2020-06-04
Rather than a general popular book about the Picts, this is a series of essays about the more recent state of studies into the Picts by subject, accompanied by various site diagrams.
In that regards it presents both an interesting catch-up on Pictish studies since Alex Woolf’s seminal work the previous decade, but the essays do repeat each other a little and the in-depth explanation of excavation sites means it probably isn’t for casual readers.
Overall, a great book about research into the Picts, and it’s good to see how much the subject is developing. On the other hand, it’s also plain there’s not much money going into Pictish archaeology, with major sites still not properly investigated. Also, somewhat annoying that AD and BC are printed in lower case which caused some confusion at first.
Rating: 4/5