128 



NATURE 



\_Jime 8, 1882 



almost impossible. The ornamental theory is negatived 

 by the fact that they occur so oUen in situations in which 

 they cannot be seen, as for instance on the under sides of 

 cist-covers. The commemorative theory admits of much 

 being said in its favour, but fails to suit all the circum- 

 stances of the case. The theory that they fulfilled some 

 purpose in relation to the religious observances of pre- 

 historic man is perhaps the most plausible that has yet 

 been suggested, and has the following arguments in its 

 favour. 



If this early system of sculpturing these enigmatic 

 markings on rocks and stones originally had reference to 

 a common idea connected with the religious observances 

 of prehistoric times, the existence of some traces of this 

 connection might reasonably be looked for in the super- 

 stitions of the area in which it was formerly prevalent. 

 This, in point of fact, is found to be the case. In many 

 parts of Sweden, these cup-marked boulders are known 

 as elf-stenar, and are still believed by the common people 

 to possess curative powers. They say prayers, and make 

 vows at them, anoint the cups with fat (usually hog's 

 lard), place offerings of pins and small copper coins in 

 them, and when they are sick, they make small dolls or 

 images of rags, to be laid in them. These facts are stated 

 in the Manadsblad of the Swedish Academy of Science. 

 Miss Mestorf, as quoted by Mr. Ran, is more explicit : — 



" The elfs are the souls of the dead ; they frequently 

 dwell in or below stones, and stand in various relations 

 to the living. If their quiet is disturbed, or their dwell- 

 ing-place desecrated, or if due respect is not paid to 

 them, they will revenge themselves by afflicting the per- 

 petrators with diseases or other misfortunes. For this 

 reason, people take care to secure the favour of the 

 ' little ones ' by sacrifices, or to pacify them when 

 offended. Their claims are very modest : a little butter 

 or grease, a copper coin, a flower, or ribbon, will satisfy 

 them. If they have inflicted disease, some object worn 

 ■by the sick person, such as a pin, or button, will reconcile 

 them. A Swedish proprietor of an estate in Uppland, 

 who had caused an elf- stone to be transported to his 

 park, found, a few days afterwards, small sacrificial gifts 

 lying in the cups. In the Stockholm Museum are pre- 

 served rag dolls, which had been found upon an elf- 

 stone." 



These superstitious practices arc connected with actual 

 cup-stones of prehistoric times, but there are others, for 

 the practice of which cups have been made in- modern 

 times. In the Proceedings of the Berlin Anthropological 

 Society for June, 1875, Dr. Veckenstedt called attention 

 to the existence of tup-markings on the walls of the 

 church of Cottbus, in Brandenburg. Since then, they 

 have been discovered on the walls of churches in more 

 than twenty different localities in Prussia, and also in 

 Germany and Switzerland, and even in Sweden. They 

 are usually on the southern side of the churches, near 

 an entrance, and not beyond the height of a man's arm. 

 According to some accounts, in Germany at least, the 

 cups were believed to possess healing virtues, chiefly 

 for charming away fevers, and in some instances these 

 modern cups in the church walls have been anointed 

 with grease, like the cups in the prehistoric elf-stenar of 

 Sweden. In Posen a tradition refers to the cups on the 

 church-walls as the work of damned souls who ground 

 them out in the night-time. 



The existence of this superstitious veneration for pre- 

 historic cup-stones, and the continuance of the custom of 

 forming cups (on the walls of Christian churches) for 

 curative purposes, pre-supposes the religious character of 

 the original system of which these twin superstitions are 

 apparently direct survivals. No evidence exists within 

 the area occupied by the prehistoric cup-stones of Europe 

 by which the precise form of the natural religion with 

 which they were connected can be determined. But a 

 religion exists in whose observances cups and circles are 



still made on rocks and stones. It does not exist in 

 Europe, and there is no direct evidence that it ever existed 

 within the European area, but it exists in the area which 

 was the home of the Aryan race. 



In the district of Nagpur, in India, Mr. Rivett-Carnac 

 found a group of grave-mounds surrounded by stone- 

 circles. The mounds contained burials after cremation, 

 accompanied by urns and implements of iron. The 

 circles round the mound are from 20 to 56 feet in dia- 

 meter, are mostly formed of trap-boulders, but each circle 

 has a few stones larger and more regularly-shaped than 

 the rest, and on these stones he found sculpturings of 

 cups and circles, which he recognises as analogous to the 

 cups and circles of the European area. He has also 

 found in Kumaon, close to the temple of Chandeshwar, a 

 rock-surface, on which, in a space 14 feet by 12 he 

 counted more than 200 cups, varying from an inch and a 

 half to six inches diameter, and from half an inch to an 

 inch in depth. These cups are occasionally surrounded 

 by rings and connected by grooves, but the usual form is 

 that of a simple cup. All these markings, whether on the 

 rocks or on the stones of sepulchral circles, are old, so old 

 that the natives attribute them to the giants. But in the 

 temple itself the conventional symbols of Siva, as Maha- 

 deva (The Generator), were in some cases represented by 

 rough slabs with a cup and circle, or concentric circles 

 with a radiating gutter rudely incised. The resemblance 

 of these symbols to the European cup and ring cuttings is 

 not so close as their resemblance to some of the sculp- 

 turings on Bald Friar Rock, on the Lower Susquehana in 

 Maryland. Mere resemblance of form, however im- 

 portant it may be in a tentative classification of things 

 whose relations are unknown, is quite insufficient if not 

 irrelevant as evidence of identity of purpose or signifi- 

 cance. Symbols that are absolutely similar in form may 

 have had widely different meanings and applications in 

 different places, at different times. Mr. Rau observes 

 that no one who has examined Mr. Rivett-Carnac's 

 papers in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 (1S79) can help admitting the striking resemblance 

 between the cup and ring cuttings of India and Great 

 Britain ; and he is probably right in his inference that the 

 close connection between cups and rings implies that both 

 belong to one system of primitive sculpture, the single cup 

 being merely the simpler form. The argument in favour 

 of both forms being symbols of the cultus of the recipro- 

 cal principles of nature rests solely on the ground of a 

 similarity of form which does not amount to identity. 

 Even though an absolute identity had been established 

 between the ancient and modern sculpturings, their 

 identity of significance would still remain to be proved. 



It appears from this extended survey of the phenomena 

 of cup and ring cuttings on rocks and boulders that more 

 progress towards the elucidation of the subject is to be 

 made by the study of their differences and diversities than 

 by the mere observation of general similarities of form 

 and circumstances. It seems probable that there are 

 some, such as the portable varieties, which had a utili- 

 tarian purpose. It is not improbable that others of larger 

 size on boulders, such as the block under the entrance to 

 the tumulus of New Grange, may have been merely orna- 

 mental ; and there are considerations which forbid the 

 absolute exclusion of the supposition that others may 

 have been commemorative, or in some sense possessed of 

 a religious connection and significance. But none of 

 these conclusions can be reached by mere force of argu- 

 ment. If the problem is ever to be solved, its solution 

 will be reached by research, by comparison of the pheno- 

 mena of different areas, and investigation of the infer- 

 ences deducible from them. With regard to the American 

 forms, Mr. Rau observes that as the cups on the 

 Cincinnati boulder are perfectly similar to those on many 

 stones in the Old World, it is probable that they owe their 

 origin to the same motives. If these motives arose from 



