Rock art. so what's that all about then. ?

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Littlestone L
Littlestone Jul 19, 2010 21:51:07
Replying to megadread

It's that single line in some cup and ring marks that cuts through (but doesn't actually cut into the rings) which is so intriguing. If that motif popped up in modern art it'd keep you puzzled and transfixed. Dunno, it's saying something - something that you can almost grasp... but not quite...

H Hob
Hob Jul 19, 2010 22:04:48
Replying to Littlestone

You got a point there. The ones without the radial ducts (or whatever the right term is) don't have as much 'oompf'. Something to do with the contrast between the ideas of linearity and circularity?

G Gwass
Gwass Jul 21, 2010 20:14:49
Replying to Littlestone

Dunno bout anyone else but I like a bit of the 'shamanic' explanation.

Not that there is any way to prove this of course and it's probably bollox (I just like the idea!) but the precedence set by current neolithic/bronze age style tribal cultures which anthropologists have studied makes sense to me. The whole chanting/drumming/hallucenegic altered states at rock faces, when people are trying to make sense of the landscape around them when it's likely spirits and ancestors were a very real part of their world.

Saw this link posted on TMA on the Badger stone site which I found very intersting. It suggests that the symbols could represent the surrounding landscape, not the physical one but a psychological landscape in peoples minds. Plus the guy takes hallucenegenic drugs and does a bit of chanting and the rock morphs into the Lewis-Williams style shapes of the internal mind which they may have tried to represenmt on the rock face. All good stuff and well written!

http://dreamflesh.com/essays/rockpsych/