Hardwired

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Rockrich R
Rockrich Mar 10, 2006 08:57:08
Replying to PeterH

Peter, cup & ring rock art isn't just confined to the British Isles, apparently it can be found in the Balearics, Portugal (believed to the original area I think), Spain, France, Switzerland, SW Scandinavia, Switzerland , Italy, Malta & the Canary Isles.

I think most would agree with you about rock-art being something other than just art, although art shouldn't be totally discounted.

Is it time to get me Morris's out again:

Burials (10),
Standing stones (9),
Alignment markers (10),
Astronomy (9),
Re-use in burial (9),
Early prospectors (8),
Early prospectors aids (8),
Belief in after-live (8),
Religious and magical (7),
Uniform religious or magical significance (6),
Breasts (4),
Mother Goddess (4),
Eyes (4),
Phallic symbols (3),
Fertility symbols; 'sperm entering the egg'(2),
Fertility rites (3),
Marks of sexual prowess (0),
Circumcision ceremony (1),
Sex symbols (0),
Sun symbol (6),
Sun God (5),
Baal (5),
Water divining (0),
Mixing Vessels for bronze (2),
Mixing vessels for pigments (4),
Quantity measures (1),
Freemasons 'earliest' marks (0),
Sacred food & wine holders (5),
Fertility rites (Indian) (0),
Copies of worm casts (2),
Copies of tree rings (2),
Copies of ripples from a stone thrown into a pool (2),
Druids (5),
Use by Druids (5),
Blood sacrifice (4),
Code (5),
Water time-signals (1),
Clocks (1),
Pictographs or hieroglyphs (6),
Early writing (0),
Messages from outer space (0),
Megalithis inch (9),
All measured in or founded on megalithic inches (0),
Right angle triangles (9),
Equilateral triangles (6),
Code (1),
Spirals are two-centre half-circles or ellipses(7),
Different races made them (7),
Bonfire ritual site markers (6),
Search for food (2),
Seed production (1),
Early pilgrimage marks (1),
Dye-transfer moulds (6),
Metal moulds (0),
Maps of the countryside (1),
Building plans (0),
Star Maps (1),
Emblems (5),
Tattooists' patterns(5),
Decorations (5),
Doodles (2),
An elderly man's screen (2),
Boundery Markers (5),
Route markers (5),
Tribal convention commemorators (3),
Mithras worship (0),
Shields (0),
Gaming tables (3),
Marbels (3),
Anular brooches (3),
Animistic carvings (0),
Primitive lamp bases (5),
Water worship (5),
Cattle worshuip (2),
Marks of piety (5),
Re-use of a long dead superstition (5),
Monuments of the dead (1),
Natural (0),
Hidden treasure (0),
Plans for megalithis structures (0),
Plans for laying out mazes (0),
Field ploughing plans (0),
Oath marks (5),
Victory Marks (1),
Masons'marks (0),
Adder Lairs (0),
Knife-sharpening marks (0),
An early form of music notation (0),
Tuning device (0),
Early astronomers's night memoranda (2),
Birth, growth, life and death symbol (5),
A locked-up force (0),
The stone circle builders carved them (8),
Healing Magic (5),
Casts for making bronze (3),
Sea Goddess worship (1),
Mirror (5),
Wells (0),
Child carvings (0

P PeterH
PeterH Mar 10, 2006 09:55:54
Replying to Rockrich

Thanks for that interesting list. Yes, I knew that similar rock art was found in parts of Spain and I didn't mean to suggest that it was unique to Britain. What does seem to be unique here is the absence of contemporary figurative carvings - apart from the feet of the Pool Farm cist and in that park in Liverpool(?)

I'm now thinking more about the tactile angle - the hand grease marks on Long Meg and the whole idea of repetitive tracing.. Seriously - what kind of hypnotic altered perception type state might someone slip into if they stared long enough at the patterns as they repetitively travelled the paths with fingers tips? Perhaps they would just get very sore fingers, but that oil on Long Meg didn't accumulate over just a decade or so. It is there as a tangible fact - we can be certain that people have often and over a long period, traced the incised paths with their hands or fingers. People must have been tracing those spirals for a very long time....how long? If so there, why not elsewhere? Is there any evidence of such grease marks elsewhere - has anyone looked?

Heck! why am I suggesting ritual use? This supposition should not be dismissed out of hand.. There is nothing nutty about it and it would conform to the hard wiring theories put forward about Palaeolithic and much more recent rock paintings in "The Mind in the Cave" In that book, much is written about rock paintings being made that conform to the surface shape of rock walls and the hand prints etc seen as attempts to reach through the rock surface into the underworld. Suppose our rock artists were doing the same thing?