Editing Cup and ring mark (section)

{{short description|Form of prehistoric art}}
{{redirect|Cup mark|a carved depression alone|Rock cupule}}
[[File:Cup and ring marks.jpg|thumb|Typical cup and ring marks at Weetwood Moor, in the English county of [[Northumberland]] ([http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=55.54754N+1.99632W&spn=0.020343,0.028783&hl=en Google Maps])]]
'''Cup and ring marks''' or '''cup marks''' are a form of [[prehistoric art]] found in the Atlantic seaboard of Europe (Ireland, Wales, [[Northern England]], Scotland, France ([[Brittany]]), Portugal, and Spain ([[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]) – and in Mediterranean Europe – Italy (in Alpine valleys and Sardinia), Azerbaijan and Greece ([[Thessaly]]{{citation needed|date=October 2018}} and [[Irakleia (Cyclades)]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=22675 |title=Irakleia spiral shaped Petroglyph 4 - Rock Art in Greece in Greek Islands |date=2014-07-08 |access-date=2022-11-04}}</ref>), as well as in [[Scandinavia]] (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland){{citation needed|date=October 2018}} and in Switzerland (at Caschenna in [[Canton of Grisons|Grisons]]). 

Similar forms are also found throughout the world including [[Australia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://debandrandall.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/east-mcdonnel-ranges.html|title=East McDonnel Ranges|website=debandrandall.blogspot.co.uk|date=July 2010|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> [[Gabon]], [[Greece]], [[Hawaii]],<ref name="Alpert - Anthropologie-Moravian Museum">{{cite journal |last1=Alpert |first1=Barbara Olins |title=Cupoles, Circles and Mandalas |journal=Anthropologie |date=1962 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=171–178 |jstor=26295871 }}</ref> [[India]] ([[Bhanpura#Daraki-Chattan Cave survey Bhanpura|Daraki-Chattan]] and [[Dwarahat]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rockartscandinavia.com/images/articles/a19india.pdf |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.rockartscandinavia.com}}</ref>), [[Israel]], [[Mexico]], [[Mozambique]]<ref>{{cite book | title = Prehistoric Man and his story | url = https://archive.org/details/prehistoricmana00elligoog | last = Francis Scott Elliot | first = George | year=1915 | publisher = Seeley, Service | page = 398}}</ref> and [[the Americas]].<ref name="Pica-Callahan">{{cite book |last1=Callahan |first1=Kevin L. |title="Pica, Geophagy and Rock Art in the Eastern United States" in The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight |date=2004 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=9780817350963 |pages=65–74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vM2Z5OB438MC&q=Kevin+L.+Callahan+cupmark&pg=PA66 |access-date=20 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="Ferg - Kiva">{{cite journal |last1=Ferg |first1=Alan |title=The Petroglyphs of Tumamoc Hill |journal=Kiva - the Tumamoc Hill Survey: An Intensive Study of a Cerro de Trincheras in Tucson, Arizona |date=1979 |volume=45 |issue=1/2 |pages=95–118 |jstor=30247666 }}</ref>  The oldest known forms are found from the [[Fertile Crescent]] to [[India]].

They consist of a [[wikt:concave|concave]] depression, no more than a few centimetres across, pecked into a rock surface and often surrounded by concentric circles also etched into the stone. Sometimes a linear channel called a [[wikt:Special:Search/gutter|gutter]] leads out from the middle.
The decoration occurs as a [[petroglyph]] on natural boulders and outcrops and also as an element of [[megalithic art]] on purposely worked [[megalith]]s such as the slab [[cist]]s of the [[Food Vessel culture]], some [[stone circle]]s and [[passage grave]]s such as the [[clava tomb]]s and on the [[Coping (architecture)|capstones]] at [[Newgrange]].