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

* 2.2.1.1.1 GAYLES MOOR *
Site B3 on Gayles Moor is a small rock exposed for 110 by 55 cm and
has two levels that are decorated. Clearly one part of the rock has
been removed (stippled on Fig. 139). Although the size of the removed
part is not too small to suggest prehistoric quarrying (for the use as a
cist slab ?), this is not at all certain. The removal could namely also
have been caused by the execution of the petroglyphs causing the
already friable rock to flake off. It is nonetheless remarkable, that
after the removal of the piece, whether accidental on intentional, one
decided to execute a new design on the newly exposed surface.
Even when the piece was quarried on purpose, it remains doubtful
whether the art is an example of “re-sanctification”. This is a matter
of chronology and of semantics. The re-decoration could have taken
place immediately after the piece was removed in which case there is
no question of “re-sanctification”. Alternatively, the new motifs could
have been executed a long period after the rock was quarried and only
then this event just possibly could be interpreted as a sort of “resanctification”,
but again, I consider this to be a normal practice in
the cup-and-ring tradition.
There is another problem, however. If quarrying indeed took place, it
must have had a reason. It is therefore suggested that the “quarried”
parts were intended for monuments such as burial cists. However, not a
single decorated stone has yet been recorded to be incorporated into
the few burial monuments in the Gayles Moor area. Although low cairns
have been reported in the vicinity, there is only one cupuled stone
found near such a burial, the Stoneman Cairn. Also, there are some
loose decorated stones in the area, but none of these is a suitable
candidate for the removed slab at Gayles Moor B3.
* 2.2.1.1.2 NORTH PLANTATION *
Further north, in Northumberland, is a flat topped hill, called
Weetwood, on which several clusters of mostly complex rock art are
found on sandstone outcrops bordering and overlooking two small lakes
on top of the hill and a small stream flowing east from them.
Consequently two linear arrangements of rock art sites developed. One
runs across Weetwood Moor Ridge towards Fowberry. The other runs
from Whitsunbank Hill via North Plantation to Fowberry. Each group
features a cairn that contained a large number of loose decorated
rocks, but no burial. Cairn B was placed upon a heavily decorated
outcrop area at the end of the North Plantation. Another decorated
sandstone outcrop (marked SITE in Fig. 140) in the same Plantation
features a panel which is engraved with much weathered motifs. What
remained unnoticed for a long time, because of the covering earth and
leaves, was that a corner of the outcrop features a rectangular
M. van HOEK: 174
GEOGRAPHY