Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

It is an interesting stone isn't it? The other take on it is that the cup marks may represent star constellations. Speculation about 'religious' practices is just that - speculation. However,I think it is fairly safe to say ancient peoples marked the turning of the year (solstices/equinoxes) and studied the constellations - which would have been so very much more visible to the naked eye than in general today.

http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/11/2010/standing-stone-cup-marks-may-represent-star-constellations

The interesting and informative aspect is that the abstract rock art of Britain doesn't appear to represent constellations or the night sky at all . We might expect it to and should really be able to squeeze some sort of "possible" representation out of the the huge number of possibilities but none are convincing .

Yes I agree even though it is a tantilising concept. What does bug me though, is if Joe Public comes up with some of these ideas they are sneered at, yet if a 'name' suggests the possibility it is seriously considered it would seem! Or am I wrong there?

I think your'e right . It reminds of me of last years foot ,spiral , and fish iirc being found at Forteviot when it was obviously nothing of the kind but still a really interesting example of rock art , by gilding the lily they spoilt it .Now they don't even mention it . In this case they havn't presented any evidence yet . There are so many problems ,Imentioned a few of them elsewhere so please exscuse the copy ."Looking forward to the drawings .It will be a first if it is as promised .My guess is that it is more likely a case of apophenia .Some problems that come to mind from the limited amount of info . Orion has 7 stars Cassio 5 Sirius and the pole star gives a total of 14 from 70 .Do the remainder fit ? If Sirius is there where is Aldebaran , the belt points to both , Procion and Rigel are also prominent around Orion , are they also missing ? At the time of build of Portal tombs the pole star was Thuban which was quite faint , would it really have been viewed as important enough to mark and is there a relationship between magnitude and size of cup (Frankie Howard )? "They mention a section of the sky when Thuban to Orion are pretty much half of the entire horizon .

Very interesting Tiompan; I am guessing that you may in touch with people like Professor George Nash because of the rock art connection. He much surely know the same facts as you have stated above - why do you think conjecture such as 'constellation map' and 'ritual way-mark' have been made when they are ultimately misleading to anyone who has on one hand a keen interest, possibly his own students, though on the other a limited knowledge of astronomy (the ritual/religious aspect is anyone's guess).

At least I've learnt the meaning of apophenia = the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. Term was coined by K. Conrad in 1958 (Brugger).

The constellation stuff is attributable to nameless "astronomers " TJJ and that is the bigger mistake as it is refutable . If archaeologists accept what they say in relation to the slightly more technical aspect and ignore the obvious i.e. you could find anything among these points/cups plus a history of similar failed attempts then thats their problem .The ritual way marker is just conjecture as you say , you could discuss it forever it's just a matter of opinion but it's not really in the same league as ordered architecture like avenues ,passages and entrances , it is after all a collapsed capstone not a standing stone .In it's original state it would have functioned to a greater extent as an ordering architectural feature .