View source for Novantae

{{Short description|Iron Age people}}
{{redirect|Novant|the nonprofit organisation|Novant Health}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=September 2015}}
The '''Novantae''' were people of the [[British Iron Age|Iron age]], as recorded in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geography]]'' (written c. 150AD). The Novantae are thought to have lived in what is now [[Galloway]] and [[Carrick, Scotland|Carrick]], in southwesternmost [[Scotland]].

While the Novantae are assumed to be [[Celts]], their specific ethnicity and culture have been the subject of debate for centuries. While [[Bede]] referred to a people called ''the Niduarian'' and suggested these were [[Picts]],<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Rhys|1904|p=[https://archive.org/stream/celticbritain03rhysgoog#page/n245/mode/2up 223]}}, ''Celtic Britain''</ref> the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.) described them as ''"a tribe of [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Gaels]] called Novantae or Atecott Picts."''<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Kirkcudbrightshire |volume= 15 |last=  |first=  |author-link=  | pages = 831&ndash;833; see page 832,  para 4 |quote=History.—The country west of the Nith was originally peopled by a tribe of Celtic Gaels called Novantae, or Atecott Picts...}}</ref> Scottish author Edward Grant Ries has identified the Novantae (along with other early tribes of southern Scotland) as a [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]]-speaking culture.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ries |first1=Edward Grant|date=21 October 2010|title=Scotland during the Roman Empire|website=Electric Scotland |url=https://www.electricscotland.com/books/ries/Scotland%20during%20the%20Roman%20Empire.pdf|access-date=27 September 2016}}</ref> 

Modern archeological excavations at [[Rispain Camp]], near [[Whithorn]], suggest that a large fortified farmstead was occupied between 100 BC and 200 AD, indicating that the people living in the area at that time were engaged in agriculture.

More recently, the name "Novantae" has been used by a group of [[Scottish Conservatives|Conservative]] councillors who left the party in protest to the party's opposition to a [[Galloway Forest Park|Galloway National Park]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-06-02 |title=Four councillors quit Conservatives to form new party |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gr4kpd657o |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Ptolemy==
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The only reliable historical reference to the Novantae is from the ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geography]]'' of [[Ptolemy]] in c. 150, where he gives their homeland and primary towns.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Ptolemy|c. 140}}, ''Geographia'', Albion Island of Britannia.</ref> They are found in no other source.

They are unique among the peoples that Ptolemy names in that their location is reliably known due to the way he named several readily identifiable physical features. His ''Novantarum Cheronesus'' is the [[Rhins of Galloway]], and his ''Novantarum promontory'' is [[Corsewall Point]] or the [[Mull of Galloway]]. This pins the Novantae to that area. Ptolemy says that their towns were ''Locopibium'' and ''Rerigonium''. As there were no towns as such in the area at that time, he was likely referring to native strong points such as [[dun (fortification)|dun]]s or [[royal court]]s.

==Roman era==
The earliest reliable information on the region of [[Galloway]] and [[Carrick, Scotland|Carrick]] when it was inhabited by the Novantae comes from archaeological discoveries. They lived in small enclosed settlements, most of them less than a single hectare in area and inhabited from the 1st millennium BC through to the Roman era. They also constructed [[hillforts]] and a small number of [[crannog]]s and [[broch]]s. Stone-walled huts appeared during the Roman era and the Novantae are thought to have had a centre of some kind at [[Clatteringshaws]] near [[Kirkcudbright]], which started out as a palisaded enclosure before being expanded into a set of timber and then stone-faced ramparts. This had been abandoned by the Roman period but there is evidence that the Romans used it as the target of a military exercise, erecting two practice camps nearby and subjecting it to a mock siege.<ref name="Early People">{{Harvcolnb|Sassin|2008|p=419}}</ref>

