![]() There are, among all, standing stones of considerable antiquity, such as menhirs, large pillar stones and boulders (“Pictish Stones” 2015 Allen, John, Romilly 1887). Scotland has a heritage of standing stones which mark the landscape all over the country (Short 2016). ![]() “Many stones have now been taken into museums to preserve them, but there are a number which still stand outside” (Historic Scotland 2020). They may have been territorial markers, personal memorials with symbols for individual names or clans, or funeral stones associated with certain burials ( Ibid.). The purpose and meaning of the earliest stones are only slightly understood ( Ibid.). Although stelae variations of the early Christian period belong to a wider Insular tradition of monumental stones such as High Crosses, typical of the Hiberno-Scottish monumental sculpture, pagan examples of such stelae are unique only to Scotland ( Ibid.). Stelae appeared between the fifth and ninth centuries, since the heyday of the Pictish kingdom in northeastern Scotland, till the times, when the Celtic Picts were undergoing a progressive process of Christianization (“Pictish Stones” 2015 Allen, John, Romilly 1887). They had been covered with various symbols or designs by being incised or carved in relief ( Ibid.). ![]() About three hundred and fifty examples of similar Pictish stones have survived to our times, mainly on the eastern side of Scotland (“Pictish Stones” 2015). Scottish stelae, also called Pictish symbol stones, are categorized in terms of their development periods ( Ibid.). Stone relics of monumental sculpture are characteristic of Ireland, Scotland, northern England and other smaller islands scattered around the British Isles (“Pictish Stones” 2015 Allen, John, Romilly 1887). ![]()
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