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

Equally, cup-and-rings sometimes have such a specific position, that it
is most unlikely that they once were Neolithic cup-and-ring symbols,
although this never can be ruled out completely. Convincing examples
occur at Jatteberget, Dalsland, where we find circles and cup-andrings
prominently placed at the prow and stern of rather atypical boat
engravings (Fig. 147.B); “sun” symbols perhaps ? Similar figures are
found at Herrebro 7A (Fig. 147.D) and at Vese, Bohuslän, where a small
boat, carrying a large human figure (a god ? - according to Wanke 1999:
11) has cup-and-rings in more or less the same positions (Fig. 147.C).
At Lökeberg, Bohuslän (Fig. 144.A), a number of cupules seems to have
been ringed (later ?) in the Bronze Age and have been connected to two
of the vertical strokes to form keyhole cup-and-rings. Such gapped
cup-and-rings are very common in the British Isles (Van Hoek 1995a;
Van Hoek 1995b), but In Scandinavia the intentionally gapped cup-andring
motif even seems to be lacking completely (a possible example
occurs at Bakke, Norway, Fig. 102). Keyhole figures are extremely rare
in Scandinavia. A figure at Skälv 10 near Norrköping (Fig. 100.A) just
possibly may represent a keyhole motif, but another interpretation is
also possible, as we will see in Chapter 2.2.3. Another possible keyhole
is found at Stöle, near Etne (Fig. 107).
There are more intriguing combinations of boats and a cup-and-rings
near the town of Norrköping (Burenhult 1973). At several rock art
panels there are typical cup-and-ring motifs combined with cupules and
boats, for instance at Skälv 4 (Fig. 100.B) and Skälv 11A (Burenhult
1973: 167). One of the finest examples however, is found at Herrebro
8A, where we find complex cup-and-ring motifs, one incorporated into a
mixture of lines and boats (Fig. 144.D). However, some of the cup-andrings
on this panel from Herrebro may be interpreted in a completely
different way, as will be explained in Chapter 2.2.3.
M. van HOEK: 185
GEOGRAPHY