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

FIG. 164: A: GERUM; B: JATTEBERGET.
engraving, there is a strange animal featuring
a crude ring as a head with faint traces of a
central depression (Fig. 164.A) – a cup-andring
? More convincing examples are found at
Jatteberget, Dalsland, together with a single
tailed cup-and-one-ring (Fig. 164.B), but these
examples possibly all are Bronze Age (re-)
inventions.
In conclusion, it is obvious that in Scandinavia
an intentional link between animal figures and
cup-and-rings never developed. However,
another motif, the cross-in-circle, also
occurring in Galician rock art, is often interpreted as a sun symbol in
rock art, especially in Scandinavia (Kaul 1998), where we find numerous
examples, such as the horse dragging a sun disc at Kalleby (Fig.
156.2).
The similarity between some of these Scandinavian scenes and Galician
examples is striking. Galician cross-in-circles are for instance found
hovering above an animal engraving at A Escada IV (Fig. 156.11). At
Laxe da Rotea de Mendo a (secondary ?) cross-in-circle occurs well
inside the outline of the large stag (Fig. 165) and a smaller stag on the
same outcrop features a cross-in-circle (Fig. 156.9)
in a similar position as at stag A at Os Carballos.
Therefore, it is equally possible that the four radials
at stag A at Os Carballos have been added to an
existing cup-and-ring (Fig. 161.1-2-3) because the
manufacturer of the animal, or even a later visitor,
interpreted the circular motif as a solar symbol and
changed it into a cross-in-circle in agreement with
his own culture.
FIG. 165: LAXE DA ROTEA DE MENDO.
� THE STAG AND THE POOL �
We have seen that the smaller cup-and-ring from Lombo da Costa
XXVIII could be interpreted as a solar motif (Chapter 2.2). But the
whole scene could also be seen as deer eating the bark and leaves from
a tree, as they do in normal life. Another interpretation is given by
Vázquez (1998: 53) who tentatively suggests that the stag could be
seen as an animal drinking from, for instance, a pool, and, in the case
M. van HOEK: 206
GEOGRAPHY