Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:48:13.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cup and Ring Marks in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Clive Waddington
Clive Waddington
Affiliation:
Department of GeographyUniversity of NewcastleNewcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU Department of ArchaeologyUniversity of DurhamScience Laboratories Durham DH1 3LE
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The key argument presented in this article is that a threefold temporal sequence can be recognized in the deployment of cup and ring marks and that these changes can throw new light on the nature of ideological evolution in northern Britain during the Neolithic. It is proposed that the initial phase relates to the symbolic portrayal of the ideological beliefs which constituted the ‘Neolithic’ (c. 4000–3200 BC) by mapping them on the landscape via outcropping bedrock. During the second phase (c. 3200–2000 BC) the significance of this symbolism is thought to be appropriated, as it is reworked into ‘man-made’ megalithic constructions which ‘monumentalize’ the landscape under the aegis of increasingly overt human control. By the third phase (c. 2000–1800 BC) a disjuncture is apparent in both the function and meaning of the cup and ring tradition culminating in its expropriation as human control of the natural world becomes more fixed.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 1998 , pp. 29 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armitt, I., 1988. Excavations at Loch Olabhat, North Uist 1988. (3rd Interim Report Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh. Project Paper 10.) Edinburgh: Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Barber, J.W., 1978. The excavation of a holed-stone at Ballymeanoch, Kilmartin, Argyll. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 109 (1977–8), 104–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J., 1994. Fragments from Antiquity: an Archaeology of Social Life in Britain, 2900–1200 BC. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Beckensall, S., 1983. Northumberland's Prehistoric Rock Carvings. Rothbury, Northumberland: Pendulum.Google Scholar
Beckensall, S., 1991. Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland, vol. 1. Hexham, Northumberland: The Abbey Press.Google Scholar
Beckensall, S., 1992. Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland, vol. 2. Hexham, Northumberland: The Abbey Press.Google Scholar
Beckensall, S., 1996. Symbols on stone: the state of the art. Northern Archaeology 13–14 (special edition), 139–16.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1991. Rock art and the perception of landscape. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(1), 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., 1992. Turning the world: rock carvings and the archaeology of death, in Vessels for the Ancestors. Essays on the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland in Honour of Audrey Henshall, eds. Sharpies, N. & Sheridan, A.. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 168–76.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1993. Altering the Earth: the Origins of Monuments in Britain and Continental Europe. The Rhind Lectures 1991–92. (Monograph Series 8.) Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1997. Rock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe: Signing the Land. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., Harding, J., Rippon, S. & Mathews, M., 1993a. A field method for investigating the distribution of rock art. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 12(2), 129–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., Harding, J. & Mathews, J., 1993b. The siting of prehistoric rock art in Galloway, southwest Scotland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59, 269–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C., 1991. The chronology of cup and ring marks in Britain and Ireland. Northern Archaeology 10 (1989–90), 21–6.Google Scholar
Dronfield, J., 1995. Migraine, light and hallucinations: the neurocognitive basis of Irish megalithic art. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14, 261–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliade, M., 1959. The Sacred and the Profane: the Nature of Religion. Trans, by Trask, W.R.. New York (NY): Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Frodsham, P. (ed.), 1996. Neolithic Studies in No-Man's Land. Papers on the Neolithic of Northern England from the Trent to the Tweed. (Northern Archaeology Special Edition.) Newcastle Upon Tyne: Northern Archaeological Group.Google Scholar
Gaffney, V., Stančič, Z. & Watson, H., 1995. The impact of G.I.S. on archaeology: a personal perspective, in Locke & Stančič, 211–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gates, T., 1982. A long cairn on Dod Hill, Northumberland. Archaeologia Aeliana (5th series) 10, 210–11.Google Scholar
Grimes, W.F., 1948. Pentre-Ifan burial chamber, Pembrokeshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis 50, 3–23.Google Scholar
Hadingham, E., 1974. Ancient Carvings in Britain: a Mystery. London: Book Club Associates and Heinemann.Google Scholar
Harding, A., 1981. Excavations in the prehistoric ritual complex near Milfield, Northumberland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 87–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobey, G., 1968. Excavations of Cairns at Chatton Sandyford, Northumberland. Archaeologia Aeliana (4th series) 46, 5–50.Google Scholar
