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

� CHAPTER 1.5.3 �
DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS IN NORWAY
� INTRODUCTION �
In Norway there actually is only one really significant concentration of
cup-and-ring art. It is found on the rugged west coast in the Hordaland
Region “near” the town of Bergen (Fig. 101). This is an area with an
enormous amount of islands and rocky islets as well as deeply
penetrating fjords with impressive steep walls. Here we find more than
75 % of all cup-and-rings in Norway. Most of the other Norwegian cupand-ring
motifs are found in the Østfold region bordering Bohuslän,
Sweden (Fig. 91).
In the Hordaland Region cup-and-rings prove to be even more densely
concentrated as 82 % of the cup-and-rings in this Region is found in
the Etne district; 24 % of all Scandinavian examples ! These cup-andrings
near Etne are found
at just five spots; four
sites bearing complex art
(cupules with three rings
gapped ?
ore more). In the rest of
Hordaland six other cupand-ring
sites occur, more
or less concentrated along
the Hardangerfjorden and
its southern tributary, the
FIG. 102: PART OF BAKKE 1. Sorfjorden (Fig. 101). In
this large area only the
rock art site at Bakke 1 (Fig. 102; see also Fig. 145) includes complex
art (Mandt Larsen 1972).
The whole of Hordaland moreover has a large number of iconic
engravings, mainly boats and human figures, as well as a remarkable
concentration of rocks with only random cupules and some connecting
grooves (Mandt Larsen 1972). Such cupules are found very near the
coast, but also rather far inland, for instance near Voss (Fig. 101).
In many cases these cupules are rather
deep and large compared with the
Swedish cupules and look more like the
examples from the British Isles
(compare with similar cupules at
Kilmichael, Argyll, Scotland – Fig. 103).
FIG. 103: KILMICHAEL, SCOTLAND.
M. van HOEK: 130
GEOGRAPHY