Time Team
The Pictish Peasant Boy's Story
"You have arrived on a very important day! We are busy preparing a feast for our returning menfolk.
They have been to battle to win back our lands. They were victorious against the Northumbrian invaders from the south... we have heard they are within a day's walk from home, and should reach the village by nightfall. To see my father again is all that I ask, even if he be wounded. My brothers and sisters love to hear him talk about the battles he has fought, and the strange ways of other people Romans and Celts he has met. We sit around our family fire and listen to his stories and songs for hours!
Our family has lived in these parts for several generations. The soil is good, less sandy than nearer the sea. It is a wild windswept area, but we have all that we need - from the forest, the heath, the grassy dunes, the beach and the sea. I am never bored! There is not much time when I am not helping with the family in the fields, growing 'bere' for making bread and gruel, and beer (an alcoholic drink for celebrations), looking after the cattle and sheep on the heath, helping with the heath burning, going fishing or bird trapping, and helping in the house, curing and scraping the skins and that sort of stuff.
We are busy from dawn to dusk - the womenfolk too.
Having ground to graze our cattle is very important for us. The cattle too must be looked after. I love to sit in the heather listening to the wind and the birds on a sunny day when I am minding the cattle. If it rains it is not always so good, I take a skin to sit under, but even the rain on your face feels great.
We must burn the heather regularly, every few years, to encourage young juicy growth for the beasts.
Some years ago, before I was born, there was a huge fire which was out of control over a large area. Here today you only see grass, I think the heather was mostly all killed. But the grass is good feeding for the beasts too, and the milk they produce tastes very good. The animals are descended from wild cattle that used to roam about this area, called aurochs.
I am soon going to take lessons in stone carving. My uncle is very talented in this. Important people come from a long way away asking him to carve stones for their lords.
I have to go, we have a whole pig turning on the spit, cooking for tonight, it's my turn to go and turn it."
Discussion Points on the story:
- What was P doing?
- Can you think of a name to remember this Pictish boy by?
- How do his family feel about living here at the time?
- How did P use the area of the dunes and heathland?
- What did they spend most of their lives doing?
- Why was this period known as the Dark Ages do they think?