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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Picts
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People first mentioned in a Roman text of the 3rd century AD as the Picti, which may be a version of their name or may describe a habit of painting or tattooing their bodies (the word in Latin means 'painted people'). At that time they were the dominant group in northern Scotland and very effective raiders of Roman Britain. Their ethnic identity is uncertain but their language contained pre-Celtic elements, so they may have been earlier inhabitants of Britain driven north by the *Celts. Celtic Christianity reached them from Ireland by the late 6C, and in the 9C they were absorbed within a unified kingdom by the *Scots. Their art survives in their carved memorial stones and crosses.
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