Petroglyphs

The World of Stonehenge

I took a trip down to London to see the British Museum’s The World of Stonehenge exhibition. It was wonderful to see items that I’d read about over the years all gathered into one place and beautifully displayed. If prehistory is your thing, I’d definitely recommend a visit. here’s a few images to whet your appetite.

Near Moor

Wandering Red Way onto Near Moor

Near Moor is a moor on the western margins of the Cleveland Hills. The moor is at its highest in the north-east where it meets the wooded escarpment edge of the Cleveland hills, it then slopes gently southwards towards Crabdale. Near moor is bounded by Far Moor To the East, Pamperdale Moor to the South and the valley of Scarth Nick and Scarth Wood Moor to the west.

The moor is managed for grouse shooting. The vegetation of the moor is predominantly heather with patches of moorland grasses and sedges.

The rocks here are mainly Jurassic Sandstones, formed 170 million years ago in shallow estuaries and deltas. To the north, below the escarpment edge, there are many old jet workings. Blocks of ‘White Flint’ can be found on the moor-top.

Both Near Moor and the adjacent Scarth Wood Moor were used by our ancient ancestors, there are the remains of ancient walls, enclosures, trackways and cairns dotted across both moors.

There are a number of cup-marked rocks on the moor, all are very weathered and barely recognisable.

There are the remains of quarries on the margins of the moor, local stone masons also used the prehistoric walls as a source of stone.

Northumberland Rings

We took a drive up to Northumberland to visit the most northerly English Stone Circle, Duddo aka The Singing Stones aka The Women.

Whilst in the area we dropped in at a couple of Prehistoric Rock Art sites. First stop was Roughting Linn where ate our lunch down besides the lovely waterfall. We then walked through the bluebell-clad ramparts of the ancient promontory fort to the large outcrop in the woods. The Fell Sandstone outcrop is covered in Prehistoric rock carvings and is the largest carved rock in Britain. The most of the carvings have been placed around the edges of the outcrop and have been likened to Irish Passage Grave Art.

This part of Northumberland is littered with Prehistoric Rock Art sites, most have wonderful views over the nearby fertile valleys. Many sites are intervisible with each other, quite a few also have nearby earthworks which have been interpreted as Iron Age in date. The carvings themselves are thought to be Neolithic/Early Bronze Age in date, the relationship between the carvings and the earthworks is not fully understood but it does indicate that these sites had a degree of continuity lasting for a considerable period of time.

We headed over to Weetwood Moor to check-out the carvings on the outcrops there before moving on to Chattonpark hill and the wonderful Ketley Crags, a Prehistoric Rock Shelter, its floor covered in deep cup and ring carvings.

Solstice: Duddo

On such a night the hills dissolved

And re-assembled in a shifting mist,

Numb with moonlight’s touch.

We learnt that silence was not hostile,

Took upon ourselves its deepest strength

Waiting for dawn’s layered sun.

A moon that placed

As crow’s shout cracked the sky

Fled from the triggered bird-song

Hesitant, then loud.

Before our eyes, a second birth,

A new-created universe,

Green and blue and gold.

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Fluted stones whose shape had shifted

With emitted heat

From bearded barley heads,

Buried to the hips,

Reclaimed their circle and identity,

Introspective, Janus-headed,

Guarding and inviting

As the sun’s diurnal course

Played a slow game

With shadow shapes

Time and time and time again.

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Solstice: Duddo by Stan Beckensall from Northumberland Power of Place. 2001

Map and Lidar images by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Cups & Rings in the northern dales

On a beautiful clear day, Graham and I took a wander up to the Stone Circle on Barningham Moor. We stopped at the Frankinshaw How cairn to drink in the views to the distant Cleveland Hills and Teesside. The cairn, with its cup-marked kerb stones, doesn’t appear to have any statutory protection, this is a worry as it is close to an estate road that has recently been used by heavy vehicles and not too far from a road stone quarry. There are also signs that turf has been stripped close to the cairn, presumably to top the nearby shooting butts.

We moved on to the slowly-sinking, messy Stone Circle at the head of Osmonds Gill, the viewshed here is to the north across the upper Tees valley towards the Durham plain.

