The School’s Dr Martin Sweatman has decoded a system of Pictish symbols and revealed its link with other symbol systems used by ancient civilisations across the world. Dr Sweatman, who is a Reader in Chemical Engineering in the School, had previously used his scientific training to decode an early zodiacal system found across western Eurasia, from European Palaeolithic caves to sites in Turkey, Egypt and Mesopotamia. He has now gone one step further by linking Pictish symbols to this system.