Latour, B., 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Locke, G. & Stančič, Z. (eds.), 1995. Archaeology and Geographical Information Systems. London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
McMann, J., 1980. Riddles of the Stone Age: Rock Carvings of Ancient Europe. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Maddison, M. & Sellers, P., 1990. A survey of Doddington and Horton Moors. Northern Archaeology 10 (1989–90), 29–75.Google Scholar
Mellars, P., 1976. Fire ecology, animal populations and man: a study of some ecological relationships in prehistory. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 42, 15–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, E., 1997. Application of an Integrated Prospection Technique over a Neolithic Droveway, Milfield, Northumberland. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford.Google Scholar
Morris, R., 1977. The Prehistoric Rock Art of Argyll. Poole, Dorset: Dolphin Press.Google Scholar
Morris, R., 1981. The Prehistoric Rock Art of South Scotland. (British Archaeological Reports British Series 86.) Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Morris, R., 1989. The prehistoric rock art of Great Britain: a survey of all sites bearing motifs more complex than single cup marks. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55, 45–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Kelly, M.J., 1982. Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Payton, R.W., 1980. The soils of the Milfield Plain, Northumberland. Proceedings of the North of England Soils Discussion Group 16, 1–52.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1972. Excavation of the Dalladies long barrow, Fettercairn, Kincardineshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 104, 23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, J., 1995. Inscribing space: formal deposition at the Later Neolithic monument at Woodhenge, Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61, 137–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, C., 1996. Henges and water: towards an elemental understanding of monumentality and landscape in Late Neolithic Britain. Journal of Material Culture 1 (November), 313–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, J.N.G., 1974. Excavation of the stone circle and cairn at Balbirnie, Fife. Archaeological Journal 131, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shee Twohig, E., 1981. The Megalithic Art of Western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Shee Twohig, E., 1988. The rock carvings at Roughting Linn, Northumberland. Archaeologia Aeliana (5 series) 16, 37–46.Google Scholar
Simmons, I. & Tooley, M., 1981. The Environment in British Prehistory. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Simpson, D. & Thawley, J., 1972. Single grave art in Britain. Scottish Archaeological Forum 4, 81–104.Google Scholar
Simpson, J.Y., 1867. Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles &c. upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England & other Countries. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.Google Scholar
Smith, R., 1984. The ecology of Neolithic farming systems as exemplified by the Avebury region of Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 50, 99–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P.J., 1986. A computer programme for radiocarbon age determination. Radiocarbon 28, 1022–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taçpn, P.S.C., 1991. The power of stone: symbolic aspects of stone use and tool development in western Arnhem Land, Australia. Antiquity 65, 192–207.Google Scholar
Thomas, J., 1991. Rethinking the Neolithic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilley, C., 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Tipping, R.M., 1992. The determination of cause in the creation of major prehistoric valley fills in the Cheviot Hills, Anglo-Scottish border, in Alluvial Archaeology in Britain, eds. Needham, S. & Macklin, M.. Oxford: Oxbow, 111–21.Google Scholar
Tipping, R.M., 1994. Akeld steads and the evolution of the Milfield Plain, in The Geomorphology and Late Quaternary Evolution of the Cheriot Hills, eds. Harrison, S. & Tipping, R.M.. [London]: British Geomorphological Research Group, 80–87.Google Scholar
Tipping, R.M., 1996. The Neolithic landscapes of the Cheviot Hills and Hinterland: palaeoenvironmental evidence, in Frodsham (ed.), 17–33.Google Scholar
Waddington, C., 1995. An Exploration of the Role of Cup and Ring Marks with Particular Attention to the Milfield Basin, Northumberland. Unpublished M.A. Dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Waddington, C., 1996a. Putting rock art to use: a model of Early Neolithic transhumance in North Northumberland, in Frodsham (ed.), 147–77.Google Scholar
Waddington, C., 1996b. The 1995 Excavation on the Coupland Enclosure and Associated ‘Droveway’ in the Milfield Plain, Northumberland. (Universities of Durham and Newcastle Upon Tyne Archaeological Reports 1995 Report No. 18, 9–15.) Durham: University of Durham.Google Scholar
Waddington, C., 1997. Coupland: the earliest henge-type monument in Britain. Notes in Archaeologia Aeliana (5th series) 25, 144–5.Google Scholar
Waddington, C., in press. A review of ‘pit alignments’ and a tentative interpretation of the Milfield complex. Durham Archaeological Journal 13.Google Scholar