Understanding of the Picts, however, is patchy: F. Archaeologically there is strong continuity with Late Iron Age culture, particularly in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, although there appear to have been significant changes in settlement types during the later Roman period. Little evidence exists for the Picts at this period: historically they were the enemies of the Romans, allied with the Scotti (or Irish). This dating is supported by the site's mid-fifth-century Latinus stone, an inscribed cross slab with a Latin inscription, including the name "Latinus," and a six-armed Constantinian Chi-Rho Christian cross. Dating the activity of any post-Roman figure is extremely difficult, owing to a lack of contemporary documents, but scholarly opinion now places Ninian at Whithorn in the later fifth century. Whithorn, in the southwest, was the site of the earliest recorded Christian church in Scotland, the episcopal seat of Saint Ninian, reportedly sent to minister to an already existing Christian community. But Traprain Law was abandoned by the mid–fifth century, and it appears that their new seat of power was at Din Eidyn, modern Edinburgh excavations in Edinburgh Castle have found evidence for occupation during this period. 395 this cache is interpreted either as loot or, more likely, a diplomatic bribe or payment for military services. In the late Roman period they were based at the Iron Age hillfort of Traprain Law, which has produced a spectacular hoard of Roman silver dated to sometime afterĪ.d. The people the Romans called the Votadini, for instance, appear in the sixth century in the southeast as the Gododdin. Several small kingdoms are known among the post-Roman Britons. In fact, with the recognition that the Picts and the Britons both spoke P-Celtic, or Brittonic languages, some scholars have suggested that cultural differences between the southern Britons and the northern Picts may have been emphasized, if not created, by the adoption of certain elements of late Roman culture, including Christianity, by the Britons. It is widely accepted, however, that the people between the walls were influenced significantly by the Roman military presence. Unlike the situation with the Germanic territories beyond the Rhine frontier, little evidence suggests significant levels of trade across these walls, and so the withdrawal of Rome in the early fifth century was less obviously disruptive in Scotland than elsewhere. Unlike southern Britain, Scotland never was incorporated fully into the Roman Empire, although the southern lowlands were part of the militarized zone between the Antonine Wall, which ran between the River Forth and the River Clyde, and Hadrian's Wall, now south of Scotland's border. Their attacks were surely an important catalyst for the unification of the Dalriadic and Pictish kingdoms into Alba, the kingdom of Scotland. Then came the Viking phase (ninth century through mid–eleventh century a.d.), when a new set of pagans, mainly from western Norway, disrupted earlier patterns, initially through raiding and later by settling in the north and west. sixth to eighth centuries a.d.) was a period of interaction and competition, at least among the elites, of four major political or ethnic groups and also saw the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion. The early historic or early Christian phase (c. fifth century a.d.), which appears to have been a time of transition, when significant cultural changes took place. Limited evidence remains for the post-Roman phase (c. The early medieval period in Scotland can be divided into three major phases. It is therefore necessary to consider the broadest possible range of information to reconstruct the period: archaeology, history, linguistics and place-name studies, and art history provide the most significant evidence. The evidence for the various groups contributing to the development of the kingdom of Scotland is uneven, however, both in terms of historical sources and archaeological research. In the later first millennium a.d., Scotland was a complex and dynamic mosaic of political and cultural traditions, where natives and incomers (immigrants) competed for power and influence-a land of "four nations and five languages," in the words of the contemporary Anglian historian the Venerable Bede.
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