Painted pebbles

Painted pebbles are a class of Pictish artifact found in northern Scotland dating from the first millennium AD. They are comparable to those that characterize the Azilian period in the Art of the Upper Paleolithic on the continent.

Appearance

They are small rounded beach pebbles made of quartzite, which have been painted with simple designs in a dye which is now dark brown in colour. The size varies from 18 mm by 22 mm to 65 mm by 51mm. It has not proven possible to analyse the dye itself from the stains that remain.

The motifs are carefully executed and the most common are dots and wavy lines. Other motifs are small circles, pentacles, crescents and triangles, showing strong relationships with the Pictish symbol stone motifs.

Distribution

Over the last 90 years, 19 painted pebbles have been found in sites in the Northern Isles and in Caithness. Most have come from broch sites which have been shown to have had an extensive post-broch occupation. An ogham – inscribed spindle-whorl – was associated with one find at Buckquoy in Orkney (see Buckquoy spindle whorl). Several have been associate with wheelhouses or their outbuildings. An example was found at a Pictish site at Buckquoy in Orkney as reported in 1976. It had the "small ring" type decoration.