Harryshill wrote:
It's interesting that the 'map' in question was built into a passage grave nearly 6,000 years ago with only a small amount of cups showing. This suggests that whatever its 'use' was originally it was no longer of any further use by then. Would that be a fair assessment?
Not necessarily. Something doesn't have to be on view to have importance or give importance. It's existence might of been important to the dead or maybe to the living. The carving might have been the work of a/the person interned, and it's existence in the structure, being more important than it being seen in it's entirety.[/quote]In principal I agree with you, but why I think it was not important in this instance is that the cupmarks were buried in the passage wall out of sight (except fot three) and not displayed inside the chamber itself which I would have thought carried more weight to its importance to the dead, especially if as you suggest the actual carver. It looks to me that it was simply a stone that fitted into the space required, but who knows!