D evana is listed in Ptolemy\'s Geography and is linked to the tribe of the Taexali conventionally assigned to a region including the later areas of Morray and Buchan. The area was uninfluenced by the La Tène style of art, and probably used the Pictish language. It was also uninfluenced by the Broch and Dun building cultures predominant in the west and north of modern Scotland. Bede says that \"a range of steep and desolate mountains separates the land of the northern Picts from that of the southern Picts\". It is likely that the Mounth was the mountain range that he referred to which would put Devana in the land of the northern Picts. The Roman general Agricola campaigned here in 83 AD and fought the battle of Mons Graupius nearby. After his recall the area was given up by the Roman Governor as indefensible.

The Pictish language seems to have vanished under the rule of the Scots before it could be recorded. The name Pict was probably coined by foreigners in reference to the the tattoos with which Pictish people are said to have decorated their bodies. Picts were ancient inhabitants in Britain whose origins go too far back for any foundation myth to be reliable.

A Latin copy of the Pictish Chronicle (971-95) relates
\"Seven Sons of Cruithne then
Into seven divided Alban
Cait Ce Cirig, a warlike clan,
Fib Fidach, Fotla, Fortrenn.
And this was the name of each man and their territory.\"
It is suggested that Fib would become Fife, Cait - Caithness, Fotlaig - Atholl, Cirig - Mearns, Fortenn - Menteath and Strathearn. This leaves Ce and Fidach unassigned, and two areas of Pictish settlement unnamed. Fidach may belong around the Moray Firth and Ce in the area north of Aberdeen. The name of the local mountain Benachie may contain the Ce stem.

Text by Withell Niall