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

site proves to be located (on purpose ?) in a shallow depression with
rather limited views, whereas other outcrops on this hill would have
yielded far better vantage points. For that reason I claim that
intervisibility was no longer a major goal of the siting of rock art when
this complex set was executed.
* 1.2.1.2.4.3 A simple cupmarked rock indicates the line from
Cairnbaan to Dunamuck. Although Bradley indicates Dunamuck as simple
(1997: 122), there proved to exist a complex site after all (Fig. 4;
inset B). This confusion may be due to the reporting of a simple site in
this area in 1985 (RCHAM.S 1988), whereas the complex site was
discovered only in 1993 (Van Hoek 1994) when I checked the routetheory
in the field. Bradley aligns Dunamuck onto Cairnbaan, but
because of high rocky knolls north and SW of Dunamuck 2, there is no
visibility of Cairnbaan from the complex site at all, nor are sites 4, 5,
6 and 7 on an exactly straight line as suggested in his sketch (Fig. 4;
inset A).
At first sight it seems as if Dunamuck represents a case where
intervisibility has been based on a complex site. It is interesting to
note, however, that Dunamuck 2 represents a good example of
respecting previously carved simple glyphs. The smooth outcrop
features ten single random cupules and, at the centre of the group, a
number of more complex glyphs (Fig. 4, inset B). The outer rings of
glyphs A and B are more crudely pocked out in broad bands respecting
glyphs C and D and differing quite a bit from the inner rings that are
more carefully engraved. Glyph E, the only complex glyph (!),
represents a cup-and-one-ring surrounded by a hybrid spiral, possibly
added later as well. Again there is ample space on this outcrop, and on
many other smooth but undecorated outcrops nearby, but still one
preferred to execute grooves around existing figures. Therefore, it is
highly probable that when this site was chosen for its alignment on
Kilmichael Glassary, it started off as a simple site. This seems to be
paralleled at Eurach (Fig. 13.A) where the apparent addition of only
one set of three superficial concentric rings to one of the sixty
cupules on this outcrop knoll, made it a complex site.
* 1.2.1.2.4.4 The pattern of establishing intervisibility by
selecting special rocks is repeated at Kilmichael Glassary. Here, three
or four decorated rocks are situated on a terrace at an altitude of 35
m and below and SE of a cliff of 40 m high. From the main site huge
outcrops extend roughly 180 m to the SW, where they reach an altitude
of 20 m, but on the suitable visible parts no carvings are found. It
again is striking that only from the main petroglyphic site, which
comprises simple petroglyphs, including some remarkable keyhole
designs (Fig. 103), there is a fine view up and down the route, whereas
from the undecorated outcrops to the SW it is impossible to see the
sites at Torbhlaran (one decorated outcrop is just visible behind the
M. van HOEK: 28
GEOGRAPHY