RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 187 



existed anywhere in this western land, as has been supposed, 

 — but, with regard to this, the conjectured instances* pointed out 

 in Cornwall and Scilly, although curious are not of a convincing 

 kind. 



Some writers have surmised, and ingeniously! argued, that 

 theories connected with the productiveness of the earth and the 

 renewal or regeneration of human nature were associated with 

 menhirs, stone circles, groups of rock such as formed a dol-men, 

 and the cutting through of such stones as the men-an-tol. This 

 last has a well-known ceremony attaching to it for the recovery 

 of pristine health, which has been cited in support of this view 

 of its superstitious use. Eespecting this same relic, others have 

 conjectured that it had an astronomical origin, whilst others, 

 again, have supposed tbat it was sepulchral. 



To account for holed- stones, |' the tethering to them of victims 

 for sacrifice has also been suggested, and some have thought 

 that rock-basons were used for the reception of sacrificial blood. 



We cannot however dwell further on these surmises. 



Perforations made in upright stones riven from their native 

 beds, can scarcely be classed with Rock -markings, except in so 

 far as the stones may be regarded as rude fragments of rock 

 belonging to a remote era, but they introduce us to the consider- 

 ation of incised rock-marks in general, and the fact remains that 

 the apparently oldest stone incisions traceable in Cornwall are 

 circular in form. 



Prehistoric rock-marks of any kind are very rare in Cornwall, 

 although circles, pillars, cromlechs, and cist-vaens, are numerous, 

 also Inscribed stones§ belonging to a later period. 



In the north of Great Britain and also abroad rock-marks 

 abound, || they include single rings and concentric circles, with or 

 without a central pit or dot, certain curved and other lines, &c, 

 also simple cup-marks not encircled. 



*Borlase's " Antiquities," plate ix, and page 165. 



fPhallic remains, 1889, pp. 68, 74, 76. 



^Twelve of them are given in Lukis's Prehistoric Monuments of Cornwall, 

 Plates xxxiii, xxxiv. 



§Their incisions consist of some or all of the following : — letters(but no oghams); 

 crosses, scrolls, and interlaced work ; various other symbolic figures and ornaments. 



||See Tate, Simpson, &c. ; and Lubbock's Prehistoric Times, pp. 159—161 



