This addition to the successful Historic Scotland series is a well written and illustrated discussion of the Picts and Scots. It begins with an introduction (Chapter 1, Setting the scene) which looks at who the Picts, Dal Riatans and there neighbours were - based mainly on documentary sources, discusses the history of their study and dispels the myth that the Picts were particularly different from their neighbours. Chapter 2, Communicuting with the past. introduces the various sources of evidence including documentary, linguistic, inscriptions, archaeology, art-history and place-names. After these two essentially introductory chapters we arrive at the main pan of the book. Foster believes that the changes in the nature of kingship during the Early Historic period are the key to understanding it. She identifies four main sources of power which leaders utilised and discusses these in subsequent chapters. The residence of power (Chapter 3) looks at political power by considering social structure, territorial divisions, inheritance patterns, political links between different ethnic groups, the nature of kingship, regalia and sculptural representations. There is also a discussion of power centres which discusses forts, cult centres, the hierarchical use of space, occupation of Roman sites, buildings, unenclosed sites, the relationship with the prehistoric landscape and how power centres related to one another and changed over time. Agriculture, industry and trade (Chapter 4) looks at economic activities including farming, low status settlements, landscape divisions, craft working, a discussion of several hoards and long-distance trade. Religion is considered in Chapter 5, The strength of belief, which discusses pagan beliefs, particularly the meaning of the Pictlsh symbols, and Christianity which covers sub-Roman, Columban and Catholic varieties. There is also a consideration on literacy and writing. The final chapter of the four, Chapter 6 From 'wandering thieves' to lords of war, considers warfare. It considers fighting on land and sea, military organisation and the role of the church. Chapter 7, Alba: the emergence of the Scottish nation, draws the previous chapters together and looks at the consolidation of the Pictish nation suggesting that leaders used political, economic, religious and military power with the aid of the church and aristocracy to expand their authority and that this is linked to the rise of the Pictish symbol stones. The unification of the Picts and Dal Riatan's is then discussed with a consideration of what happens afterwards. The book concludes with a list of museums and sites to visit, suggestions for further reading and a glossary.

The core of the book is contained in Chapters 3 to 7 which, although presented in a fashionable quasi-theoretical manner, basically covers familiar ground being broadly similar to other recent books (e.g. Laing and Laing 1993) though with some differences. Foster's organisation of the material is interesting although perhaps not particularly well suited to a work specifically aimed at a wide readership. It also leads to some incongruities, for example high status settlement sites are discussed in one chapter and low status settlements in another. Foster's general argument is initially quite appealing but ultimately problematical. All the factors Foster describes also applied to other Celtic areas such as Ireland and Wales which did not develop centralised kingship and remained divided into numerous small kingdoms. The picture presented is also highly idealised with all factors working in one single direction towards consolidation and groups such as the aristocracy and the Church always co-operating with the kings' aims and not being in conflict with them.

The consideration of warfare (Chapter 6) is rather short and unsatisfactory. The Gododdin poem contains a wealth of information on tactics and weapon handling (contra p.102) (see Discussions in Northern History 27, pp. 23641 and 29, pp. 185-96 and Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 30, pp. 1340), sculptural depictions of axes seem more related to ritual than warfare (contra p.103), the Culbin Sands sword pommel is omitted from a list of weapons (p.103). Finally, the consideration of the Church's attitude to warfare (pp.lO6-7) only considers one side of the story by looking at Columba's militaristic reputation and ignores other aspects such as that represented by Adomnan's Law of the innocents.

It is possible to challenge a number of the points of detail in the book. Brennan (1991, 31-35) has shown that there is no evidence that hanging bowls were suspended from tripods (contra illustration 39) and it is unlikely that Columba was first based at Hinba (contra pp. 79-80)(Sharpe 1995, 18-19). The statement concerning spiral ring-pins that "only two of which ever reached Scotland" (p.25,) is nonsense, what it should say is that only two have been round so far. The Index has a number of errors, for example Agricola is listed under p.102 but not p.13, and the most recent other book on the Picts and Scots (Laing and Laing 1993) is strangely omitted from the further reading list. The work is generally well illustrated with a good mix of photographs and drawings although the illustration of Hilton of Cadboll (illus. 70) is lit from a rather unusual angle. Problems, however, arise with some of the maps. Dumbarton Rock and Whithorn have been transposed on illustration 44, there is no way to link silver chains with and without symbols on illustration 47 and the symbols on illustration 4, particularly that for souterrain areas, have been poorly selected resulting in confusion.

This book, while not ideally suited as an introductory text on the Picts, for which I would have to recommend either Laing and Laing (1993) or Ritchie (1989) instead, is undoubtedly a welcome addition to the collection of anyone already interested in them as it contains much of value even if it is possible to disagree with some of the ideas presented.

Craig Cessford.

REFERENCES

Brennan, Jane 1991 Hanging Bowls and their Contexts, Brit Archaeol Rep, British Series 220, Oxford.

Laing. Lloyd and Laing, Jennifer 1993 The Picts and the Scots, Alan Sutton, Stroud.

Ritchie, Anna 1989 Picts. HMSO, Edinburgh.

Sharpe. Richard 1995 Adomnan of lona. Life of Columba, Penguin, London.