by H. Barnard
In Britannia, the sites I have described are real sites based on the archaeological and historical information available. The Corinium Museum in Cirencester has a wealth of information about how Roman Corinium Dobunnorum would have looked and has preserved many mosaics and artefacts from the time. The baths in Aquae Sulis are famously preserved in Bath, but visualising the temple to Sulis Minerva was challenging, and Eleri H. Cousins’s The Sanctuary at Bath in the Roman Empire was extremely useful. Londinium was in decline at the time of my book, and the forum and basilica had been burnt down in retaliation for the people supporting a rebel emperor. The towns and forts around Hadrian’s Wall are fairly well preserved, and I have described them based on my own site visits, as well as the reconstruction images produced by English Heritage in their guidebooks, and Adrian Goldsworthy in his book Hadrian’s Wall.
Food and clothing
Evidence indicates the Picts had a diet consisting of dairy, pork, and vegetables, such as turnip and kale. For the upper classes, hunting was important, and animals like venison were consumed. Interestingly, for a community who lived with access to the coast and rivers, there is little evidence that the Picts ate fish.
There is evidence of trade with the Romans with finds of red Samian ware pottery, glass, and silver. Pictish jewellery predominantly survives in the form of penannular brooches. The ‘Snake of Caledon’ brooch combines the Pictish penannular brooch shape and the common Pictish symbol of a snake curved around a Z-shaped arrow.
I have used Torc necklaces for the nobility in A Painted Winter. This is based on it being a common Iron Age Celtic artefact and on the descriptions in the poem Y Gododdin written in the seventh century, which records the Picts as wearing torcs.
There is limited information about Pictish clothing as organic remains rarely survive in the archaeological record. The Pictish symbol stones record a hooded shawl with tassels (a rare example of which survives as the ‘Orkney Hood’ on display at the National Museum of Scotland) and typically show women and men wearing tunics. The images seem to show the men wearing tunics that come to the knee (Golspie stone and ‘Rhynie man’ are good examples). It is unclear if there are pants underneath, but given the brisk nature of the Scottish climate, I have decided that there were. The symbol stones such as Sueno, and Aberlemno show warriors carrying spears (possibly with round butted ends as represented in the Tulloch Stone), bow and arrows, swords, square or distinctive “H” shaped shields, and helmets. Warriors are represented both on foot and on horseback.
The tattoos described in A Painted Winter are all found in the symbol stones and metalwork of the Picts. Any time I describe stone carvings, I am describing real Pictish stones. For example, the Rhynie man is described in chapter 18 in Rīgonīn, and the Caertarwos carved bull stones are the stones found in Burghead. I recommend George and Isabel Henderson’s The Art of the Picts which provides a comprehensive overview of the Pictish Symbol stones and metalwork.
In Britannia, I have generally described the people as wearing togas (men) and colourful pallas (women) wrapped over tunics. I recommend Kelly Olson’s two fascinating books Dress and the Roman Woman and Masculinity in dress in Roman Antiquity for further information on Roman dress. Slavery was unfortunately commonplace across the Roman Empire, and I have tried to give faces and personalities to these often forgotten people. The inscribed slave collar that Derelei wears in chapter 35 is based on real slave collars that were worn at the time.
Religion
In the Life of Saint Columba (written by Adomnan in the mid to late 7th century) it was observed that King Bridei of Fortriu was advised by a Druid named Broichan. Based on this observation, and on the other similarities between Iron Age Scottish archaeology and pre-roman England archaeology, I have centred the religion of the Ancient Peoples on the archaeological and historical records of the general Celtic religion.
From the archaeological record, I was inspired by symbols left on stones and items such as cauldrons and bowls that have survived. I have referred to some festivals, including Imbolc and Beltane, and have tried to base my descriptions on the evidence for these festivals found in archaeology and history. For more on religion, I recommend Ronald Hutton’s Pagan Britain and The Stations of the Sun, and Miranda Aldhouse Green’s Caesar’s Druids and The Celtic Myths. For an overview of the Celts, I recommend Alice Roberts’s The Celts, and for a more academic dive into the Celts, I recommend Barry Cunliffe’s The Ancient Celts. For a specific look at Sulis and the worship of a pagan goddess in the geographic region of the Dobunni tribe, you may be interested in Stephen J. Yeates’s The Tribe of Witches.