The mirror and comb are
Pictish
Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...
symbols of uncertain function,
found on Class I and Class II
Pictish stones
A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the River Clyde, Clyde-River Forth, Forth line and on the Eastern side of the ...
.
The mirror, or mirror and comb, do not belong to the body of main Pictish symbols, but are used as modifiers of a symbol pair. The mirror can occur on its own, or with the comb, although the comb never occurs on its own. The mirror, or mirror and comb, occur either below the symbol pair, or beside the lower symbol.
The mirror and comb have been found carved into slabs near the burial of men and at least one woman.
Joanna Close-Brookes, writing in 1981, suggested that the presence of the mirror and comb on a burial stone indicated societal rank, discounting earlier hypothesis that it indicated wealth.
Gallery
Image:Serpent stone.JPG, Aberlemno 1
File:DunnichenMeffan.jpg, Dunnichen Stone
The Dunnichen Stone is a class I Pictish symbol stone that was discovered in 1811 at Dunnichen, Angus. It probably dates to the 7th century AD.
Location
The exact location at which the stone was found is unknown, but thought to be in a field in ...
File:Kirri 1 B.JPG, Kirriemuir 1
References
Symbols on Pictish stones
Scottish mythology
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