G/F thought this was a lynx-headed figure.
Image credit: A. Brookes (10.9.2018)
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I'm now quite intrigued by this motif. I think I remember seeing the top of this motif but I think I was looking at it from a different angle... and without my eyes. Is this part of panel A? Or the panel with the birds and stag? I'm heading over in three weeks for a wee jaunt. Gonna do some night-time side-lit photography... or have a go at it at least.
What panel is this cat-like profile on?
"When people go and look at what they are told are "cups and rings"... all they see are "cups and rings"". A wonderful archaeologist (I'm paraphrasing him here) told me when I showed him my pictures from here back in 2010. "They don't notice anything else. You have to go to a site with fresh eyes." You have.
I'm really glad it's got you thinking. It's actually part of the panel with the "figures". When G/F pointed it out, it leapt out (so she's the one with the fresh eyes rather than me). She said "There's someone with a cat head". Full length it looked like a shaman with a lynx headress or a lynx-headed god.
But there's a bit of a problem. When we were there the light was crap and lots of things weren't really showing up very well. What we didn't see was that in better light, the "lynx" head is surrounded by a halo but also has something going off to the left from its "snout "- you can see what I'm talking about properly in Hob's picture here: themodernantiquarian.com/post/40372/stronach_wood.html
Revealed more fully, the lynx head becomes the torso rather than the head, with an arm going off to the left. It makes the lynxness much less convincing, but when we were there it really did look obvious.
I'd love to know what you make of it.
Any shots which show this "cat" in a slightly wider (or less cropped) context would be much appreciated. Even if you just stick them up here temporarily. I have tried to see it in Hob's shot (and many of my own photos of the same anthropomorphic / dumbell area) and I just cannot see where it is.
It is particularly the ear and vertical pecked edge going from its pointed ear-tip down the "cat's" shoulder and back which interests me. I just cannot see it on other photos to help me place it in the panels.
I am really keen to see this and hope to photograph the panels under low-light and darkness with side torch and lamp illumination. I'm only over for a couple of days in early Feb and would really like to catch what I can of this motif. Any further help in pin-pointing it's location would be appreciated.
Here you go, hopefully this will help you see where it is in Hob's much clearer picture:
themodernantiquarian.com/post/162309/stronach_wood.html