The only Roman military presence was a small fortlet at [[Gatehouse of Fleet]], in the southeastern part of Novantae territory.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Frere|1987|pp=88–89, 112–113, 130–131, 142–143, 347–348}}, ''Britannia''</ref> The Roman remains that have been excavated are portable, such as might be carried or transported into the region. The absence of evidence of Roman presence is in sharp contrast to the many remains of native habitation and strong points.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Maxwell|1891|pp=8–9}}, Roman Remains, ''A History of Dumfries and Galloway''</ref><ref>{{Harvcolnb|M'Kerlie|1877|pp=1–2}}, ''Wigtonshire''.</ref> [[Rispain Camp]] near [[Whithorn]], once thought to be Roman, is now known to be the remains of a large fortified farmstead, occupied by natives before and during the Roman Era.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Harding|2004|p=[https://archive.org/details/ironageinnorther0000hard/page/62 62]}}. Reports on the excavations were published in 1983.</ref>

In his account of the campaigns of [[Gnaeus Julius Agricola]] (governor 78 – 84), [[Tacitus]] offers no specific information on the peoples then living in Scotland. He says that after a combination of force and diplomacy quieted discontent among the Britons who had been conquered previously, Agricola built forts in their territories in 79. In 80 he marched to the [[Firth of Tay]], campaigning against the peoples there. He did not return until 81, at which time he consolidated his gains in the lands that he had conquered.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Tacitus|1854|pp=364–368|loc="Life of Agricola", Chapters 19 – 23}}.</ref> The Novantae were later said to have caused trouble along [[Hadrian's Wall]], and the Gatehouse of Fleet fortlet was presumably used to subdue them.<ref name="Early People" />

==Novant==
The Novantae disappear from the historical record after the end of the Roman occupation, as the name was beyond doubt the Roman name for the people who did not use it, with their territory supplanted by the kingdoms of [[Rheged]] and [[Gododdin]].<ref name="Early People" /> A kingdom called Novant appears in the medieval Welsh poem ''[[Y Gododdin]]'', attributed to [[Aneirin]]. The poem commemorates the [[Battle of Catraeth]], in which an army raised by [[Gododdin]] attempted an ill-fated raid on the [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] of [[Bernicia]]. The work elegises the various warriors who fought alongside the Gododdin, among them the "Three Chiefs of Novant" and their substantial retinue.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Skene|1868|pp= 380–381}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xeEIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA3 XVIII], ''The Gododdin''</ref> This Novant is evidently related to the Novantae tribe of the Iron Age.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Koch|1997|pp= lxxxii–lxxxiii}}</ref>

== Contradicting Ptolemy ==
[[File:Selgovae.william.roy.1793.png|thumb|right|Location of the Selgovae town of Trimontium according to Roy, who was trying to reconcile problems with the spurious ''De Situ Britanniae''.]]
Ptolemy's placement of the [[Selgovae]] town of Trimontium was accepted to be somewhere along the southern coast of Scotland until [[William Roy]] (1726–1790) placed it far to the east at [[Trimontium (Newstead)|Eildon Hills]], near [[Newstead, Scottish Borders|Newstead]]. Roy was trying to follow an itinerary given in the 1757 ''[[De Situ Britanniae]]'', and moving Ptolemy's Trimontium made the itinerary seem more logical according to his historical work, ''Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain'' (1790, published posthumously in 1793). Roy did not alter Ptolemy's placement of the Selgovae in southern Scotland, but chose to assign Trimontium to a different people who were described in ''De Situ Britanniae''.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Roy|1790|pp=115–119}}, ''Military Antiquities'', Book IV, Chapter III</ref>

When ''De Situ Britanniae'' was debunked as a fraud in 1845, Roy's misguided placement of Trimontium was retained by some historians, though he was no longer cited for his contribution. Furthermore, some historians not only accepted Roy's placement of Trimontium, but also returned the town to the Selgovae by moving their territory so that they would be near Eildon Hills. Ptolemy's placement of the Novantae in Galloway was retained, and since Ptolemy said that they were adjacent to the Selgovae, Novantae territory was greatly expanded beyond Galloway to be consistent with this thesis, which survives in a number of modern histories.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Cunliffe|1971|pp=216}} – see, for example, the influential ''Iron Age Communities in Britain'', map of the tribes of Northern Britain, attributed to "various sources"
</ref>

The result is that an 'error correction' to the sole legitimate historical reference (Ptolemy), made so that a fictional itinerary in ''De Situ Britanniae'' would seem more logical, is retained; and the sole legitimate historical reference is further 'corrected' by moving the Selgovae far from their only known location, greatly expanding Novantae territory in the process.

