>but that doesn't mean that the indigenous people were exterminated there or anywhere else<

>so i still have to go with the possibility of a friendly and gradual adoption of Viking culture<

Both of the above I am inclined to believe in general terms but
I also believe that for whatever reason, in the case of Orkney, the indigenous Picts were subject to ethnic cleansing.

I can think of no other reason why 99% plus of place names in the Orcades are of Norse origin.

In the Americas and Australasia, for example, although a good deal of genocide took place in the colonization of these lands by Europeans there are still a vast amount of place names attributed to the language of the indigenous people. In the case of Orkney this has not happened. There is a complete lack of anything not of Norse origin. This is the only place in these islands that this has happened. I can see no other reason for this than there were none of the original habitants left on the Orkneys to pass on local information.

However, I am open to reason, and would welcome suggestions as to how this could have come about without a mass annihilation of the local inhabitants.

FTC