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

“....but 3 is special. It is one of the most important rocks because it
has been quarried in prehistoric times as well as more recently.”
(1998: 35; emphasis mine). Then the authors give a short description of
the petroglyphs carved on two levels of the rock, followed by an even
more surprising remark: “This is a rare example, noted on two sites in
Northumberland, of the removal in prehistoric times of decorated rock
(for transfer to a monument ?) and the “re-sanctification” of that
rock.” (1998: 37; emphasis mine). We already noticed however (Chapter
2.2), that “re-sanctification” actually has been a normal practice
within the cup-and-ring tradition.
What struck me most, was the complete absence of doubt about the
prehistoric quarrying and “re-sanctification” in these statements. This
is the more remarkable, as the brief description did not offer any
evidence that would confirm prehistoric quarrying and “resanctification”.
Surprisingly the book did not offer a photograph of the
rock, essential for such an alleged
important find, and only one sketch
of the stone was included,
unfortunately without stating which
part had been quarried in
prehistory and which part in recent
times. Also no depth-dimensions of
the removed parts were given and
the south edge of the drawing was
obscured (Fig. 139).
A strong argument in general
against the practice of “resanctification”
as presented by
Beckensall and Laurie, is the fact
that there proved to be only an
extremely small number of possible
instances of prehistoric quarrying
and “re-sanctification” in Britain,
Ireland or any other cup-and-ring
region in Europe. Beckensall &
Laurie mention only two sites in
northern England and only at one
important site near Glasgow,
Scotland, MacKie & Davis claim
FIG. 139: GAYLES MOOR 3.
prehistoric quarrying and “resanctification”
(not using this term, however). However, in all these
three cases there should have emerged question-marks. To my
knowledge there are no other cup-and-ring sites in Europe claimed to
have been quarried and ”re-sanctified” in prehistoric times and
therefore only these three British sites will be discussed here.
M. van HOEK: 173
GEOGRAPHY