tuesday wrote:
Mr T
would you explain your doubts more? I hope to find out more about the dating but in the absence of that, what other period could have produced those forms - and why? I'm interested - for the same reason I'm startign to get interested in British rock art
Hello t , there are many examples of archaeos getting dates wrong and having to revise them upwards or downwards and without anything organic to provide rc dating they can only rely on association or stratigraphy . With those caveats it is possible that the Russian labyrinths are Neolithic . My doubts are that the earliest verified labyrinth motif is just over 1000 bc and all the early examples are found in areas around the Med . The Russian Neolithic would be at least 2000 years earlier and a long way from the possible source with only the Galician labyrinths , which are also of uncertain date , in between . When we examine the motifs that are secure from the Neolithic they have similarities like , spirals , concentric rings , penannulars etc but the labyrinth is more specific ,rigid and complex and to be fair there is only one from the Russian site that is really close to a Minoan labyrinth (no. 3) . Although the Russian examples are not rock art it might be fair to conclude the motif would be found in that type of setting but there is nothing and it's attributes are not quite what we find in N- BA RA . There are plenty of candidates for early examples , including a recent suggestion that the Rocky Valley one has an earlier version underneath , but none have been verified . Please excuse the acronyms and long windedness .