There is also abundant evidence from surviving place-names that a people speaking a p-Celtic language Inhabited the southern and eastern lowlands of Scotland in ancient times and this Is confirmed by historical evidence, both from the Iron Age itself (below, p. 656) and for the existence of the British kingdom of Strathclyde In south-western Scotland until well on in the first millennium AD (Duncan 1975: 63ff.). Watson gave the first systematic account of the subject (1926: ch. Il), both in terms of historical references and surviving British names, and Nicolaisen presents some of the data more clearly as distribution maps (1976: ch. 8). For example, the region of the distinctive early historic people known as the Piets is well defined by the distribution of the place-name element pit (ibid.: 153, map 17); these are heavily concentrated immediately north of the river Forth (in Fife and Aberdeenshire and adjacent regions), east of the central highland massif and south of the Dornoch Firth; the far northern mainland is almost free of them. The early British place-name element carden is also found restricted to a very similar area, as are the monumental stone slabs carved in the distinctive Pictish style and dated to the mid and late first millennium.
However, apart from one striking form of post-Roman bronze armlet (p. 659), this region is beyond the zone of iron age Celtic decorated metalwork, presumably the clearest indication of the presence of prehistoric Celts. As we shall see, there is archaeological evidence for a specific population living in what later became Pictland and whose roots lie very far back, at least as early as the Late Bronze Age.
Other early British names are more widespread and include the elements pert, lanerc, pevr and aber (Nicolaisen 1976: 163, map 20). These are found throughout Pictland but also in southern Scotland, especially in the central lowlands, and they give a clearer indication of a more widespread ancient population which spoke a p-Celtic tongue akin to ancient Welsh. However it is striking that these place-names are almost completely absent from the highlands north-west of the Great Glen and from all the islands.
Iron Age Tribal Names in Scotland
In fact we know that this absence is not due to p-Celtic speakers never having been in these north-western regions because of the evidence of iron age tribal names. The Greek geographer Ptolemy compiled his well-known verbal descriptions of the British Isles - by means of place-names and geographical features identified by latitude and longitude - in the second century and included information about the native tribes in the various regions (Thomas 1876; Rivet 1978; Mann and Breeze 1988). It is generally agreed that the information he had about Scotland dates from the late first century and was obtained from officers and others who had campaigned in the north with Gnaius Julius Agricola, Roman governor of Britain, between about AD 79 and 86. During its campaigning the army had penetrated far up the east coast and the navy went right round Scotland, calling at many islands including the Orkneys. Most of these names are of p-Celtic type. ‘The ancient tribal names recorded by Ptolemy and others are all of the same type as the tribal names of Gaul -plural in form’ (Watson 1926: 15; Powell 1962).
Another important piece of evidence given by the tribal names is of clear connections between Scotland and the south. For example the Damnonil of southwestern Scotland must surely be connected with the Dumnonii of south-western England and the Cornavii of Caithness seem identical to those of North Wales (Rivet 1978: fig. i).
World History
