The development of small-scale kingdoms in the post-Roman world of northwestern Europe is a key stage in the subsequent emergence of medieval states. Recent excavations at Rhynie in north-eastern Scotland have thrown important light on the emergence of one such kingdom, that of the Picts. Enclosures, sculptured ‘symbol stones’ and long-distance luxury imports identify Rhynie as a place of growing importance during the fifth to sixth centuries AD. Parallels can be drawn with similar processes in southern Scandinavia, where leadership combined roles of ritual and political authority. The excavations at Rhynie and the synthesis of dated Pictish enclosures illustrate the contribution that archaeology can make to the understanding of state formation processes in early medieval Europe.

Our understanding of the nature of late and post-Roman central places of northern Britain has been limited by the lack of historical sources and the limited scale of archaeological investigation. New work at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland has begun to redress this through extensive excavation and landscape survey that has begun to reveal the character of a Pictish central place of the 4th to 6th centuries AD that has European connections through material culture, iconography and site character. In addition to reviewing the place-name and historical context the article outlines preliminary reflections on five seasons of excavation and survey in the Rhynie landscape that are brought together for the first time.The article also provides a detailed consideration of chronology including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical analysis. The results reveal the multi-faceted nature of a major nonhillfort elite complex of Pictland that included a series of enclosures, timber buildings and a cemetery. The evidence from Rhynie provides a rich dataset for a new consideration of elite centres of early medieval northern Britain with wider implications for the nature of power centres in late and post-Roman Europe.

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It must be widely acknowledged that the only scholars able to confront the beast that is Pictish art on the scale achieved in this volume are George and Isabel Henderson. The authors present an analysis of the styles, forms, features and creatures that make up Pictish art from about the seventh to the ninth centuries and put it firmly in its rightful place amongst other traditions associated with Insular art. It is a much needed and welcomed discussion of value to scholars concerned not only with early medieval Scotland, but also with early medieval Europe. The authors principally use art historical methods and interpretations concentrating on images, styles, and influences to highlight the complexity of Pictish society. A great deal of progressive research has been undertaken particularly on Pictish sculpture by archaeologists interested in decoding the symbols, location, and landscape, but often with minimal regard for the iconography of the sculpture itself. Whilst reading The Art of the Picts, one cannot help but wonder how much further such research could go if we understood the stories represented by each dot on a distribution map. The symbols and stories are surely as significant as, and part of, monumentality and society's actions and reactions to the sculpture. The book has three main parts comprising an introduction to Insular art focusing on the Pictish contribution, a survey of Pictish metalwork, and a wide-ranging discussion on Pictish sculpture. The Introduction and first three chapters arm the reader admirably with a background on Insular art. The first chapter in particular is a succinct summary of the main features of the style and well illustrated so that relative novices to the field will find it accessible. The agenda of the volume is clearly laid out in the two subsequent introductory chapters: to promote Pictish art as an equal partner in the creation of the much celebrated Insular art style while simultaneously maintaining the Picts'own innovative and artistic character. The Pictish symbols are initially discussed in these introductory chapters as 'formal artistic creations'. However the thorny question of meaning is tackled in the first of two chapters devoted to the form and function of sculptural monuments. Following a summary of the main theories, the authors offer their own impressions based on their experience of the art of the symbols both in stone and surviving in metalwork. They postulate a development of symbols from use in caves to field monuments suggesting the symbols conveyed messages of guardianship and strength, as related art on Iron Age artefacts might be interpreted. On conspicuous field monuments, they suggest the symbols and the stones they marked were natural foci for assembly and authority. Arguably, such messages and functions for symbol stones do not necessarily contravene theories on the symbols as elements of language, names, or the association of monuments with features such as burials.