Pictish art appears on stones, metalwork and small objects of stone and bone.

The largest hoard of early Pictish metalwork was found in 1819 at Norrie's Law in Fife, but unfortunately much was dispersed and melted down ( Scottish law on treasure finds has always been unhelpful to preservation ).

Other characteristics of Pictish metalwork are dotted backgrounds or designs and animal forms influenced by Insular art.

These probably developed from earlier traditions using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic memorial stones ; the Pictish stones of Scotland may also have influenced the form.

The artist is clearly far more used to depicting animals, and these have close relationships to continental eagle fibulae for the eagle, Pictish stones and English metalwork for the " shoulder spirals " on the lion and ox.

O ' Dell ( 1959 ) stated that " the treasure is the best survival of Scottish silver metalwork from the period " and that " the brooches show a variety of typical Pictish forms, with both animal-head and lobed geometrical forms of terminal ".

After Chistianization, Insular styles heavily influenced Pictish art, with interlace prominent in both metalwork and stones.

The following museums have important collections of Pictish stones: Meigle ( Perthshire ), St Vigeans ( Angus ) and St Andrew's Cathedral ( Fife ) ( all Historic Scotland ), the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh ( which also exhibits almost all the major pieces of surviving Pictish metalwork ), the Meffan Institute, Forfar ( Angus ), Inverness Museum, Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie and Tarbat Discovery Centre, Portmahomack ( both Easter Ross ) and Tankerness House Museum, Kirkwall, Orkney.

It is an area of rich history from Pictish times onwards.

The place-name itself is Pictish, implying an origin in the Dark Ages: aber ' confluence '.

The crossbow is portrayed as a hunting weapon on four Pictish stones from early medieval Scotland ( 6th to 9th centuries ): St. Vigeans no.

He is often known as Constantine I, in reference to his place in modern lists of kings of Scots, though contemporary sources described Causantín only as a Pictish king.

The historical record for 9th century Scotland is meagre, but the Irish annals and the 10th-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba agree that Kenneth was a Pictish king, and call him " king of the Picts " at his death.

The Triangular Frame harp is depicted in sculpture from the 8th century Pictish stones in Scotland and in manuscripts ( i. e. the Utrecht Psalter ) from the early 9th century France.

North of Dál Riata, the Inner and Outer Hebrides were nominally under Pictish control although the historical record is sparse.

It is assumed that Pictish must once have predominated in the northern Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides.

Islay is Ptolemy's Epidion, the use of the " p " hinting at a Brythonic or Pictish tribal name, although the root is not Gaelic and of unknown origin.

* 685 – The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.

There is an association with the geographical distribution of brochs, Brythonic place name elements, and Pictish stones.

While very little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history since the late 6th century is known from a variety of sources, including Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, saints ' lives such as that of Columba by Adomnán, and various Irish annals.

The means by which the Pictish confederation formed in Late Antiquity from a number of tribes is unknown, although there is speculation that reaction to the growth of the Roman Empire was a factor.

Early Pictish religion is presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism in general, although only place names remain from the pre-Christian era.

When the Pictish elite converted to Christianity is uncertain, but traditions place Saint Palladius in Pictland after he left Ireland, and link Abernethy with Saint Brigid of Kildare.

The so-called cross-slabs are carved with Pictish symbols, Insular-derived interlace and Christian imagery, though interpretation is often difficult due to wear and obscurity.

It is possible that the Pictish " cat " sound forms part of this Norse name.

The later Iron Age inhabitants of the Northern Isles were probably Pictish, although the historical record is sparse.

Saint Ninian ( traditionally 4th-5th century ) is a Christian saint first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland.

For this reason he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedications to him in those parts of Scotland with a Pictish heritage, throughout the Scottish Lowlands, and in parts of Northern England with a Northumbrian heritage.

Rather than a conquest of the Picts, instead the idea of Pictish matrilineal succession, mentioned by Bede and apparently the only way to make sense of the list of Kings of the Picts found in the Pictish Chronicle, advanced the idea that Kenneth was a Gael, and a king of Dál Riata, who had inherited the throne of Pictland through a Pictish mother.

The rise of Cínaed mac Ailpín ( Kenneth MacAlpin ) in the 840s, in the aftermath of this disaster, brought to power the family who would preside over the last days of the Pictish kingdom and found the new kingdom of Alba, although Cínaed himself was never other than king of the Picts.

Likewise, the Pictish shires and thanages, traces of which are found in later times, are thought to have been adopted from their southern neighbours.

Naturalistic depictions of Pictish nobles, hunters and warriors, male and female, without obvious tattoos, are found on monumental stones.

The well known Pictish symbols found on stones, and elsewhere, are obscure in meaning.

The area appears to have been of some importance in the early Christian period, as evidenced by the Pictish stone carvings found during the restoration of St Vigeans church, and now housed in the small museum there.

The vicinity of Glamis Castle has prehistoric traces ; for example, a noted intricately carved Pictish stone known as the Eassie Stone was found in a creek-bed at the nearby village of Eassie.

On Orkney Scotland, sea eagle bones have been found in 6000 year old burial mounds, suggesting that the birds were revered by the prehistoric people there, a belief strengthened by the Pictish stone carvings of sea eagles from Orkney.

There is also a good selection of Pictish stones found in and around Forfar and Kirriemuir.

There is virtually no direct attestation of Pictish, short of a limited number of place names and names of people found on monuments and the contemporary records in the area controlled by the Kingdom of the Picts.

A Pictish stone with a distinctive carving of a salmon was found in Gairloch in 1880.

A Pictish settlement occupied the area and large numbers of carved stones, now held in Elgin Museum, were found.

Pictish crosses were found in or near the cemetery and indicate the presence of a Christian establishment.

Historic features near Kirriemuir include a carved Pictish stone known as the Eassie Stone, found in the bed of a burn near the village of Eassie.

Historically, Pictish is the ancient language of the area, which can be found in many placenames.

The fort was probably a major Pictish centre and was where carved slabs depicting bulls were found ; they are known as the " Burghead Bulls ".

The enclosure round the Norse church overlies a Pictish graveyard, and an important Pictish carved stone was found in pieces in this enclosure during site clearance ( also on display in Edinburgh: replica on site ).

The most interesting Pictish remain found is a stone slab showing three figures and some additional Pictish symbols.

Two simple cross-incised slabs, likely grave-markers, were also found in the graveyard, and are probably Pictish or early medieval in date ( displayed on site ).