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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Stones on PD James book cover |
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gjrk 370 posts |
Edited Oct 07, 2008, 16:11
Oct 07, 2008, 15:07
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There’s not an awful lot of Irish four-posters and Fourwinds could probably put together a better list than me, but as far as I know they tend to get more ‘individual’ the further west they go - Down, Wexford, Cork and then Kerry. In Cork/Kerry the ’1 tall stone’ is usually around 3m tall. Sites like Lettergorman and Gortnacowly can look more uniform in size because the other stones in the structure are about 2m in height, but west the road (at Cappaboy Beg and Reenkilla) the accompanying stones shrink to about 1m or less - hence the overshadowing effect. Of course, to twist the picture, right between Cappaboy Beg and Gortnacowly is the site at Maughanaclea where the tallest stone is not much bigger than the others. If you can imagine each of the Cork/Kerry four-posters as a set of opposing stone pairs, placed on either side of a NE-SW line (defined by their long axes), then the tallest stone will sit in the pair on the western side of the line. To the north of the row at Maughanaclea and Cappaboy Beg and to the south at Lettergorman, Gortnacowly and Reenkilla. I probably should have used ‘Cork/Kerry’ instead of ‘Irish’ in my original response. We’re just that bit… different ;)
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Hob 4033 posts |
Oct 07, 2008, 23:54
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Reckon that the book cover artist must have been down SW Ireland then. Thanks g, I feel like I've learned something there. The whole four poster design seems to require that one stone must be differentiated from the others. The ones in my neck of the woods are similar to some of the Scottish ones, where the stones are roughly similar height, with one of the stones (usually the NE one I think) standing out by having cup marks. Not all of them mind.
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Hob 4033 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 00:04
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This is true. But I assume there must be stones in the story somewhere, else why would they have put them on the cover? (Having said that, I've got a book by one of the Deuyks of Northumberland with a nice rendering of a fox sitting on top of Old Bewick carved stone, but no mention of the stone in the story...). goffik wrote: I read the inner pages and it says the story is based in Dorset in a fictitious place. Probably fictitious stones then. I never thought of checking the text (Doh!). Looks like the artist based them on a one of these SW Irish sites, then threw a bit of artistic license in, lengthening the tall stone to give the image a bit more 'Oompf'. Or maybe it's a previously undiscovered example of the Dorset 4 poster ;)
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Stoneshifter 379 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 07:57
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Yes, we're learning about four-posters. It's a real shame that Thom didn't survey them. As EH say there's eleven in England and as I've found another two, which hasn't filtered down to them yet, then I've discovered 15% of the English examples and, I've found, I've become quite proprietorial about them. It's understandable. But that picture is probably a photomontage - the stones will exist somewhere, perhaps as a circle even, but just not in that setting. The Whitehouse four-poster stones have never been checked for cupmarks, despite being near the roadside and with outliers. Tot's four-poster, which has only three stones, is entirely neglected and has a low mound about fifteen metres to the east. (To put things into a more localised perspective). Neither have been properly photographed or visited by an archaeologist. Both are on their respective county SMRs!
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 08:15
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Here's one that Burl has down as a ruined five-stoner, but when you stand next to it it clearly isn't. As you can see, the left-most stone is taller than the other three: http://www.megalithomania.com/show/image/8311/Gortnatubbrid.htm This is one that Burl didn't actually visit, so he's not to blame :-) Robinstown Great in Wexford is a bit more differentiated: http://www.megalithomania.com/show/image/2152/Robinstown+Great.htm And it's hard to be sure about the one in County Down, because one of the stones has fallen: http://www.megalithomania.com/show/image/5870/Mullaghmore.htm but these are all just 50cm or so high. The lovely one in Kerry that's on an island is quite tall like Lettergorman. I always thought that the Scottish ones were like the Cork/Kerry ones and had a very imposing height.
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gjrk 370 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 13:56
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Thanks Hob, I don't think that I've ever been credited with that before!
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gjrk 370 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 14:09
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Thanks Fourwinds. I knew that I'd read something from you about four-posters lately, you know, about the one taller stone, but I should have checked back at your website to refresh my memory. You look spot-on there at Gortnatubbrid. Was the taller stone at the SW?
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Hob 4033 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 20:20
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FourWinds wrote: I always thought that the Scottish ones were like the Cork/Kerry ones and had a very imposing height. Aye? I thought they were stumpies like the ones I've seen. Mebbe they're regional differences. Either way, it seems Scots four-posters don't have the tall stone thing going on. I bet Tiompan will know (hint hint, if you're out there Mr C...)
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 21:37
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Hob wrote: FourWinds wrote: I always thought that the Scottish ones were like the Cork/Kerry ones and had a very imposing height. Aye? I thought they were stumpies like the ones I've seen. Mebbe they're regional differences. Either way, it seems Scots four-posters don't have the tall stone thing going on. I bet Tiompan will know (hint hint, if you're out there Mr C...) Hi Hob , just back from a few days up north , no four posters where I was though . Most Scots four posters are in my area Angus /Perthshire and are generally dumpy ,the one at Strone Hill is so samll you would ahve a job getting a nuclear family in it never mind a bronze age one . There is not much grading but tallest is likely to be south or east much the same for the rockart . Much the same seems to apply elsewher e.g. Druid's Altar, Yorkshire, the tallest at SE . But certainly nothing like the book cover .
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Oct 08, 2008, 22:02
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gjrk wrote: Was the taller stone at the SW? Er .... no :-) Which surprised me at the time. There's always one isn't there!
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