This page is all about prehistoric Irish rock art. Generally now thought to date to the Neolithic period – about 5,000 years ago – rock art is found on outcrops and boulders in the Irish countryside. The central motif is the cupmark, a semi-spherical indentation that has been picked or bashed out. Cupmarks can occur alone, with nothing in the way of a discernible pattern, or they may appear to be arranged in rough lines or semi-circles. A rock with cupmarks only is labelled a Cupmarked Stone in the National Monuments record. If the carvings include other elements it is labelled Rock Art – the other elements mostly often take the form of circles, single or concentric, and straight or curved lines, occasionally arranged in patterns. Nobody knows if the motifs carry a meaning, but they persist in time (carrying on well into the Bronze Age) and space – the rock art tradition is found all over Atlantic Europe, so it is obvious that they codified or expressed something important to our ancestors.
Rock Art – A Diversion to Wicklow
New Rock Art Find in West Cork
Imbolc – How Our Ancestors Welcomed Spring
Experimental Archaeology – Oliver’s Cupmark
Witches’ Marks and Lovelorn Shepherds: Inscribed Rock Art in a Remote Valley
Boyle’s Bealtaine: Rock Art, Ancient Festivals, and Archaeoastronomy
Rock Art: Returning to Derrynablaha
Revealing Rock Art: 150 Years of Images
Presenting Rock Art (Exhibition at the Schull Blue House Gallery)
Launched! (Opening of the Exhibition at the Cork Public Museum)
Rock Art Exhibition – at the Cork Public Museum!
Rock Art Ramblings… away from home!
Roaringwater Journal 