Galicia​…what to see?

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Rockrich R
Rockrich Sep 24, 2006 10:51:02
Replying to Mr Hamhead

aye, you're definitely not alone in your thoughts Mr H. Where you have just peckmarkless cups it’s almost impossible to tell, unless they're forming a lovely pattern of course. Theres enough panels about where natural fissures & planar erosion have been incorporated into the design, so why not natural cuplike depressions also. Such features may have been the precise reason why they chose the rocks, or decided to carve close by in the 1st place.

Which epoch they belong to is an interesting question, as wolfy says the general feeling is they belong to late neo – early BA, because of the position of some panels next to dateable evidence found in some burials. You also find cup marked rocks incorporated into walling (bronze age, IA etc), so from this its presumed it belongs to an earlier period. Theres allsorts of legends attached to cup marks going back to at least mediaeval times. So some may well have been carved then, or even by naughty Victorians trying to exploit the new fashion of tourism.

I also happen to think that some carvings go further back than the periods designated. No real evidence for it, other than a feeling I get from the erosion patterns of certain designs.

W wolfnighthunter
wolfnighthunter Sep 24, 2006 11:29:49
Replying to Rockrich

Though alot of the cup marks are thought to be of the of a later date,being easier to carve, as time passed the carvings would evolve into more complex designs involving rings etc..now this is where the debate gets a little more interesting. Are the carvings more complex because they are using better tools, ie metal tools instead of stone tools?..as Hob says it is harder to make more detailed carvings using stone tools than if you used a metal tool.
But then again the rock itself perhaps states which form of carving can be made, hard stone is harder to carve, soft stone is easier to carve.....the debate goes on.