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Gender Reflections: A Reconsideration Of Pictish Mirror And Comb Symbols, Traci N. Billings
Gender Reflections: A Reconsideration Of Pictish Mirror And Comb Symbols, Traci N. Billings
Theses and Dissertations
The interpretation of prehistoric iconography is complicated by the tendency to project
contemporary male/female gender dichotomies into the past. Pictish monumental stone sculpture
in Scotland has been studied over the last 100 years. Traditionally, mirror and comb symbols
found on some stones produced in Scotland between AD 400 and AD 900 have been interpreted
as being associated exclusively with women and/or the female gender. This thesis re-examines
this assumption in light of more recent work to offer a new interpretation of Pictish mirror and
comb symbols and to suggest a larger context for their possible meaning. Utilizing the Canmore
database, …