|
Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art
|
|
|
On first arriving at the Badger Stone I must admit I was a bit disapointed. I just didn't get it. I was tired after excitedly stomping straight across the open moorland from the mound above the waterfall near the White Well's car park, so I decided to lie down and rest on the bench for a while.
A few minutes later I felt the sun streaming across my face, and so jumped up to take a look at the stone. I couldn't help but laugh, every last feature was illuminated before me, my disapointment turned to overwhelming joy as I poured over this wonder. The sun stayed with me for 3/4 hour in which time I found myself narrowing in more and more to the surface of the rock. From the initially confusing bigger picture, I soon realised that to appreciate the stone you must get in close, and forget EVERYTHING you know about 'art' appreciation. Ideas streamed through my mind about what the stone represented, I thought about ideas I'd read that this was a kind of map - then I started to see the stone as a storytelling device - representing long forgotten places, people, henges, burial sites, hills, events etc. - in short a means of recording both temporal and spacial 'things' in an organic record. Of course any ideas about the purpose will inevitably remain just that, but just to contemplate is an amazing experience.
|
Posted by IronMan
11th February 2002ce
|
|
Log in |
Register
Top of page