Rock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe: Signing the Land

297 Pages·1997·4.93 MB·English

by  Richard Bradley

ROCK ART AND THE PREHISTORY OF
ATLANTIC EUROPE
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ROCK ART AND THE
PREHISTORY OF
ATLANTIC EUROPE
Signing the Land
Richard Bradley
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1997 Richard Bradley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Bradley, Richard
Rock art and the prehistory of Atlantic Europe: signing the land
Richard Bradley.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Art. Prehistoric—Europe—Atlantic Coast. 2. Petroglyphs—
Europe—Atlantic Coast. 3. Rock paintings—Europe—Atlantic Coast.
4. Atlantic Coast (Europe)—Antiquities. I. Title.
GN803.B66 1997
709′.01′13094–dc21 96–51119
ISBN 0-203-44699-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-75523-5 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-16535-0 (Print Edition)
0-415-16536-9 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of plates xi
Preface and acknowledgements xiv
PART I: TERMS OF REFERENCE
1 New directions, new points of view: The experience of 2
prehistoric rock art
2 A chart of the northern seaways: An introduction to the 17
prehistory of Atlantic Europe
3 The circle and the stag: An introduction to Atlantic rock 34
art
4 Time out of mind: The origins and chronology of Atlantic 50
rock art
PART II: ROCK ART AND THE LANDSCAPE OF BRITAIN AND
IRELAND
5 The rules of engagement: The character of British rock art 70
6 The shepherd on the rock: Rock art in the British 91
landscape
7 Reading Roughting Linn: Rock art and ritual monuments 107
8 The circle and the crag: The micro-topography of British 129
and Irish rock art
9 Public faces in private places: Rock art and Early Bronze 139
Age burials
10 Imaginary landscapes 154
vi
PART III: ROCK ART AND THE LANDSCAPE OF ATLANTIC
EUROPE
11 In comparison: Rock art and the prehistoric landscape from 160
Brittany to Portugal
12 The carnival of the animals: The distribution of Galician 175
rock art
13 The monarch of the glen: The symbolic character of 192
Galician rock art
14 Sign language: Rock art in the prehistory of Atlantic 211
Europe
Bibliography 220
Index 236
FIGURES
Frontispiece Reconstruction of the carved rock at Roughting Linn
2.1 The topography of Atlantic Europe 20
2.2 Interaction zones in Atlantic Europe 25
2.3 The distribution of Galician art, Schematic art and fortified sites in 28
the Iberian peninsula
3.1 Medieval pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela 35
3.2 Scottish rock art as recorded by Simpson in 1867 36
3.3 Scottish rock art as interpreted by Mann in 1915 38
3.4 British and Irish rock art as recorded by Breuil in 1934 40
3.5 Outline distribution of megalithic art 41
3.6 The carved rocks at Old Bewick and Laxe dos Cebros 46
4.1 Cup-and-ring carvings interpreted as the plans of houses 51
4.2 Cup-and-ring carvings and the plans of a passage grave and a henge 53
4.3 Motifs characteristic of entoptic imagery 55
4.4 Animals and circular motifs in Galician rock art 57
4.5 A decorated cist from Carnwath 60
4.6 Drawings of weapons at Leiro, compared with metalwork from the 63
nearby hoard
5.1 The regions of Britain and Ireland with major groups of rock art 71
5.2 The locations of British and Irish sites illustrated in the book 72
5.3 The distribution of rock art in Galloway 84
5.4 The distribution of rock art at Millstone Burn 86
5.5 Intervisibility between groups of rock carvings in Northumberland 88
6.1 Distribution of rock carving in north-east Yorkshire 95
6.2 Flint scatters and carved rocks on Ilkley Moor 97
6.3 The location of prehistoric rock carving near Kirkcudbright 101
6.4 The distribution of rock art and lithic artefacts in Strath Tay 105
7.1 Reconstruction of the rock carving at Roughting Linn 108
7.2 The decorated kerbstone at Newgrange 111
7.3 Horned spirals on selected artefacts and monuments 112
7.4 The contrasting use of space in passage graves, henges and stone 113
circles
7.5 Distribution of rock carvings and monuments in the Milfield basin 114
7.6 The spatial relationship between rock carvings and monument 117
complexes
7.7 The distribution of rock art in Mid Argyll 118
viii
7.8 Patterns of intervisibility between carved rocks in the Kilmartin 124
complex
8.1 Alternative design grammars for British and Irish rock carvings 131
8.2 The view from the Boheh Stone to Croagh Patrick 136
9.1 Carvings of Early Bronze Age artefacts at Stonehenge 140
9.2 The relationship between rock art, cists and burial cairns 144
9.3 A kerb cairn and associated rock art at Fowberry 148
9.4 Plan of a round house associated with a carved stone at Trethellan Farm 150
11.1 Groups of continental rock art considered in the text 163
11.2 The distribution of abstract motifs and animal drawings in Galicia 166
11.3 The distribution of rock carvings and settlements in Morrazo 168
11.4 The extent of drought in Galicia during July 171
12.1 The locations of the Galician study areas 182
12.2 Map of the Muros study area 183
12.3 Map of the Rianxo study area 184
12.4 Map of the Campo Lameiro study area 185
12.5 The location of rock art at Campo Lameiro in relation to the 187
movement of animals in the modern landscape
13.1 The sequence at Laxe das Ferraduras according to Anati 193
13.2 Animal tracks in Galician rock art 197
13.3 Animals and circular motifs at Pedra do Pinal do Rei 198
13.4 Drawings of stags in Galician rock art 200
13.5 The weapon carvings at Auga da Laxe 207
13.6 The distribution of weapon carvings in Galicia 208
13.7 Drawings of weapons and idols in Galician rock art 209
14.1 Drawing of a boat at Santa Maria de Oia 213
14.2 Chains of interlinked motifs in Ireland and Galicia 214
TABLES
1 The distribution of circular motifs in six areas of Britain and Ireland 74
2 Regions of Britain and Ireland with similar distributions of circular 74
motifs
3 The relationship between different design elements in Mid Argyll 75
4 The number of linked design elements in Mid Argyll and 76
Northumberland in relation to the number of separate motifs
5 The distribution of passage-grave motifs in Mid Argyll in relation to the 77
maximum number of rings on the same carved surface
6 The number of linked motifs on sites in Galloway in relation to the 77
maximum number of rings on the same carved surface
7 The distribution of passage-grave motifs in Galloway in relation to the 77
maximum number of rings on the same carved surface
8 The distinction between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ rock carvings in 77
Northumberland
9 The orientations of the rock carvings in five selected regions 78
10 The rock surfaces selected for carving in Mid Argyll 81
11 The rock surfaces selected for carving in Northumberland 81
12 The visibility of carved rocks in Galloway 81
13 The visibility of carved rocks in Northumberland 81
14 The extent of the views from the carved rocks in Galloway 85
15 The extent of the views in the study area at Millstone Burn 87
16 The direction of view in the study area at Millstone Burn 87
17 The distribution of Irish rock art in relationship to potential land use 92
18 The height distribution of rock art in Strath Tay 103
19 The relationship between rock carvings and the position of the Milfield 116
basin
20 The distribution of simple and complex rock carvings in relation to the 116
Milfield basin
21 The character of prehistoric rock art in the Kilmartin complex and in 119
other parts of Mid Argyll
22 The surfaces selected for carving in the Kilmartin complex and in other 119
parts of Mid Argyll
23 The changing character of prehistoric rock art towards the edges of the 120
Milfield basin and the Kilmartin complex
24 Intervisibility between individual sites in the Kilmartin complex 123