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Rock Art Mystery
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Kozmik_Ken
Kozmik_Ken
829 posts

Re: What!
Oct 11, 2003, 11:34
>I think if location is all there is to go on then the implications of >rock art tending to be out of the valley settlements and near to >transport routes should be looked at, and to me this spells an >earlier origin in the nomadic period.

Using the Ilkley Moor carvings (the ones I know the best) as an example, many of the carving cling to an old trade route across the northern edge of the moor and have strong associations with the nearby settlement and cairn fields. The settlement has been excavated and dated as in use from around 7000bce, and through the Bronze Age.

In this area, at that time, there were no settlements down in the valley. The settlements and routes were on the hills to avoid the boggy ground below (the remains of a post glacial lake).

>and ladders!

The only known rock art featuring ladders comes from this area too. The Panorama Stone and the Barmishaw Stone (Barm-i-shaw means spirit in the woods).

My own personal thoughts are that there is no single, definitive meaning for rock art. It probably had multiple uses depending on it's location and design, including funery purposes, fertility, local spirits, ancestoral rememberance and probably a whole heap more.
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Re: What! (nigelswift)
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