Pictish carving: Burghead bull

This muscular bull is an example of the magnificent stone carvings of the Picts, the Celtic-speaking people who ruled north and east Scotland between around AD 400-850s. The distinctive symbols of Pictish art, including animals, artefacts and geometric motifs, are now enigmatic. In some cases they may represent a type of commemorative writing. Carved into a sandstone boulder, this bull is one of up to thirty bull sculptures found at Burghead, a major Pictish fortress in northern Scotland. Its lifelike pose and coloured legs and belly are characteristically Pictish. Once probably brightly painted, the carved bulls would have held a powerful presence at Burgehead. Perhaps they symbolised warrior-like qualities of strength or aggression, held ritual significance, or were the emblem of the local ruling family.