Cups and Rings, Ladders and other Mysteries
Cup and Ring marked rocks probably date from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages - from around 2800 to 500 BCE.
They are often found close to burial mounds, but their purpose and meaning remain unknown. Similar carvings have been found in Northumbria, Derbyshire, Scotland, Ireland, Palestine, America, Madagascar, Australia, and many other parts of the world.
Cups are circular hollows carved out of the rock by a sharp stone or antler. They can be between 2 and 10 cms in diameter. They occur on their own, or along with grooves (carved lines); when the groove encircles the cup it is known as a cup and ring. Two parallel grooves with rings joining them are known as "ladders" - these are unique to Rombald's Moor. Though the rocks are well weathered by now, stretch your imagination a bit - freshly carved the design would have stood out very clearly.
Over 280 such carved rocks have been catalogued on the moor by the Ilkley Archaeological Group, many of them hard to find and not obvious to the casual visitor. They are listed as Scheduled Monuments by English Heritage, their "legal guardians". You are free to view them and wonder at a world long gone - but it is a criminal offence to deface or damage them!
These carvings are widely distributed across Rombald's Moor and Baildon Moor. Two of the most striking examples are
- the Swastika Stone,
- the Tree of Life stone. This is at Snowden Carr on the north side of Wharfedale, one and a half miles north of Askwith. Its carvings, a series of cups and scrolls, vaguely resembles a tree.
Generations of people have been baffled - expert and amateur. The nearest examples remotely similar to the Swastika Stone are to be found in Sweden and Italy. It wasn't until the 1850's that we have the first recorded observation on carved stones on Rombald's Moor, and within 20 years, their archaeological importance was being recognised.
But explained? That is another matter! For a "feet-on-the-ground" perspective, try an article by Stan Beckensall in British Archaeology Today, Issue no 40, December 1998. I love his sentence "Many years ago Ronald Morris, a solicitor and amateur recorder of rock art, listed 104 meanings that had been given to rock art - from musical notation and star charts to `sacred cowpats' and all kinds of nonsense - and gave them marks out of ten!"
We can guess at a few clues to understanding these stones:
- many of the carvings are near, or even part of, Bronze Age burial sites; there is at least some connection to their beliefs and rituals for the dead;
- carvings on standing stones and on stone circles probably have some connection to the religious rites and community events held there;
- good farmers know their seasons; Bronze Age farmers would have had a wealth of practical observation of the heavens, which may lie behind some of the astronomical alignments of the stones. Perhaps there is a connection to celebrations or records of the heavens.
These eloquently silent witnesses to ancient knowledge, faiths and hopes stand mute on a bleak and blasted moor. Go and wonder at the stones; go and wonder at (and with?) our ancestors.