When was this stone carved? Is it possible to be a little more specific than Prehistory, Stone - or Bronze Age?
Hardly! Why? Because:
- The absence of datable artifacts on or near the rock art sites
-The re-use of carved stones in Bronze Age funeral settings
In that case; is it possible to give a rough time bracket? Sure! Time Chart by Maarten van Hoek
The Beginning
The Beginning; the Dalladies Cup-marked Slab
Above
you see an image of a cup-marked slab, found during the excavation of
the Dalladies long-barrow (NO 627673) in Fettercairn, Kincardineshire,
NE Scotland. This long-barrow was excavated in 1971 by Mr Stuart
Piggott. The sandstone slab (46x42cm) with 8 cup marks on the upper and
a faint one on the other side, was found on the 'land-level' of the
mortuary structure. In the same layer a plano-convex flint knife was
found. The stone was covered with the remains of probably a former roof
of Birch bark. This material could be dated by the C-14 radiocarbon
method. Although there were some differences in the outcome
of different research efforts, Stuart Piggott concludes that Dalladies
long-barrow can be properly dated at 3390BC. The
cup-marked stone must have been inserted around that time and that
makes it the only really well dated example. An full account of the
excavation and dating procedures can be found in the "Proceedings of
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland", Volume 104 (1971-1972), page
23.
The End
The End; Nether Largie North Cairn Slabs, Axes over Cups! (photo: May,2002)
At
the Nether Largie North Cairn (NR 830 984), in Argyll, Scotland, there
is a large cist capstone with cup-markings superimposed by axes. These
axes are (status?) symbols of the Bronze Age. The fact that they were
pecked over the cups may mean that the cups were not longer relevant to
the Bronze Age people. The Bronze Age is a technological stage between
the Stone and the Iron Ages, beginning in the Middle East about 4.500BC
and lasting in Britain from about 2000 to 500BC. So around 2000BC
the cup-and-ring motifs had lost there significance. This is of course
a very rough guess. While the cups in Argyll were superimposed by
axes, it is possible that a stone carver in Northumberland just started
a new cup-and-ring motif. Nevertheless, we have defined our time
bracket:
The open-air, abstract Rock Art Era in Britain:
3500-2000BC
So now we have our time-bracket answer, a lot of questions remain:
- How was it possible that the specific abstract style was sustained over the ages?
- How many times did the meaning of the motifs change?
- Why are there but a few concrete carvings (deer, hands)?
- Were carvers not tempted to create an image of a tree, a face or an animal?
- Who controlled the discipline?
- How?
A cup and four rings with outrunning groove.
It looks like the one on Weetwood Moor, Northumberland.
This one is in my backyard and datable!
The motif was chiseled out of a grave stone by my good neighbour
and amateur mason Ruud Uhl in 1999.
For further online info on dating methods you may go to:
Robert G. Bednarik's comprehensive pages on Rock Art Dating