The Picts

[Cadbren]

Mr Woolf believes that the Picts did not disappear but gradually adopted Gaelic words and by the 12th century were speaking a version of Pictish - which was like Welsh but without the Latin influences - "with a massive interference from Gaelic".

Biased any?

Aren't Aed and Domhnall both Gaelic names? That would make three of Alpin's successors have Gaelic names suggesting, as attested to above, that the Scots and Picts had already blended somewhat. Perhaps Kenneth MacAlpine was the first to recognise himself as a Scot, or the first with Scottish ancestry to have the power to proclaim that side.

[apict]

Thanks for the links, Lianachan. It seems that at least as of now (if not into the foreseeable future) we can not know with absolute certainty that the Picts were not at some point a matrilineal society. Nor can we know with absolute certainty the precise point at which the Picts and Scots became universally united under a single ruler. And I would therefore mistrust anyone who claims he knows for sure. I believe the Iroquois (or at least some of the Iroquois nations in their confederation) had Male chiefs but were none-the-less matrilineal. The women chose which of the males would be their chief. Could the Picts have (at some time) had a similar system? We will likely never know. The Picts and Scots likely merged, likely gradually, sometime AROUND the time of Cinaed. Perhaps the legend of MacAlpin bringing them together through his descent from a king of the Scots and a Queen of the Picts is more symbolic than factual. But as a symbol, it has a certain beauty that is not GROSSLY inconsistent with reality (whatever that might turn out to be). In my opinion.

[Scythia]

Ok so I'm looking at the wiki for both.

From the Caledonians wiki
Caledonians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Physical Appearance

Tacitus in his Agricola, chapter XI (c. 98 AD) described the Caledonians as red haired and large limbed, which he considered were features of a Germanic origin: “The reddish (rutilae) hair and large limbs of the Caledonians pro-claim a German origin”. Jordanes in his Getica also wrote something similar:
...The inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies.[4]
Eumenius, the panegyrist of Constantine Chlorus, wrote that both the Picts and Caledonians were red haired (rutilantia).[5] Scholars such as William Forbes Skene noted that this description matches with Tacitus' description of the Caledonians as red haired in his Agricola.[6]

From the Picts wiki
Picts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The name the Picts called themselves is unknown.[4] The Latin word Picti first occurs in a panegyric written by Eumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean "painted or tattooed people" (Latin pingere "to paint";[5] pictus, "painted", cf. Greek "πυκτίς" - puktis, "picture").[6] As Sally M. Foster noted, "Much ink has been spilt over what the ancient writers meant by Picts, but it seems to be a generic term for people living north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus who raided the Roman Empire."

The Picts are often said to have practised matrilineal succession on the basis of Irish legends and a statement in Bede's history. In fact, Bede merely says that the Picts used matrilineal succession in exceptional cases.

The Pictish language has not survived. Evidence is limited to place names, the names of people found on monuments, and the contemporary records. The evidence of place-names and personal names argues strongly that the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to the more southerly Brythonic languages.[66] A number of ogham inscriptions have been argued to be unidentifiable as Celtic, and on this basis, it has been suggested that non-Celtic languages were also in use.[67

If I said I were looking for one ethnic tribe.

1 Red Haired/Blue Eyed
2 Tatooed
3 Spoke a non celtic Language
4 Wore Trousers (Bracae?)
5 Tartan/Plaid Cloth
6 Were skilled metal workers (Jewelry)
7 Good with a horse and a bow
8 Had a Matriarchal or Semi Matriarchal society
9 Had tribal land or brand markers

Could I find a Tribe in Scotland? Maybe the Picts? That fit what I'm looking for?