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When the Romans withdrew from Britain, the north of the country was ruled by the most mysterious of the ancient British races, the Picts. Much of what is known about these painted warriors, comes from the remains of the fortifications that they left scattered around Scotland. Although the Picts are famous as sea raiders, they were also subjected to attacks from a number of opponents. To their south, the Romano-British reoccupied the abandoned Roman fortifications and hired Saxon mercenaries to strike against the Picts. Meanwhile, from the west a new group, the Scoti, attacked from Ireland. This book covers the fortification of the ancient Picts in all their conflicts and discusses the importance of these sites as religious centres and seats of power, while using the latest archeological evidence to help unravel the mystery of this ancient race.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
while this book is good at giving a general background to the study of hillforts, it makes wild assumptions backed up with no archaeological evidence, the more i read the angrier i became, not the most accurate text on the subject.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Picts and Saxon Forts
6 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
My title essentially sums up the book--the emphasis is more on certain fortresses such as promontory forts and hill forts as opposed to looking at the situation from a variety of angles (military, political, cultural, technological, etc).
Konstam does an admirable job of packing in a lot of information, and Peter Dennis' illustrations are great, but I still felt a gnawing sense that the book didn't live up to what it's blurb said it would. I was expecting an analysis of Pictish, Saxon, and Gaelic forms of warfare, but no cigar.
The focus for nearly all the pages is on the various forts and an example from different regions in Northern Britain.
To be fair, this is all the archaeological evidence really supplies at the moment, but I still heard a little voice in my head that cried out: "More!"
If you are interested in forts and fortifications, this is an excellent complement to Konstam's British Forts in the Age of Arthur.
However, if you are more interested in tactics, weaponry, and clothing, this book, while its illustrations allude to such cultural elements, do not go in depth at all. No explanation is offered of the illustrations except their fortifications, and strictly that.
So, the book achieves what it set it out to do--provided you didn't read the "It will also discuss the mystery surrounding the Picts, and show how modern archaeology has done much to reveal the way these enigmatic people waged war, and defended their strongholds," blurb.
Because the simple truth is that it doesn't discuss how they waged war in any serious detail, and I felt most let down by that. That said, this is still a great book, and useful to those wondering about the fortifications in Dark Age north Britain.
On a side note, I would really like to see some follow up Men-at-Arms titles discussing the various warriors of Britain in-depth (I know about Osprey's Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars, but it's a bit dated).
Konstam does an admirable job of packing in a lot of information, and Peter Dennis' illustrations are great, but I still felt a gnawing sense that the book didn't live up to what it's blurb said it would. I was expecting an analysis of Pictish, Saxon, and Gaelic forms of warfare, but no cigar.
The focus for nearly all the pages is on the various forts and an example from different regions in Northern Britain.
To be fair, this is all the archaeological evidence really supplies at the moment, but I still heard a little voice in my head that cried out: "More!"
If you are interested in forts and fortifications, this is an excellent complement to Konstam's British Forts in the Age of Arthur.
However, if you are more interested in tactics, weaponry, and clothing, this book, while its illustrations allude to such cultural elements, do not go in depth at all. No explanation is offered of the illustrations except their fortifications, and strictly that.
So, the book achieves what it set it out to do--provided you didn't read the "It will also discuss the mystery surrounding the Picts, and show how modern archaeology has done much to reveal the way these enigmatic people waged war, and defended their strongholds," blurb.
Because the simple truth is that it doesn't discuss how they waged war in any serious detail, and I felt most let down by that. That said, this is still a great book, and useful to those wondering about the fortifications in Dark Age north Britain.
On a side note, I would really like to see some follow up Men-at-Arms titles discussing the various warriors of Britain in-depth (I know about Osprey's Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars, but it's a bit dated).
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The strongest wall that could be built with poor foundations
28 May 2010
Format:Paperback
Angus Konstam done a very good job with extremely fragmented archeological remains and written contemporary (or near contemporary) material. That is the reason of the title of the review - with the amount of evidence available to historians in 2010 it would be impossible (in my humble opinion) to make a stronger and more solid work.
But speaking of the content of the book: it describes the several types of strongholds, from small fortified farms to the huge promontory forts or the nuclear fortifications; how they were built; descriptions of several individual fortifications and their history, etc.
Compared to classical era fortifications, those of the Picts and their neighbours are extremely simple; this is somewhat compensated by the extreme care where they were chosen to be built - in very easily defensible sites like steep hills, rocks, promontories, etc. Useful for the purposes that they were built for, but clearly weak against a determined invader.
Some aspects directly or indirectly related to the fortresses themselves are also mentioned, like their importance in war and peace, the endemic wars between de Scoti from Dal Riata, the Picts and the Northumbrians; the devastating invasions and raids from Viking marauders, etc.
