 In the 1320 declaration of Arbroath, which was a letter signed by almost 50 arrows and barons of Scotland and sent to the Pope, asking him to recognise Scotland's independence and Robert the Bruce as King, there is a curious reference to Greater Scythia. The declaration states that the Scots journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Terranian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain. Thence it came, 1200 years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea to its home in the West where it still lives today. Yet can we give any credence to this origin story of the Scots? Scythia, or Greater Scythia after all, referred to a region and the people of a region that was in Central Asia corresponding to the area around the Black Sea, Ukraine and the vast lands of southern Russia. Known largely as being a collection of nomadic tribes which were fierce warriors. The Scythians built a culture and a region of influence that was prominent between 900 BC and 200 BC and stretched from the Black Sea to China. Interestingly, the physical appearance of Scythians was reportedly not too dissimilar from the appearance of Scottish or Celtic people. As well as being heavily tattooed, some of the Scythian women reportedly had fair hair and blue eyes while some of the men had red hair. Scythian sources also suggested that some Scythians had white hair, with these people referred to as Albini. It is at least interesting to note that Scotland and Gaelic is called Alba. Part of the reference to Greater Scythia in the declaration seems in part a reference to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland and one of the 12 apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Andrew was thought to have preached in Scythia and there is an argument that he was martyred in Scythia. The traditional argument is that Andrew was martyred in Patras, in Achaea, in Greece which is probably too far west to ever have been considered Scythian territory. Irrespective of where Andrew was martyred, the reference in the declaration to Scythia refers to Saint Andrew in part. Yet the connections to Scythia run deeper than Saint Andrew. The two main groups that merged and formed, the Kingdom of Scotland in 843 AD, were the Picts and the Scots, with both of these groups having origin stories that reference Scythia. It's of course important to emphasise here that separating myth and allegory from history is difficult when there are little or no definitive written records about the origins of these people. Regardless, before detailing the possible Scythian connections, it's important to understand a little about the Picts and the Scots. The first thing to note about the Picts is that they left no written records outside of mysterious hieroglyphics carved into stone, so accounts of this people are from other sources. In fact, we don't even know what these people called themselves. It was the Romans who probably gave them the name Picti, meaning painted people. They are thought to be descendants of people who lived in the region that we now call Northern Scotland, with the Romans calling these people Britaini or Caledoniai, although these may all be Latin words for essentially the same people or the same groups of people. It is believed that the Picts spoke a Celtic language, but closer to Welsh or Breton rather than Irish or Scottish Gaelic. The Scots on the other hand were a Gaelic speaking people. The name Scots is again believed to come from the Romans, who called the Gaelic speaking peoples who raided Roman Britannia in the 3rd and 4th centuries Scoti. These people, however, called themselves the Gales, and one popular account suggests that they originally came from Ireland and conquered the region in West Scotland, known as Argyll from the Picts in around the 6th century AD. Other accounts suggest that the Gales lived in Scotland centuries before that time, however, but either way, the Gales built a Gaelic kingdom in Argyll that had significant influence. Over the decades and centuries, Pictish culture was gradually engulfed by its Gaelic counterpart, perhaps in part due to the power of the Irish Church. The two groups also began to unify more in an attempt to defend against a common enemy that soon raised its head, the Vikings, including an unsuccessful defence against Viking raiders in the 9th century, known as the Disaster of 839. Shortly after this disaster, however, the Kingdom of Scotland, or Alba in Gaelic, is said to have been born in 843 AD, under the leadership of Kenneth Macalpin, or Kenneth the First, the First King of Scots, who unified the Scots and the Picts into one. Precise details of how this unity actually arose are scant, with many tales surrounding the event. One story of how Macalpin managed to unify the Scots and the Picts is known as the Great Treachery of Scun, when Macalpin was said to have invited Pictish nobles to a banquet at Scun, luring the Picts into a trap and then murdering them, leaving the rest of the Picts leaderless and with little choice but to join with the Scots. The accuracy of the treachery of Scun's story is questioned by many, as many argue that this story is largely myth, and that Macalpin gradually made a series of political deals that unified the Scots and the Picts into the Kingdom of Scotland, even though references to the Picts vanished from history shortly after. We now know that the Pictish influence continued through Scotland, as genetic analysis of present day Scots has shown that 10% of Scottish men are directly descended from the Picts. If we turn our attention back to the origin stories of these two groups however, an interesting reference to Scythia is present for both groups. An origin story that links the Picts to Scythia comes from the venerable Bede in his book Historia, published in 731 AD. The story goes that the Picts sailed from Scythia to Ireland, but after the Irish refused to allow them to settle on their land, they were told of another land close by Scotland. Lacking wives, the Picts then took Irish women with them under the condition that they would promote their kings from the female royal line, as opposed to the male. In relation to the Scots, one of the most popular origin stories is that they are descended from the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh called Scota. After leaving Egypt, the story goes that Scota and her people lived in Spain for a period, then on to Ireland and eventually settled in Scotland. Certain stories argue that Scota was married to a Scythian prince who himself was a son-in-law of a pharaoh. There is also another angle that one can view, the fact that both the Picts and the Scots have a shared Scythian reference in some of their origin stories. It was in the interest of those who favoured the Union of the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Scotland to find or potentially create commonalities between the two peoples who had not always been allies. Scythian connections are not always found in all the origin stories about these two peoples. A separate origin story of the Picts, for instance, argues that they are descended from the Celtic goddess Brigid. In Irish mythology, Brigid was part of an ancient fairy race of supernatural beings. Whether there is any truth to the idea that Scots are descendants of Scythians is hard to say. It is certainly possible that groups of Scythians sailed from towns close to the Black Sea through the Mediterranean and around the Iberian Ark to settle in the ancient lands of Scotland. Yet, as with all origin stories of all peoples, the question always is, where does myth end and history begin?