mmm, weird, intriguing. any clues when they date from? seem to be post-2,000 BC? I mean, Knowth and Newgrange had long expiry dates, didn't they? the mace looks like the stuff presented in the book Prehistory of Sex by the way.

As for painting, I understand the concerns about limestone but there is strong evidence in passage graves of painting on (granite obviously) stone slabs. The colour red is paramount and it was accompanied by black. The fact that it is no longer there does not mean that possibly all of them were painted. Slate too loses a layer with time, perhaps...

The totem thing sounds so logical. An earlier Mesolithic tradition carried on into the Neolithic?