1 908-1909.] Cup- and Ring-Marked Stones, 1 3 1 



speaks of " their probable ornamental character," and " their 

 possible religious character," and thinks they may be both 

 symbolic and ornamental. There can be no doubt, as Sir 

 James says, that these mysterious carvings date from a very 

 remote era. He remarks that man has in all ages been a 

 painter and a sculptor, and that if he made carvings anywhere, 

 it would be around the places of burial of his departed friends. 

 Hence the prevalence of these mystic carvings on the stones 

 of megalithic circles, in sepulchral chambers, on cist lids, &c. 

 The leadiag thought in my mind is that there was a gradual 

 evolution from the earliest and rudest symbols — the incised 

 cups and rings, to the highly developed symbols in relief on 

 the "Early Christian Monuments," such as the Eosemarkie 

 Stone, the " bosses " on that and other stones being the 

 counterpart of the " cups." -^ There is no doubt a great gulf 

 between these two extremes, and there are many " missing 

 links " in the chain of evidence. But some of the links still 

 remain, and even among these archaic carvings themselves, 

 there was a large process of evolution covering a long period 

 of time, from the first rude markings of cups only, through 

 all the variations, — cups with ducts ; with one concentric ring, 

 whole or broken, with or without duct ; with many rings ; 

 rings without cups (as ideas evolved); combinations of sets 

 of these; spirals, single, double, and in groups, — and so on. 

 I will take as the first the wonderful sculptures (described 

 and illustrated by Sir James) in tumuli in Ireland and Brit- 

 tany, which he considers of a more advanced type than those 

 in Britain. They certainly seem more artistic, and more of 

 an attempt has been made to cover the available space with 

 carvings. (See the horse-shoe pattern from Brittany as a 

 small sample of this.) Another link exists in some of the 

 caves near Wemyss, in Eife. Sir James tells of incised sculp- 

 tures on the walls of some of these caves representing many 

 of the same symbols as those on the " Sculptured Stones " 

 or " Early Christian Monuments," such as the cross, crescent, 

 spectacle ornament, V- and Z-shaped sceptres, &c. Then there 

 are some " Sculptured Stones " with the same symbols incised 

 on them, as at Dingwall and Edderton in Eoss- shire, the 

 spectacle ornament on the latter being upright. Now notice 



1 See 'Transactions,' 1901-1902, p. 327. 



