Mysteries Department
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Questions

Research questions are the building block of our platform of scientific inquiry. Key questions are the ones at the heart of a mystery; every other question helps answer one of them.

4questions1answered1with no evidence yet
All mysteries
Pictish symbol stones
Pictish symbol stones2 key questions · 4 questions · 1 answered
Open the mystery
QuestionWhere it stands
KeyAre the Pictish symbols a writing system?
Most likelyThe symbols are emblems of rank, kin group, office or territory that do not encode words
Can corpus statistics tell whether a small symbol corpus like the Pictish one is language?
Most likelyThe published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist…
Do the stones that carry both symbols and ogham show what the symbols mean?
No evidence yet3 answers, untested
KeyWhen did the symbol system begin?
AnsweredThe system was in use by the third to fourth century AD.