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

In many rock art regions there seems to exist a tendency to prefer a
coastal location for the execution of rock art (Burenhult 1980: 29;
Coles 1990: 43; Van Hoek 1997: 5). It is only correct however, to speak
of a real preference if indeed suitable rock surfaces exist further
inland and have been ignored in favour of coastal sites. This seems to
be the case in for instance Scandinavia, Galicia and the British Isles,
where much of the interior is bereft of rock art, despite suitable
exposures of rock. Especially in Galloway, Scotland, rock art occupies
only the first seven coastal kilometres, whereas rock surfaces continue
for several kilometres further inland, but these have been ignored
completely (Van Hoek 1995: 25-30).
Yet, it may carefully be suggested that rock art located in coastal
areas (especially near suitable landing places), may be the result of
human migration patterns across seas and oceans (Bednarik 1996). Also
cupules may well be indicators of ancient migratory routes. In some
cases it is even argued that cupules may constitute the oldest surviving
form of rock art of an area, “often immediately post-dating
colonisation” (Taçon et al 1997: 961). In this respect it is not
important whether these peoples were the very first occupants of an
area, as it will be evident that every newly arriving culture “would have
as a priority the need to make a new and unfamiliar land familiar by
constructing oral accounts of their arrival and journeys as well as by
populating the new land with spiritual beings, events, places and visual
cultural marks” (Ouzman et al 1997: 6).
Although there will be no doubt that the first immigrants to
Scandinavia had the same priority, it is unlikely that the cupule was
indeed the first manifestation of Nordic rock art. Bednarik (1996: 126)
notably argues that often cupules only seemingly represent the oldest
rock art motif, simply because they have the best chance to survive,
being the most deterioration resistant. Therefore, cupules not
necessarily will represent the oldest rock art present in every rock art
region and the possibility that, in first instance, also in Scandinavia,
paintings were applied to rocks, may not be ruled out. This seems to be
confirmed by the discovery of a small number of possible Mesolithic
paintings, for instance at Medbo, Bohuslän, Sweden (Coles 1990: 7, 73).
Yet, when flows of new peoples from the south arrived in Scandinavia
during the Neolithic, they first may have introduced the cupule as a
powerful rock art symbol. Indeed, there are Neolithic tombs in
Scandinavia, especially in Denmark (Burenhult 1980: 134) that have
cupules, for instance on their capstones, which could only have been
executed by Neolithic people. Therefore, a Neolithic dating for at
least a number of the Scandinavian cupules at open-air rock art sites
cannot be ruled out.
In this respect it is important however, that there prove to exist two
rather different types of cupules in Scandinavia. Many cupules are of
M. van HOEK: 114
GEOGRAPHY