138 Archaic Sculpturings. 



In a study of the cups-and-rings of Scotland it should be 

 kept in mind that the number of sectors and of zones is 

 important in this connection as well as the number of different 

 cups or sets of cups and rings. This may be accounted for by 

 the probability that the same celestial body or unit may be 

 represented at different parts of the same zone to show its 

 positions at different times. The cult of eleven seems to 

 survive in the numerous names of Allah, who was known by 

 ninety-nine names, and hence it is invariably the case that the 

 Mahommedan has a necklace consisting of either eleven or 

 a multiple of eleven beads but not exceeding ninety-nine, as 

 he is supposed to repeat one of the names for each bead which 

 he tells. 



II. 



Another class of carvings, or more properly etchings, on 

 stone, shall now be referred to briefly. 



I was fortunate to discover near Portpatrick a tomb of 

 the m.iddle Bronze Age — say about looo B.C. — which con- 

 tained pottery and an inhumed burial. Deposited with the 

 body was a small slab of slate, the whole surface of which 

 was carefully prepared and covered with etched lines in a 

 kind of reticular or net-work pattern.'^ The only relic which 

 I know of closely approaching this object in character is a 

 slate now in Toronto Museum and of North American origin. 

 I am quite unable to offer a conjecture as to what the object 

 from Portpatrick was used for. It is shown on Fig. No. 7. 



III. 



I should also here like to refer to objects of lignite, 

 ranging from late Neolithic to Mediaeval times, which have 

 been found frequently in different parts of Galloway and 

 Dumfries. Apart from the plaques of lignite, parts of neck- 

 laces of the Bronze Age, there are discs of unknown use with 

 etched designs. One was found at Portpatrick. On one 

 face (Fig. No. 8) is cut a rectangular figure divided into 

 seven compartments, each filled with a running script-like 



7 Scottish Hist. Ea-Jiih., 1911, Preh. Cat., p. 828, item 4. 



