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

* 1.1.2 THE LIMITS OF THE SUBJECT *
Nowadays it is almost impossible to write a scientific work without
limiting oneself, as the risk of offering too many data in a disorderly
manner is too big. Therefore, I limit myself to one specific field in
rock art, the abstract group of petroglyphs of the so called cup-andring
art in Europe, comprising mostly circular motifs carved out of
natural rock surfaces. The great majority belongs to the Neolithic
period; the New Stone Age. This brings me to the issue of the dating.
* 1.1.2.1 The dating of this specific art form is still
controversial. Unfortunately, for European petroglyphs there is no
absolute dating available. To my knowledge, only one cupule in Europe
has been tentatively dated by microerosion analysis, and this example,
from the Rupe Magna, Valtellina, Italy, turned out to be executed or at
least re-worked in the historical period (Bednarik 1997: 18). It is
almost imperative to obtain absolute dates for European cupules and
cup-and-rings (for instance by way of microerosion analysis) in order to
establish a sound chronology for European rock art.
By the end of 1980 most researchers were convinced that cup-and-ring
art was mainly a Bronze Age feature. This assumption was mainly based
on rather circumstantial evidence, like the scant occurrence of cupand-ring
slabs in British Bronze Age burial cists. This theory was
increasingly attacked (Burgess 1990) and up to date most scholars
accept a Late Neolithic date for these engravings. However, I for one
am convinced that cup-and-ring art slowly evolved from very early
simple random cupules (for an example see Fig. 78) to sophisticated
sets of skilfully engraved multiple rings (for an example see Fig. 126).
In my opinion, cupules would then have been introduced to the Atlantic
seaboard of Western Europe by the end of the Mesolithic,
approximately 6000 BC, whereas the florescence of the big sets of
concentric rings took place in the later part of the Neolithic, around
3000 BC, coinciding with the upheaval of the megalithic art in Ireland.
In the final stages of the Neolithic I assume that the radial groove
was introduced; a line from the centre leading out of the cup-and-ring.
It is almost certain that with the introduction of the Bronze Age the
cup-and-ring art tradition went extinct. Thus a period of about 4000
years (from 6000 BC to 2000 BC) limits the era of the cupule tradition
and the cup-and-ring tradition in western Europe. If you wish to read
more about the chronology and dating of cup-and-ring art first, you
may care to read a section in Chapter 3.
* 1.1.2.2 The most characteristic element of cup-and ring art
and probably also the oldest surviving motif (see, however, Bednarik
1996) is the cupule (Fig. 41), also called cupmark or cup. These
petroglyphs comprise small bowl-shaped depressions ground or chiselled
out of the rock, ranging from 1 to 10 cm and averaging 5 cm in diameter
and about 0.5 to 10 cm deep (larger depressions are called basins).
M. van HOEK: 5
GEOGRAPHY