Walking over to Eel Hill, we cross a low, dry valley and encounter the best fairy ring that I have ever seen.

Eel Hill, I have visited this beautiful carved stone many times and have never once been able to walk straight to it. I’m convinced that it moves around the hilltop.

We head off to explore Holgate passing these lovely shooting butts. I’m no fan of driven grouse shooting and wouldn’t care if another butt was ever built, but I do love these earth and stone built structures. With their construction and alignments, they have a prehistoric soul. These butts won’t be seeing much service this year. Later we hear a different sort of gunfire, the pom pom of artillery from the nearby military ranges.

At Holgate, we search for carved rocks amongst the boulders that litter the terraces below Holgate Howe. After four thousand years of upland Yorkshire weather and the acid rains of the industrial era, it amazes me how any of these carvings have survived, I also wonder about what has been lost.

Some of the boulders, including some with carvings on them, have been quarried by local stonemasons. The method of removing a stone, suitable for use as a gatepost or lintel, is to cut a series of linear holes across the stone, it is then left to allow nature to assist with the work. The process of freeze/thaw will eventually weaken and fracture the stone along the line, the stone can then be more easily cut. There are a number of quarried stones laying around that have not been used.

This large flat boulder has been quarried along one edge. The stone has a number of weathered cups on its surface. The cups have been joined up with a thin, sharp, incised line. Perhaps this was the work of a bored stonemason who noticed the ancient cups and spent his tea break trying to make some sense of them.

We finish the day at this lovely earth-fast boulder which was thankfully spared from the attention of the stonecutter.

Allan Tofts

I recently came across some images that I’d taken of the Prehistoric Rock Art at Allan Tofts on the North York Moors in 2006. Many of these stones are now overgrown and very difficult to find. As with the nearby rock art on Fylingdales Moor, many of the carved rocks appeared to be associated with low-lying cairns.

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The Rock Art of the Kerb

In his 1979 book, The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway & The Isle of Man, Ronald Morris listed one hundred and four theories which have been put forward in all seriousness by Archaeologists and others to explain British Prehistoric Rock Art. Could any of these theories be applied to the mysterious markings that are found on roadside kerbstones?Burials, Standing stones, Alignment markers, Astronomy, Re-use in burial, Early prospectors, Early prospecting aids, Belief in after-life, Religious, Magical.Uniform religious & magical significance, Sex, Breasts, Mother goddess, Mother goddess worship, Eyes, Phallic symbols, Fertility symbols – Sperm entering the egg, Fertility rites, Marks of sexual prowess.Circumcision ceremony, Sex symbols, Sun symbol, Sun God, Baal, Water divining, Mixing vessels, Quantity measures, Freemasons earliest marks.Sacred food & wine holders, Fertility Rites (Indian), Copies of worm casts, Copies of tree rings, Copies of ripples from a stone thrown into a pool of water, Druids, Used by Druids, Blood sacrifice, Code, Water time-signals.Clocks, Pictographs or Hieroglyphs, Early writing, Messages from outer space, Megalithic inch, All measured in or founded on megalithic inches, right angled triangles, Equilateral triangles, code, spirals are two-centre half-circles of ellipses.Different races made them, Bonfire ritual site markers, Search for food, Seed production, Early pilgrimage marks, Dye transfer moulds, Metal moulds, Maps of the countryside, Building plans, Star maps.Emblems, Tattooists patterns, Decorations, Doodles, An elderly man’s screen, Boundary markers, Route markers, Tribal convention commemorators, Mithras worship, Shields.Gaming tables, Marbles, Annular brooches, Animistic carvings, Primative lamp bases, Water worship, Cattle worship, Marks of piety, Re-use of long dead superstition, Monuments to the dead.Natural, Hidden treasure, Plans for megalithic structures, Plans for laying out mazes, Field ploughing plans, Oath marks, Victory marks, Adders lairs, Knife sharpening marks.An early form of music notation, Tuning device, Early astronomers night memoranda, Birth-growth-life & death symbol, A locked-up force, The stone circle builders carved them, Healing magic, Casts for making bronze, Sea goddess worship, Mirror, Womb symbol, Wells, Child carvings.