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Theories on 'cup and ring marks'
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fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo
2709 posts

Re: Theories on 'cup and ring marks'
Mar 27, 2008, 10:21
12pointer wrote:
I'm looking for different theories on what the 'cup and ring marks' mean.
i refuse to believe they represent the circle of life, or whatever...
Cairnbaan in Scotland, for instance looks more like a star chart.
What about, that they represent tree rings, i.e. numbers, or recording a chieftans years of rule by carving them into an eternal forest record in rock...
Do you think that in the 'cups' there used to be something? a quartz pebble? and the rings show its Aura at full moon.
Someone said to me they are found around gold and copper deposits, ancient geological markers?

Anyone else got some theories? I want to crack this mystery!


Hiya 12
Without knowlege of the cosmologies of the people who created the carvings we are more or less scratching around in the dark.
We can use anthropology to some extent by looking at cultures who still create carvings such as the San, the Australian Aboriginal tribes, the Zunis etc but you soon realise that even these people cannot decode their own tribes ancient carvings.
So what we're left with is the study of the relationships between the carvings and the landscape, the relationships between carvings and with other monuments, other carvings, trackways, natural features and so on.
There are many things we can say about the carvings but you more or less have to accept that, along with so many other aspects of prehistoric life, their specific meaning is lost. With rock art as with so much else, you generally leave a site with far more questions than answers.
However all is not lost, just because we cannot attribute a specific meaning to the carvings doesn't mean we can't speculate, you'll find most rock art enthusiasts stay pretty much swiss when it comes to meaning but get a beer or two into them and there's usually a theory or two lurking in the back of their mind.
cheers
fitz
In reply to:
Theories on 'cup and ring marks' (12pointer)		 Replies:
Re: Theories on 'cup and ring marks' (StoneGloves)
Re: Theories on 'cup and ring marks' (Intuit147)
Re: Theories on 'cup and ring marks' (Intuit147)
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