A Gup-Mark Inscription in the Ghumbi Valley. 

 (With one plate.) 

 By E. H. C. Walsh, I.C.S. 



[Read March 7th, 1906.] 



The inscription (PI. XIII, figs. 1, 2) which forms the subject of the present paper is 

 cut on a rock on the west bank of the Ammo-Chhu River in the Chumbi Valley. Its in- 

 terest lies in the fact that it proves the existence of cup-mark inscriptions in a part of the 

 world in which they have not been hitherto known to exist, that it forms a link between 

 similar inscriptions on rocks in Kumaon and those which are reported to exist in the 

 valley of the Ho River in China, and that its situation bears out the theory put forward 

 by Mr. Rivett Carnac, 1 that such inscriptions may be expected to be found in the oldest 

 and most frequented passes used from time immemorial by advancing tribes ; and that it 

 would thus show that in very early ages intercourse took place between Bhutan and Tibet 

 by means of the Chumbi Valley. 



Before describing the inscription, a few remarks on cup marks in general may not be 

 out of place. 



Cup marks, by which are meant incised hollowed-out circular depressions resem- 

 bling cups, are found on the surfaces of rocks, monoliths and tumuli throughout every 

 country of Europe, and also in America and many other parts of the world. They are 

 generally shallow and vary from an inch in diameter to three inches, and occasionally 

 more. Sometimes the marks found on a particular rock or monolith are of uniform size 

 and sometimes of two sizes, a larger and a smaller. In some cases the cup is sur- 

 rounded by one or more rings cut in the stone round it, and these rings again are, in some 

 cases, intersected by a straight line running through them from the cups in the centre. 

 In other examples the surrounding ring is left open so as not to cut this line from the 

 central cup, and the open ends of the ring are deflected parallel to this line from the cup. 

 These last examples would appear from the apparent evolution of this form from the one 

 previously noticed, to be of a later date. In some cases two or more simple cup marks 

 are found united by straight lines cut in the rock between them. The above-mentioned 

 forms are the typical forms of cup marks, though some other combinations are also 

 found in some cases, in what would appear to be later examples. 



The subject of cup marks was first studied by Sir J. Y. Simpson, who gave the 

 results of his investigations in a paper which he read before the Society of Antiquaries of 

 Scotland in 1864, and, subsequently, published in an enlarged form in his " British Archaic 

 Sculpturings."- The examples of cup marks which had then been noticed were chiefly 



1 Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, 1903, p. 523. 



2 British Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., by Sir J. Y. Simpson. Edinburgh : Edmonston and Douglas, 1S67. 



Mem. A.S.B. 15-5-06 



