RATj.i ENGLAND -IRELAND. 17 



I prefer to regard them as symbolic representations, though as to what their 

 significancy may be, I confess myself unable to offer anything more than 

 conjecture." He then draws attention to their resemblance "to the sim- 

 ilarlv-shaped pits which, found sometimes alone and sometimes in connection 

 with incomplete circles, have been discovered so extensively in Northum- 

 berland, Yorkshire, Argyleshire, Kerry, and other parts of the United 

 Kingdom, occurring in many cases upon rocks, but very frequently upon 

 detached stones of greater or less size "* In general, Mr. Greenwell met 

 with such cup-stones in barrows containing burned human remains. He 

 lays particular stress on the freshness of their cavities, and the latter cir- 

 cumstance—if, indeed, these cup-stones were designed for any practical 

 purpose— renders the solution of the question of their use extremely diffi- 

 cult, or perhaps impossible. 



IRELAND. 



Sculptures analogous to those hitherto considered have been discovered 

 in Ireland, more especially, as it appears, in the southern part of the king- 

 dom. A large stone slab, found in the County of Kerry, and figured by 

 Professor Simpson on Plate XXVII, shows on its surface single cups as 

 well as others surrounded by circles, the latter bein^ in part traversed and 

 connected by grooves. Mr. Tate likewise mentions similar Irish sculptures, 

 and represents on Plate XI (Fig. 8) a stone found in the above-named 

 county underneath several feet of peat. In lieu of a description of this 

 stone, I present in Fig. 11 a copy of Mr. Tate's design of the same. 



These simpler sculptures are often associated in Ireland with other 

 devices, such as stars, rosettes, crosses, triangles, zigzags, etc., which, as 

 far as I know, have not been observed in Great Britain. Such an assem- 

 blage of figures is exhibited on the side-surface of a block fashioned as a 

 rude seat, and belonging to the stone circle which surrounds a large cairn 

 at Lough Crew, near Oldcastle, Leinster. This block, of more than ten 



* Greenwell and Eolleston : British Barrows, etc. ; Oxford, 1877, p. 341, etc. 

 2 L S 