While Roy's historical work is largely ignored due to his unknowing reliance on a fraudulent source, his maps and drawings are untainted, and continue to be held in the highest regard.

==Treatment by historians==
Befitting the single historical mention of the Novantae by Ptolemy, many historians have largely included the Novantae ''im passim'' in their works, if they are mentioned at all. [[William Forbes Skene]] (''Celtic Scotland'', 1886) briefly relates their notice in Ptolemy, adding his conjectures as to the possible locations of towns, though not with any conviction.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Skene|1886|pp=72}}, ''Celtic Scotland''</ref> [[John Rhys]] (''Celtic Britain'', 1904) mentions the Novantae in passing, without any detailed discussion.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Rhys|1904|pp=222, 223, 227, 232}}, ''Celtic Britain''</ref> Local Galwegian historians, writing histories of their own home territory, provide a similarly scant treatment.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Agnew|1891|pp=1,1 2, 10, 41}}, ''The Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway''</ref><ref>{{Harvcolnb|Maxwell|1891|pp=2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14,23}}, ''A History of Dumfries and Galloway''</ref><ref>{{Harvcolnb|M'Kerlie|1877|pp=14, 15, 22–25, 27, 28, 31, 36, 71}}, ''History of the Lands and their Owners in Galloway''</ref><ref>{{Harvcolnb|M'Kerlie|1891|pp=14–17}}, ''Galloway in Ancient and Modern Times'', Ptolemy's Geography.</ref>

More recent histories largely treat the Novantae in passing, but sometimes weave them into a story that is not supported by either Ptolemy's map or archaeological evidence, though they are consistently placed in Galloway. John Koch (''Celtic Culture'', 2005) doesn't discuss the Novantae directly, but associates their name with the [[Trinovantes]] of southeastern England, and provides a map showing the "Novant" occupying [[Galloway]] including [[Kirkcudbrightshire]] to accompany his discussion of the ''[[Y Gododdin|Gododdin]]''.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Koch|2005|pp=824, 825, 1689}}, ''Celtic Culture'', Gododdin and Trinovantes.</ref> [[Barry Cunliffe]], an archaeologist, (''Iron Age Communities in Britain'', 1971) mentions the Novantae in passing, saying their homeland was Galloway, and with a map showing it, which he attributes to "various sources".<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Cunliffe|1971|pp=215–216}}, ''Iron Age Communities in Britain'', Southern Scotland: Votadini, Novantae, Selgovae and Damnonii.</ref> [[David Mattingly (author)|David Mattingly]] (''An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire'', 2006) mentions them as a people of southwestern Scotland according to Ptolemy, with maps showing them as occupying ditto Galloway.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Mattingly|2006|pp=49, 148, 423, 425}}, ''An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire''</ref> [[Sheppard Frere]] (''Britannia: A History of Roman Britain'', 1987) mentions the Novantae several times in passing, associating them firmly with the [[Selgovae]] and sometimes with the Brigantes. He places them in Galloway, with the Selgovae on the other side of the [[Southern Uplands]] in southeastern Scotland.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Frere|1987|pp=42, 90, 92, 93, 107, 111, 134, 355}}, ''Britannia''</ref> The Novantae is inconsequential to the larger history of Scotland in ''Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History'' (2005) by Alistair Moffat, but he weaves a number of colourful though questionable details about them into his story. He says that their name means 'the Vigorous People', that they had kings and often acted in concert with the [[Selgovae]] and [[Brigantes]], all of whom may have joined the [[Picts]] in raids on [[Britannia (Roman province)|Roman Britain]].<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Moffat|2005|pp=212, 231, 248, 272, 275, 277, 279, 280, 302, 306}}, ''Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History''</ref> He provides no authority for any of these assertions.

== See also ==
* [[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Ptolemy's ''Geography'']]
* [[Britannia (Roman province)]]
* [[Scotland during the Roman Empire]]

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
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{{refend}}

{{Iron Age tribes in Britain}}
{{Scotland during the Roman Empire}}

[[Category:Tribes of ancient Scotland]]
[[Category:Celtic Britons]]
[[Category:Scotland in the Roman era]]
[[Category:2nd century in Scotland]]
[[Category:Historical Celtic peoples]]
[[Category:Tribes mentioned by Ptolemy]]