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

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idge called Crete des Barmes, only some 25 m above the valley floor <strong>of</strong><br />

the river Rhône. <strong>The</strong>re are very many <strong>of</strong> such outcrop ridges in this<br />

area, but only one other outcrop<br />

nearby bears ten cupmarks <strong>and</strong><br />

two grooves. At Crete des<br />

Barmes, possibly up to nine cups<br />

are ringed with one or two rings<br />

(detail at Fig. 72). <strong>The</strong> ringmarks<br />

are hardly visible, being almost<br />

weathered <strong>of</strong>f completely. Also<br />

carved on this rock are crudely<br />

me<strong>and</strong>ering grooves (unlike the<br />

FIG. 72: ST. LEONARD.<br />

ones in Savoie), a footprint,<br />

squares <strong>and</strong> anthropomorphic figures from other periods; probably the<br />

Iron Age.<br />

<strong>The</strong> view from this site focuses mainly to the west <strong>and</strong> includes the<br />

three pointed hills on which the medieval town <strong>of</strong> Sion has been built.<br />

<strong>The</strong> views to the east <strong>and</strong> north are almost completely blocked. To the<br />

south however, looking across the Rhône valley, it is possible to see the<br />

entrance to the valley <strong>of</strong> Val d’Hérens, in which the biggest<br />

concentration <strong>of</strong> cup-<strong>and</strong>-rings <strong>of</strong> Wallis is found. Again it proves that<br />

entrances have been marked with petroglyphs.<br />

<strong>The</strong> entrance <strong>of</strong> this valley is moreover marked by a number <strong>of</strong><br />

cupmarked rocks near Vex <strong>and</strong> Nax <strong>and</strong> further west, at Nendaz (18 in<br />

Fig. 58), there is a cupmarked rock with long grooves <strong>and</strong> possibly two<br />

incomplete rings. A long journey up the valley leads through rough<br />

terrain <strong>and</strong> only near Evolène (17 in Fig. 58) a small floodplain is<br />

reached, which stretches south for a few kilometres. At the valley<br />

floor, at 1380 m, there is (in the village <strong>of</strong> Evolène) a cup-<strong>and</strong>-groove<br />

stone, but the important group <strong>of</strong> petroglyphs is just east <strong>of</strong> the<br />

village, high up the mountain slope. <strong>The</strong><br />

two sites are completely invisible from<br />

each other because <strong>of</strong> an inaccessible<br />

high cliff. To reach the cup-<strong>and</strong>-ring site<br />

one has to follow the plain to the south<br />

<strong>and</strong> then climb the mountain northwards,<br />

although there is a steep path below Villa<br />

nowadays. Whatever route you will follow,<br />

it involves a hard climb. Minor cupmarked<br />

rocks may indicate the approach from the<br />

south; the one at Villa unfortunately has<br />

been destroyed recently. Ultimately one<br />

reaches the sites at Alp Cotter at an<br />

altitude <strong>of</strong> 1980 m. <strong>The</strong>re are nine<br />

FIG. 73: EVOLÉNE.<br />

cupmarked rocks close together at the<br />

M. <strong>van</strong> HOEK: 99<br />

GEOGRAPHY

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