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

argue that all these sites command extensive views into the lower
ground of the San Francisco valley (1995: 357), this definitely is not
true for the site at O Cruceiro, which moreover is located on the wrong
spot on their map; it should be situated at least 300 m further east
(Fig. 36). O Cruceiro is a most extensive and steeply south sloping
outcrop area, where only one cup-and-three-rings was reported.
Inspection of the site, however, revealed at least two more single
cupules. From O Cruceiro, on top of a cliff and directly high above the
beach, the other sites are definitely invisible, but there is a splendid
view of the beach of San Francisco and the Louro peninsula with its
distinct solitary hill. This resembles the situation at Mogor near
Pontevedra, where a major cup-andring
site overlooks a most accessible
sandy beach, but also many sites in
Scotland similarly overlook beaches or
small bays suitable as landing places
(Monreith and Garlieston in Galloway;
Ardifur and Poltalloch in Argyll).
The distribution pattern in these two
valleys (Ia and Ib) indeed seems to
indicate that prehistoric people
approached the Muros peninsula from
the south; possibly in two flows (Fig.
48). The coastline north of Muros town
is rather muddy and is rather
inaccessible, especially at ebb. Several
FIG. 48: ROUTES I – II. beaches on the Muros peninsula
however, are most suitable as landing
place, but probably because of the more sheltered character the
beaches at Louro and especially San Francisco were favoured, whereas
the more exposed beaches of Lariño and Carnota (Fig. 35) were
ignored. There is for instance, no rock art in the valley NE of the
beach at Lariño. Bradley, Criado & Fábregas moreover argue (1995:
354) that “if the rock carvings really formed part of a territorial
system, we might expect them to be located around particular
resources”. As the valley NE of Lariño differs not much in character
from the valleys of Louro and San Francisco, it is more than strange
that there is no rock art in this valley.
Beyond the arc of rock art sites at San Francisco no circular
petroglyphs have been recorded until one reaches the head of the
valley. There, a most prominent outcrop stack marks the site of the
Laxa da Rodas, which bears one of the most interesting collection of
petroglyphs of the whole peninsula. Together with the cupmarked rocks
newly reported by Bradley, Criado & Fábregas, it marks the pass
M. van HOEK: 69 GEOGRAPHY