Curious that the British peoples of the dark ages saw the roman rule as a golden era of peace, safety and prosperity, considering roman remains with awe and respect (it's particularly paradoxal because they fought the romans for so long).
The illustrations of Peter Dennis are absolutely fabulous. Great reconstructions of fortifications and sieges.
Contains chronology, glossary and a quite complete list of strongholds and a guide on how to visit them.
Note: this is a book about Pict strongholds. Not about their society, culture, art or battle tactics except in the matters that these subjects relate to their fortifications. If you want to know more about Pictish civilization you might want to read: "In Search of the Picts: A Celtic Dark Age People"; "The Picts and Their Symbols " or "Age of the Picts".
But speaking of the content of the book: it describes the several types of strongholds, from small fortified farms to the huge promontory forts or the nuclear fortifications; how they were built; descriptions of several individual fortifications and their history, etc.
Compared to classical era fortifications, those of the Picts and their neighbours are extremely simple; this is somewhat compensated by the extreme care where they were chosen to be built - in very easily defensible sites like steep hills, rocks, promontories, etc. Useful for the purposes that they were built for, but clearly weak against a determined invader.
Some aspects directly or indirectly related to the fortresses themselves are also mentioned, like their importance in war and peace, the endemic wars between de Scoti from Dal Riata, the Picts and the Northumbrians; the devastating invasions and raids from Viking marauders, etc.
Curious that the British peoples of the dark ages saw the roman rule as a golden era of peace, safety and prosperity, considering roman remains with awe and respect (it's particularly paradoxal because they fought the romans for so long).
The illustrations of Peter Dennis are absolutely fabulous. Great reconstructions of fortifications and sieges.
Contains chronology, glossary and a quite complete list of strongholds and a guide on how to visit them.
Note: this is a book about Pict strongholds. Not about their society, culture, art or battle tactics except in the matters that these subjects relate to their fortifications. If you want to know more about Pictish civilization you might want to read: "In Search of the Picts: A Celtic Dark Age People"; "The Picts and Their Symbols " or "Age of the Picts".
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Specialized study
28 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
which spans the era roughly from the 6th to the 9th century. The analysis includes small ring forts (duns), reoccupied hill forts (Craig Phadrig, Clatchard Craig), promontory forts close to the sea (Burghead), citadel forts and nuclear fortifications.
Strictly speaking, the discussion touches upon not only Pictish strongholds but on those of their neighbours: to the west the Dal Riatan Scots (originally from Ireland), with their centre at Dunadd; to the southwest the Britons (read Celts) of Strathclyde (Alt Clut : Dumbarton); to the southeast the Britons of Goddodin (Dun Eidin : Edinburgh) whose territory fell to the invading Germanic Angles from Northumbria around 638 CE.
"The Early Historic strongholds...were nothing compared to the Roman legionary camps...or even to the great Celtic hill forts [of the Iron Age]...However, for the most part they were compact...and they made the best possible use of natural defensive qualities of the terrain" (p. 41).
As is characteristic of the Osprey booklets, the present volume is lavishly illustrated with full colour artwork, photographs and maps. At times, however, the written material tends to be exceedingly repetitious as, for instance, on page 21 where the same information given in the main text appears in the smaller typeset description of Portknockie. The same happens in regard to Dunadd (pp. 36-41).
Aside from a mention of Viking raids starting at the very end of the 8th century, we are left pretty much in the dark as to the fate of the enigmatic Picts.
Strictly speaking, the discussion touches upon not only Pictish strongholds but on those of their neighbours: to the west the Dal Riatan Scots (originally from Ireland), with their centre at Dunadd; to the southwest the Britons (read Celts) of Strathclyde (Alt Clut : Dumbarton); to the southeast the Britons of Goddodin (Dun Eidin : Edinburgh) whose territory fell to the invading Germanic Angles from Northumbria around 638 CE.
"The Early Historic strongholds...were nothing compared to the Roman legionary camps...or even to the great Celtic hill forts [of the Iron Age]...However, for the most part they were compact...and they made the best possible use of natural defensive qualities of the terrain" (p. 41).
As is characteristic of the Osprey booklets, the present volume is lavishly illustrated with full colour artwork, photographs and maps. At times, however, the written material tends to be exceedingly repetitious as, for instance, on page 21 where the same information given in the main text appears in the smaller typeset description of Portknockie. The same happens in regard to Dunadd (pp. 36-41).
Aside from a mention of Viking raids starting at the very end of the 8th century, we are left pretty much in the dark as to the fate of the enigmatic Picts.
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