Pictish women are poorly served by the written record, which is sparse for the Picts generally and tends, where it exists, to focus on kings, warriors, and ecclesiastical figures. Work associated with the Northern Picts Project at the University of Aberdeen has contributed to growing evidence that Pictish women were active participants in community life - buried with care, sometimes with grave goods indicating status, commemorated in ways that suggest that they were valued members of their communities.

The ancient DNA research arising from Pictish cemetery sites, including Lundin Links, has also complicated older assumptions about their social organisation: the idea that the Picts practised matrilineal succession, passed down through generations of historians, is refuted by the genetic evidence.

What the evidence does support is a picture of women who lived, worked, and were buried in cemeteries alongside the men of their communities. Their individual lives remain largely out of reach, which makes the recent osteological and biomolecular research, including by the Visible Disabilities team, even more valuable.