The Picts and their symbols

"The Picts, the most powerful nation in northern Britain for some five hundred years, mysteriously disappeared from contemporary records in the ninth century. All that remains of the language they spoke are a few fragments in the names of places or people. Their most enduring memorial is a unique system of symbols, carved on stone monuments, engraved on objects of silver and bronze and scratched on the walls of caves - symbols whose interpretation has been as elusive as that of the Egyptian hieroglyphs before the discovery of the Rosetta stone." "In this new book, Dr. Cummins tackles the problem of interpreting the symbols, starting with a small sample of bilingual stones on which they are accompanied by ogham inscriptions or, more rarely, by inscriptions in the Hiberno-Saxon script. They were monuments to named individuals. With this in mind, it is possible to follow up a variety of archaeological and historical clues, to put names to many of the symbols, and to explore Pictish genealogy and social structure." "Well illustrated with photographs, drawings and maps, this important book will be required reading for anyone interested in the Picts and fascinated by the perennial mysteries of the Dark Ages."--BOOK JACKET.