PHH Sykes: September 2024

You sir are a magnificent Bull in Bo’ness near Carriden The Witches Stone and Roman Antonine Wall Sites here with Pictish Burghead in Moray overlay

This magnificent Bull in Bo’ness had me thinking of Pictish Art and their Symbol Stones. Their animal symbols survive to this day where their language is now none existent. The wonderfully evocative decorated stones are found at Pictish Sites with the striking lines flowing and curling like waves of energy form both the outlines and internal structure of the subjects. At Burghead in Moray several Bull symbols were found leading some to believe that the Bull was a symbol venerated here, maybe a marker not unlike those later used in Heraldry to tell a story of identity that is linked to landscape and to those who control it. The notion of totems as good luck and potent identifying markers of person and of people, of individual and of tribe to set a motif of identity within this material world and an icon within all spiritual realms too.

This particular carved stone is displayed in London in The British Museum and thought so highly of that a replica cast is held in Edinburgh at The National Museums Scotland. This Bull is also incorporated into the current Logo for The Moray Society Elgin Museum. There is a cast in The Elgin Museum amongst other Pictish Symbol Stones. The symbol stones from Burghead are numbered 1-6 and this one is catalogued as,

Burghead 5, Moray, Pictish symbol stone

Measurements: 0.53m, W 0.53m, D 0.08m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 109 691

Present location: British Museum, London (1861.10-24.1) (cast in Elgin Museum)

Evidence for discovery: one of many bull carvings said to have been found during quarrying of the wall of the upper citadel to find building stones from around 1800 onwards, of which six have survived (Macdonald 1862). This stone was found sometime before 1809, when it was exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and it was in private hands in London for many years before being presented to the British Museum.

Present condition: good.

Description

The triangular shape of this slab may indicate the preferred form for these bull stones from Burghead. One broad face is incised with the most ferocious image of a bull to have survived, pacing angrily towards the right with his head lowered far down and his tail swishing across his rump.

Date: seventh century.

This is a cast of a stone found at Burghead in Moray. It is one of a number of stones carved with bull symbols, found in and around the site of the Pictish fortress at Burghead. They date from between 500 and 800.

Like the other stones, the bull is naturalistically depicted, with scrolls defining the joints where the limbs meet the body.

The large fort at Burghead was a major Pictish settlement. A number of carvings have been found there, many depicting bulls. Various theories have been put forward to explain their significance, including religious, territorial emblems or clan totems.

“Interpretation of the stones' original role has varied. Some scholars have suggested they were displayed on the fort's ramparts as symbols of power; others have seen them as having a votive role in a frieze as part of a pagan fertility cult; while others argue they were standing stones lining a processional route through the ramparts, a role suggested by their likely original kite-shaped form.”

Noble, Gordon (2019). “Fortified settlement in northern Pictland,” Noble, Gordon; Evans, Nicholas, The King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce, Birlinn, Edinburgh. Quote p.54, ISBN 178027551X. 1788851935, 9781788851930

The British Museum, reference below, records,

Exhibition history

Exhibited:

2001-2002 12 Dec-28 Feb, Leeds, Henry Moore Institute, The Unidentified Museum Object

1998 18 Apr-12 Jul, Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Celtic Art

Camore, reference below, records.

Exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries in London in 1809.

phhsykes@gmail.com

Elgin Museum Carved Stone Collection

Burghead 5, cast of syMbol stone with bull (ELGNM 1892.1)

https://youtu.be/liuNaY-glfI?si=JLiGMcyf6O-yZ8Uo

Burghead Bulls