The Pictish Symbol Stones are a collection of finely carved stones dating from ca. 300 AD to 843 AD whose meaning has been lost in time. Despite attracting linguists and historians alike, as a collection they have been just too small to surrender their secrets. Now, however, Rob Lee, Philip Jonathan and Pauline Ziman have used a technique based on comparative entropy to unwrap some of the mystery of the stones. © 2010 The Royal Statistical Society.