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

* 1.4.1.1.2 Although the Alps are rich in cupules of many periods,
it is striking to notice how few cupules are actually ringed in the cupand-ring
tradition. A striking anomaly, however, is that in this “empty”
area the richest cup-and-ring site of Europe, Carschenna, is found.
Switzerland, the country with the greatest concentration of cup-andrings
in the Alpine region, has more than 17300 cupules, but only 2.4 %
is surrounded by rings. The Trentino region on the contrary, has only
3300 cupules and a mere 0.2 % is ringed. Therefore, the percentage
for the whole of the Alpine region will probably average around 0.4 %,
against 14.1 % for the British Isles !
Consequently, the number of multiple rings (two or more rings) is very
small and cupules with five rings or more are even extremely rare. They
only occur at two sites in
Switzerland (1 and 2 in Fig.
58) and at one site in the
Valcamonica (8 in Fig. 58).
The cup-and-five ring at
Valcenischia (22 in Fig. 58)
in the western Alps is a
doubtful example and most
likely comprises a cupule
FIG. 61: VALCENISCHIA.
with four rings which
became surrounded at a
later stage by a set of grooves, giving the impression of a fifth ring
(Fig. 61). The distribution of (Alpine) cupules with five or more rings
will be fully discussed in Chapter 2.1.
* 1.4.1.1.3 The third discrepancy between the Alps and the
Atlantic region is that the Alpine area includes sites with dot-andcircle
motifs that do not belong to the Neolithic cup-and-ring
tradition. I already mentioned the cupules surrounded by clearly
incised circles at Luine (10 in Fig. 58) and Bedolina (9) in the
Valcamonica. But also the few examples among the enormous
concentration of mostly iconic rock art motifs of Monte Bego (24)
cannot be considered as true cup-and-rings. First of all, there do not
exist true cupules at Monte Bego; all cup-like motifs have been very
superficially executed. Moreover, such cup-like motifs are very scarce
and there are only found about 14 “cupules” with surrounding rings
(including some very doubtful examples). This is only 0.04 % of the
total of 32382 rock art motifs of this high mountain area. Most
important, however, is the fact that the great majority of the Monte
Bego motifs can safely be ascribed to the Bronze Age, whereas true
cupules and cup-and-rings mainly are Neolithic.
M. van HOEK: 91
GEOGRAPHY