84 CUP-SHAPED AND OTHER LAPIDARIAN SCULPTURES. 



more hope of success, in the early home of the Aryan family. Sometliing, 

 however, has been achieved — materials for aiding in the fuller solution of 

 the problem have been placed on record — an advanced starting-point made 

 for future inquiries — and a description and representation preserved of mar- 

 velous sculptures, which time and the elements will eventually obliterate."* 



Professor Desor devotes a considerable portion of his often-quoted 

 pamphlet to a discussion of the probable meaning of the primitive rock- 

 sculptui-es, more especially those of the simple cup type. In referring to 

 M. de Bonstetteu, who considers the cup-shaped cavities in general as the 

 work of nature (weathering out of imbedded nodules, etc.), he admits that 

 such an explanation may be applied in certain cases,t but that on the whole 

 M. de Bonstetten's view appears totally untenable. Professor Desor is not 

 very favorable to the altar theory, advocated by Nilsson, Troyon and 

 others, because the cups often appear on slanting and even vertical surfaces, 

 and thus could not have served for holding the blood of victims, or liba- 

 tions of any kind. Nor does he agree with Mr. Westropp, who believes 

 that the cups have no significance whatever, but were excavated by the 

 prehistoric people with no other object in view but that of passing the time; 

 and he likewise rejects the idea, expressed by others, that they are simply 

 of a decorative character. Having, in addition, alluded to several other 

 theories — most of them already brought to the reader's notice' — Professor 

 Desor observes as follows: — 



"If the cups on our erratic blocks are not ornaments, boundary- marks, 

 hieroglyphs, or simply the fancy-work of idle herdsmen — what else can 

 they signify 'I We hold with Dr. Keller that they were chiefly made for 

 the purpose of marking indelibly certain blocks designed to recall a cir- 

 cumstance or an event, the recollection of which was of a nature to be 

 pei'petuated.J It was doubtless left to oral tradition to explain their purport, 

 and to transmit it from generation to generation. Hence the stones thus 

 marked were invested with a monumental character — using the term in its 

 most pi'imitive acceptation — like the menhirs and the blocks which the 



*Tate: The Ancieut Sculpturod Rocks, etc.; p. 35-44. 



t Professor Simpson noticed in several instances natural cup-excavations. — Archaic Scti'.jyhcres, etc.; 

 p. :?. 



t la applying the term Denkstein to the Ober-Farrenistadt cup-stone, Wagener expresses the same 

 view. See page 24 of this publication. 



