Archaic Sculpturings: Notes on Art, Philosophy, and Religion in Britain, 2000 BC to 900 AD

Abstract

THE object of this pamphlet, reprinted from the Proceedings of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, is to examine three groups of sculptures in that district: Pagan, consisting of cup and ring markings of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and diagrams on slate of the Middle Bronze Age; transitional designs, mostly of the Iron Age; and the earliest Christian monuments. The scheme is wide, probably too wide for treatment within the limits of a single paper. The most interesting part of it is the investigation of cup and ring markings. The current theories of their origin and purport being far from satisfactory, Mr. Mann tells us that some years ago he began to recognise that these figures, when plotted on paper, were found to be “arranged in a most precise, mathematical, and geometrical manner.” He recognises two main systems of lines fitting into the salient parts of the sculpturing. “One system narrowly misses coinciding with the other. One is related apparently to the actual pole, and the other to the pole star of that period.” He believes that many of them “embody primitive astronomical motives mixed up with ideas of worship of a Supreme Central Force which were widespread over most parts of Europe during the first, probably the second, if not also the third millennium before Christ.”