The Rosemarkie sculpture fragments are the

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

slabs and stone fragments other than the main

Rosemarkie Stone The Rosemarkie Stone or Rosemarkie Cross, a Class II Pictish stone, is one of the major surviving examples of Pictish art in stone. Discovery Carved from fine-grained sandstone, the Rosemarkie stone was found sometime prior to 1821 in the floor ...

which have been discovered in

Rosemarkie Rosemarkie ( sco, Rossmartnie, from gd, Ros Mhaircnidh meaning "promontory of the horse stream") is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in Ross-shire (Ross and Cromarty), northern Scotland. Geography Rosemarkie lies a quart ...

, on the

Black Isle The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and Nor ...

Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituenc ...

. There are fourteen in all. The so-called Daniel Stone is thought to depict the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

story of

Daniel in the Lion's Den Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel) tells of how the biblical Daniel is saved from lions by the God of Israel "because I was found blameless before him" (Daniel 6:22). It parallels and complements chapter 3, the story of S ...

. The stones are all of likely Christian origin, and share a similar style with the art of

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

. Some of them may have been of funerary purpose, as coffin lids, while others may have formed part of a larger stone. These stones are usually displayed in the

Groam House Museum Groam House Museum is a museum of Celtic and Pictish Art. Located in the village of Rosemarkie in the Black Isle, Scotland, its collection contains both the Rosemarkie Stone, one of the major surviving examples of Pictish art in stone, and the Ros ...

of Rosemarkie.

References

* Fraser, Iain, Ritchie, J.N.G., ''et al.'', ''Pictish Symbol Stones: An Illustrated Gazetteer'', (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, 1999)

External links

* Symbols on Pictish stones Pictish stones in Highland (council area) Black Isle {{scotland-struct-stub fr:Pierres Pictes de Ross