Ancient DNA Reveals Painted People of Scotland Had Local Roots Related to Iron Age People in Britain

A recent study using ancient DNA has found that the Picts, referred to as the painted people of Scotland who resisted Roman conquest, were not a mysterious group who migrated from distant lands but rather had local origins and were connected to other Iron Age communities in Britain.

The study, titled "Imputed Genomes and Haplotype-Based Analyses of the Picts of Early Medieval Scotland Reveal Fine-Scale Relatedness Between Iron Age, Early Medieval and the Modern People of the UK" published in PLOS Genetics, analyzed eight sets of skeletons from two Pictish burial sites and indicates that they did not structure their society around matrilineal bloodlines, as previously thought by historians.

Pictish Problem

The "problem of the Picts" has puzzled generations of historians who sought to understand the origins and fate of the enigmatic people who disappeared from history. Scotlands DNA appears to have solved this mystery by discovering a genetic marker that suggests that the Picts did not vanish but instead still live in modern society.

Pictland, the ancient region of Scotland where Pictish symbols and place names are found, encompasses the land north of the Forth stretching to the coastlands around the Moray Firth. R1b-S530, a genetic marker, is concentrated in this area of Scotland, particularly in Central and North East, suggesting it has been present among its inhabitants for the past 3,000 years.

Since this marker has yet to be found outside of the British Isles, it is suspected that it was common among the original inhabitants, the Picts. This implies that their descendants are still living in Scotland, and some Scottish men have not migrated far from the region over the past few thousand years.

The discovery of this marker has shed light on the fate of the Picts, who are not extinct but are, in fact, part of the Scottish population. The Picts may have just assimilated among the more numerous groups that arrived in Scotland later, such as the Scots and the Vikings.

Picts Did Not Come From Afar

In the new study, Live Science reports that the team of researchers has extracted genetic information from eight human skeletons buried in two Pictish cemeteries to better understand this ancient culture. Human remains from the Pictish period are scarce, but the sandy soils at Lundin Links in modern-day Scotland are conducive to long-term preservation.

The team was able to extract a nearly complete genome from one skeleton from each of the two cemeteries and mitochondrial DNA information from all seven Lundin Links skeletons, allowing them to look into the assumption about matrilineal Picts.

Both genomes reveal a close genetic affinity to Iron Age populations from Britain but also show differences likely related to migration events and intermarriage with other groups. From analyzing mitochondrial DNA, the team found that the people whose DNA they analyzed were unlikely to have been practicing matrilocality.

The Picts' genes persist in modern-day people who live in western Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Northumbria, indicating that, even though their culture disappeared, their genes did not.

This study is a helpful step forward in understanding the transformation of society in post-Roman Scotland. Additional research on Pictish Scotland is already underway, including excavation of new sites, chemical analysis of dietary habits and migration, and further DNA work.

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