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

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FIGURE 51: LOCATION OF THE ROCK ART PANELS AT GARGAMALA.
* 1.3.2.1.1 Still there are some interesting remarks to be made.
First of all it is striking how few single cupules of standard size there
are found. Moreover, there are only eight rock art panels (out of 43 in
Zone A; see Fig. 50 for the location of the Zones) that have only
single cupules and in six cases these rocks feature just one single
cupule. Site 33 in Zone C is remarkable for having a large number of
single cupules, some in distinct rows, and a number of cupules
connected to long, more or less parallel grooves, but the rest of the
rocks with cup-and-rings feature relatively few or no single cupules.
This does not mean that there are few cupules in the area. Site 10 for
example, has more than 300 cupules of really small dimensions, closely
packed and arranged in specific groups, often enclosed by ringmarks or
rectangles. Although Site 10 is quite unlike the rest, this sets the tone
for the whole Gargamala group: most cupules are below average in size
and are often arranged in specific groups and patterns or are enclosed
by grooves. Indeed, also many of the multiple ring motifs of the
Gargamala complex feature really small central cupules (Fig. 120). This
tendency can be noticed in several other rock art regions of Europe,
such as Carschenna (Fig. 67) and Tinizong in Switzerland and at many
places in the British Isles (Fig. 126). It looks as if there evolved a
general convention: the more rings there were carved around a
cupmark, the smaller this central cupule became.
M. van HOEK: 74
GEOGRAPHY