Editing Cup and ring mark (section)

==Canaan==

[[File:Cupandring.png|thumb| "...and on a projecting boss of rock close by is the only "cup and ring" mark I have seen in Palestine."]]

The site of [[Atlit Yam]], abandoned circa 6300 BCE and now under Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast south of [[Haifa]], features cup marks engraved into megalithic stones, some of which are set upright to form a semi-circle which has been referred to as resembling the UK's Stonehenge but smaller,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Marchant|first=Jo|date=25 November 2009|title=Deep Secrets: Atlit-Yam, Israel|journal=New Scientist|publisher=Reed Business Information Ltd.|issue=2736|pages=40, 41|issn=0262-4079|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427361.400-atlityam-israel.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/Local-Israel/Around-Israel/Israels-Atlantis |title=Israel's Atlantis |date=21 May 2009 |website=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=4 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.antiquities.org.il/article_eng.aspx?sec_id=14&subj_id=139 |title=The Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site of Atlit-Yam |website=Israel Antiquities Authority|access-date=2022-11-04}}</ref> with ceremonially buried bodies at the site, and potential alignments to the solstice, and/or to other stars, still being hypothesized as the site was only discovered in 2009 and undersea sites are difficult and expensive to explore.  Further inland, dating to ''at least'' 3000 BCE (exposed) and estimated ''up to'' 4000 BCE (unexcavated layer, under the layer which is exposed), is [[Rujm el-Hiri]], a [[cairn]] ([[tumulus]]) type of megalith, consisting of concentric circles (as cup marks also are ''concentric'' circles, but much smaller than Rogem Hiri) estimated to contain 40,000,000&nbsp;kg of stones moved by humans, with an opening in the outer circle which aligns to the summer solstice (just as sites throughout Eurasia also align to solstices) and which has a burial chamber in the center, with thousands of [[dolmen]]s nearby, a "dolmen" being a 3rd and younger type of megalith found elsewhere in Eurasia, the oldest of which, thus far, are found in the UK, but date only to the 3rd millennium BCE in Israel.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1164&mag_id=115 |title=Shamir |website=Hadashot Arkheologiyot, Excavations and Surveys in Israel|access-date=2022-07-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Dolmens.html#Location|title=Dolmens - prehistoric megalith tombs|website=www.biblewalks.com|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref>

The cup marks are still present in other proto-[[Canaan]]ite sites as recently as the [[Chalcolithic]] Age, for example at several sites in and around modern-day [[Modiin]] dated to the fourth millennium BCE<ref>{{cite journal|last=van den Brink|first=Edwin|title=Modi'in, Horbat Hadat and Be'erit (A)|journal=Hadashot Arkheologiyot|date=2 Dec 2007|volume=119|url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx?id=484&mag_id=112}}</ref> and the third millennium BCE,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.modiin.muni.il/ModiinWebSite/ArticlePage.aspx?PageID=305_200|title=עיריית מודיעין מכבים רעות, גבעת התיתורה|website=www.modiin.muni.il|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> and in the [[City of David (historic)#Chalcolithic .284500.E2.80.933500 BCE.29|City of David, Old Jerusalem]]. [[Tel Gezer]] has more up-ended megaliths dating to only 1550 BCE which are aligned to Earth's north and south physical poles, but Tel Gezer's cupmarks have only recently been surveyed (2012) and do not appear to have been dated (as to whether they were made before, concurrent to or after the 1550 BCE megaliths) yet;<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mitchell|first=Eric |author2=Jason M. Zan |author3=Cameron S. Coyle |author4=Adam R. Dodd|title=Tel Gezer, Regional Survey|journal=Hadashot Arkheologiyot|date=31 Dec 2012|volume=124|url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=2192}}</ref> however, excavations at Gezer are ongoing as of 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telgezer.com|title=Home - Tel Gezer Project|website=www.telgezer.com|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref>