Scota

Ralph Ellis — author of Cleopatra to Christ: Jesus Was the Great Grandson of Cleopatra — claims to present in Scota, Egyptian Queen of the Scots new proof for the old theory that a pharaoh's daughter and her husband, a Greek king, emigrated to Scotland circa way back when.

Mel Gibson Isn't Moronic, He's Pharaonic 2006

As he shows, a number of chroniclers, such as John of Fordun, Walter Bower and particularly Hector Boece, peddled as fact a story they knew to be fiction: That of a fabulous lineage of 40 Scottish kings dating all the way back to "Scota," the peripatetic daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, whose descendants supposedly arrived in Scotland in 333 B.C.

Checkered Tartan Bill Coles 2008

Which is probably just as well, as 'Scota' looks so obvious a back-formation made up to explain the name of the Scots.

Kingdom of the Ark, by Lorraine Evans. Book review Carla 2007

The Bower chronicle says that the followers of Scota settled for a while in Spain and built “….a very strong tower, encircled by deep ditches, in the middle of the settlement….”, and the author suggests that the motillas are these towers.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007

And Bower specifically says that Scota fled “…from plagues that were to come,” whereas the plagues documented at Amarna happened before Meritaten disappeared from the records – i.e., Bower would seem to have got the events the opposite way round.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007

The label Picts had presuambly gone out of use and been replaced by Scotland for all practical purposes by 1435, or there'd have been no need to make up an origin legend about an Egyptian princess called Scota.

The Picts (or Cruithne, or Albans): What's in a name? Carla 2007

As Scota is not an Egyptian name, the first task for the author is to identify a plausible candidate princess from surviving Egyptian records.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007

In ancient times Scota, the daughter of pharaoh, left Egypt with her husband Gaythelos by name and a large following.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007

On the strength of this, she identifies Meritaten as ‘Scota’.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007

Having suggested that Scota might be an alternative name for Meritaten, the author then looks for evidence that Meritaten/Scota travelled from Egypt to Britain and/or Ireland as recounted in the Walter Bower manuscript.

Archive 2007-08-01 Carla 2007