Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Lost Language of the Picts is Discovered

New research has determined that the ancestors of modern Scottish people left behind carved stones displaying the written language of the Picts, a society existing in Scotland from 300 to 843.

Highly stylized rock engravings on what are known as the Pictish Stones earlier were believed to be rock art. But a new study instead concludes the engravings represent the long lost language of the Picts.

"We know that the Picts had a spoken language to complement the writing of the symbols, as Bede (a monk and historian who died in 735) writes that there are four languages in Britain in this time: British, Pictish, Scottish and English," lead author Rob Lee told Discovery News. "We know that the three other languages were ~ and are ~ complex spoken languages, so there is every indication that Pictish was also a complex spoken language."

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