Cup Marks or What?

Avebury & the Marlborough Downs 64

Image by Chance

Pete G Oct 28, 2004 13:40:27

This is on a smll sarcen drift.
The stone is about 7ft across.
Are these humugeous cup marks?
or could they be used for something else like grinding corn?
There are several very promising small cup marks on the sides.
http://peteglastonbury.ic24.net/Sarcen.jpg
Wotcha fink?
PeteG

Hob Oct 28, 2004 22:26:45

Replying to Pete G

Olympic standard cupmark hunting?

Have you got any pics looking straight into the dints?

The topmost one looks like it might have one of those root holes.

goffik Oct 29, 2004 07:17:34

Replying to Pete G

I know nah-thing, but they do look rather evenly spaced to me - does this happen in nature a lot?

G x

StoneLifter Oct 29, 2004 08:13:35

Replying to Pete G

There's a heck of a lot of work gone into that rock - there are lateral dips on the top that were probably made by the glacier. The spirally arranged cups must postdate that.

Martin Oct 29, 2004 12:54:48

Replying to Pete G

at first glance look kinda natural to me- are the interior of the cups smooth? In my (little) experience the natural cups tend to be really smooth to touch. Also, they look kinda irregular in shape- you would expect grinding to produce a fairly even circular shape. We had a thread on here a couple of months ago re natural vs man-made and I've come across both on the same stone, so it's possible they could be worked/extended natural cups.