close
more_vert

I’m new on here, so apologies if my suggestion is outdated. To me, cup and ring marks suggest a sort of spiritual tally system. The cups would represent the individual, the carver, and the rings would indicate how many times some key event have taken place - a ritual, or a pilgrimage perhaps. The lines cutting through might represent genealogy, I.e. from the original mark-maker to their next descendent, or to someone who has replaced their function, like a subsequent priest. Or the lines might represent a completion, e.g. completion of their life, or their tenure. The way that some rings stop at the edge of other rings might suggest that rings were added over a period of time, I.e. they experienced more events than they anticipated when they started their marks.now that we believe that pilgrimages were carried out to important locations like Stonehenge, would this ring-tallying be a good explanation for cup and ring marks? What do you think?

Having now visited Roughting Linn in Northumberland at https://w3w.co/amending.unspoiled.national I feel that my previous suggestion wasn’t correct. A significant proportion of the marks have channels, and it’s clear the channel marks were made as part of the original mark. It seems unlikely that individual cup and ring marks were made over long periods, I.e. there was probably a single making event. My current thinking is that the cups and rings were made one at a time, and not very often, otherwise there would be many more of them (why are there so few)? I’m thinking that they may have been created by shamans on behalf of other individuals, and infrequently. If the cups represent individuals, the the rings might be conferring a level of spiritual protection, or healing, around the individual. The channels could represent birthing, so possibly represent a charm for fertility, or protecting pregnancy.