This lecture draws on over ten years of excavations and survey in Northeast Scotland to posit a new model for the development of kingship and the ethnogenesis of the Picts in Northeast Scotland. Continuities and connections between the Roman Iron Age and early medieval periods is stressed and the talk focuses on the results of the major survey and excavation programme at Rhynie and the Upper Strathbogie valley which will soon be published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Professor Gordon Noble has undertaken award-winning landscape research and field projects working on projects from the Mesolithic to Medieval periods. He has two major current projects, Northern Picts, funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust and Historic Environment Scotland, is focused on the post-Roman societies of northern Britain. The second, Comparative Kingship, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is examining the early royal landscapes of Ireland and Scotland. Research for the Northern Picts and Comparative Kingship projects won Research Project of the Year 2021 in the Current Archaeology Awards, the leading UK archaeology awards programme. Public engagement is a big part of his research with Northern Picts having featured in numerous exhibitions and on BBC 2 ‘Digging for Britain’, National Geographic, Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’ and many other media venues. Gordon was appointed as lecturer to the department at Aberdeen in July 2008. In 2012 he became Senior Lecturer, Head of Department in 2015, Reader in 2017 and Professor in 2019. He is also a Honorary Curatorial Fellow to the University Museums.