The Picts hold a special place in the Scottish mindset - a mysterious race of painted warriors, leaving behind imposing standing stones and not much more.Stuart McHardy challenges these long-held historical assumptions. He aims to get to the truth of who the Picts really were, and what their influence has been on Scotland's past and present.Far from being wild barbarians, the Picts had a complex society. They fought off continuous threats of invasion from imposing adversaries: Romans, Vikings, Angles. Although Roman texts claim a major victory against the Picts, MeHardy reveals that the Roman retreat from Scotland shows that the opposite may well be true.The Picts were not wiped out in battle, but gradually integrated with the Scots to form Alba. McHardy demonstrates that rather than being some historical group of outsiders, or mysterious invaders, the Picts were in fact the indigenous people of Scotland and the most significant of our tribal ancestors. Their descendants walk our streets today.