Archaic Scti-pturings. 123 



■' Azilijin " or " Oransay " period, lia\ ing an antiquity of 

 some 30,000 years, which is represented in the south-west 

 of Scotland by a single relic, a bone harpoon-head found in 

 the river Dee).^ 



For several centuries curious carvings, beyond doubt the 

 work of human hands, have been noticed with astonishment 

 on boulders, cist-covers, stretches of living- rock, and on 

 standing stones. During these recent centuries they have 

 been the subject of much speculation, and ha\e hitherto 

 been deemed to involve insoluble problems. They con- 

 stitute an outstanding puzzle in pre-historic research. The 

 markings are of great variety, the designs being scarcely 

 ever repeated. They are placed upon the stone surface with- 

 out any apparent system or order, and no investigator, has 

 been able to see any " rhyme or reason " in their arrange- 

 ment. The markings consist of small cups, usually circular 

 and rarely oval. Sometimes cups alone are present, from 

 one or two up to several scores. Sometimes they are accom- 

 panied by concentric rings round some of the cups. The 

 rings are sometimes eccentric, and are occasionally penan- 

 nular, or like broken rings. The rings vary in number, and 

 often through their breaks gutters or ducts radiate from the 

 centre. The gutters occasionally trail off in an apparently 

 aimless .fashion, and sometimes link themselves up to some 

 other part of the carvings. The ducts may enlarge them- 

 selves into broad channels, sometimes of longish ovoid form, 

 and in some instances in the south-western district these 

 broadened channels are natural fissures or hollows in the 

 rock, which appear to have been utilised by the pre-historic 

 sculptor to form part of his pattern. Sometimes there are 

 seen rectangular figures with or without gutters connecting 

 them up to other parts of the sculpturings. Rarelv spirals 



4 Scot. Ex., 1911, Cat., p. 811, item 17; An Ornnsay SheU- 

 moitnd, etc., by Mr A. Henderson Bishop, in P.S.A.S., vol. xlvjii., 

 1914, p. 55, note, item 3. The relic is preserved in Kirkcudbright 

 -Museum. Its approximate age I have ventured to value according 

 to a new method of reckoning the chronological positions of the 

 more remote human periods. The method has the approval of 

 many leading authorities, and is based on both geological and 

 archaeological considerations, 



