Coorleigh South forum 1 room
Image by gjrk
Coorleigh South

Is this art?

close
more_vert
tiompan T
tiompan Nov 3, 2008 14:36:44
Replying to gjrk

gjrk wrote:
Sorry about the novice-grade question but I was just wondering if this looks legit?

There are eleven cups; 3 to 5 cm in diameter and up to 1cm deep. They are contained in a top-surface area defined by two parallel grooves 1.1m apart, each about 7cm wide and 3cm deep (when measured from the interior space). The exterior surface (outside the grooves) is about 1cm lower than the interior level.

It's listed in the Archaeological Inventory as a mass rock, but looks like a boulder burial.

Gordon , just re-read your notes again and had a look at the pics , it does look like a recumbent stone from an RSC rather than an axial stone from an ASC , the orienation is also closer to an RSC .Recumbents are sometimes cup marked and and chocked to keep it level .The other stone mentioned , a kilometre distant even sounds like it has flankers .

G gjrk
gjrk Nov 3, 2008 15:27:47
Replying to tiompan

Northwest orientation?

Before I went, judging from my friend's description, I was thinking perhaps the axial from an ASC. The three larger local sites each accompany a bay and the others mostly follow the Argideen river but its location wouldn't be too far off the mark. Then when I saw it, its positioning was wrong.

An RSC would never have hit me. It's possible. It would be amazing if it was - the missing link. The sceptic in me is fiddling with the idea of a fallen cupmarked standing stone being raised as an altar for outdoor mass. but why not leave it where it was, if that was the case? It would have served equally well.

Boulder-burial is a possibility, but the stone does seem too regular somehow. I'll put up a picture of the Gortnascarty site. I may not have the described the uprights well enough. They're set as a NE/SW pair.

Gordon