Maarten van Hoek The Geography of Cup-and-Ring ... - StoneWatch

escarpment and only there we find animal
carvings. Their position seems to express a
sort of wishful thinking in a hunting ritual.
One animal figure is situated on a steeply
sloping part below the fine cup-and-nine-rings
and could only have been executed and
properly viewed while standing on a narrow,
often slippery ledge, dangerously close to the
escarpment. The photo (Fig. 70) also shows
the difference in depth between ringmarks,
the animal and the zigzag groove.
Further E and in similar positions
are more animals, one with part of its head
FIG. 70: ROCK II.
superimposed upon a cup-and-two-rings (Fig.
69; inset 2, where this configuration is illustrated only seemingly upside-down;
it is the actual position in respect to the escarpment just
north of it). All these animal carvings have deliberately been executed
very near the escarpment, whereas there is ample unused space
elsewhere on the outcrop (Chapter 2.2.4).
Also important is the keyhole figure at rock II (Fig. 71). A rather
lightly pecked cup-and-three rings features a very small central cupule
and a shallow radial groove at 5 o’clock.
Almost touching this glyph are two
deeply carved broad grooves with
rather sharp edges that are not in line
with the radial groove, distinctly added
later and creating a so-called degraded
keyhole.
Carschenna is dramatically situated on
a long rocky escarpment, high above
the valley. The view from Carschenna is
impressive, though not unequalled.
There are no impressive peaks to be
seen and no prominent landmarks. It
overlooks the surprisingly flat valley
floor of the Lower Rhine to the north.
Yet there does not exist intervisibility
with any other cup-and-ring site, as the
nearest is at Tinizong, 15 km to the SE.
FIG. 71: KEYHOLE AT ROCK II.
* 1.4.1.2.3.1 The last area to be discussed is Wallis in
Switzerland. There are more than 3500 cupmarks in this area but only
one site has multiple ringmarks. At St. Leonard (16 in Fig. 58), at an
altitude of 550 m, are found more than 200 cupmarks on an outcropping
M. van HOEK: 98
GEOGRAPHY