons. In Internet at Oct. 24,

2013./12/ Michelangelo Naddeo: Honfoglalás… The Magyars are Back Home. Copyright the author 2006.