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

the standard size (although they vary in size) and appear randomly
distributed across the rock surface (Fig. 88). They also often are
accidentally associated or superimposed by iconic figures (Fig. 153).
The great majority of the Scandinavian cupules, however, are smaller
and more uniform and often appear in rows or other configurations,
such as rosettes (Fig. 153). But which of these two types of cupules is
possibly related to the Neolithic cup-and-ring tradition ?
Although, unfortunately, up to date there has not been any efforts to
obtain absolute dating for any of the European cup-and-rings, I still
would like to suggest here that in Scandinavia especially rows of well
organised small and uniform cupules are of the Bronze Age, whereas
randomly executed cupules of varying sizes, like Stöle in Norway (Fig.
88), most likely are much older and probably Neolithic.
The chronological distinction between random cupules of standard sizes
and smaller but organised cupules postulated here, may also be noted in
the rock art elsewhere in the world. In Britain and especially in
Galloway, Scotland, there are many instances where smaller cupules may
be later than the standard cupules (Van Hoek 1995) and similar
situations occur in Spain (Van Hoek 1998: 103). An account of a
cupmarked boulder at Keep River, Australia, also seems to confirm the
later nature of small cupules superimposed upon considerably larger
cupules (McNickle 1991: 44-45). It may be significant that McNickle
reports these small cupules also to appear on the vertical sides and
that these are regularly spaced.
A recent research project in central Bolivia yielded most interesting
information about relative cupule dating in this respect. At Inca Huasi,
both a prominent quartzite dyke and an adjacent slope of much softer
sandstone are covered with petroglyphs. All those on the quartzite
dyke proved to be much older than the petroglyphs on the sandstone.
Important within the scope of this paper, is that the dyke is densely
packed with large numbers of randomly distributed cupules only,
whereas the petroglyphs on the sandstone comprise several grooves,
cup-and-rings and single cupules that “are usually arranged to form
linear sets” (Bednarik 2000: my emphasis). Although no clear
distinction in size was made between the two spatially separated sets
of cupules (the dyke-cupules ranged between 3 cm and 15 cm and may
be considered to belong to the standard type), Bednarik interestingly
speaks of “the early cupule tradition” as opposed to “the later
petroglyph tradition” on the sandstone slope. I would not at all be
surprised if the linear cupules at Inca Huasi turn out to be originally
more uniform in size and smaller than the random cupules on the dyke
(see Van Hoek 2000c). The salient point is now, that the younger
petroglyph tradition produced linear arrangements of cupules.
These instances mainly concern individual rock art sites. In Scandinavia
however, especially in Sweden, the two different types of cupules
M. van HOEK: 115
GEOGRAPHY