Evidence of human activity in Northumberland goes
back at least 8,000 years. At this time the people were nomadic, they did
not build permanent structures but travelled across the land gathered
plants and followed herds of deer that were a major source of food. Tools
would have been made from bones, stone or flint, these have been found in
rock shelters and caves in the area. It was not until people started to
farm and to herd animals that they constructed permanent homes and
religious and funeral monuments.
In Northumberland, the earliest monuments are
about 5,000 years old and they include carved stones, stone circles and
burial cairns.
In the UK most rock art consists of abstract symbols, the
earliest carvings being found in tombs dating back to the fourth
millennium BC. Decorating rocks in the landscape started later, around
3000BC and continued into the Bronze Age. Rock carvings can be seen on
outcrops, standing stones and smaller stones that have often been used in
burial chambers. Circles are the most frequent element in the designs, the
most common being the cupmark, a circular hollow carved into the rock
surface.
Cup and ring mark
Cupmarks surrounded by one or more circles are known as cup and ring marks. Grooves are also fairly common, these are lines, either in isolation, or connecting other designs. Spirals are more complex forms and are rarer.
Old Bewick
There are countless opinions as to the meaning of the carvings and symbols and we will never know for sure why they were produced. They involved a great deal of effort and time so must have been important to the population. The most complex panels are often found at good viewpoints, on ridges and cliffs from which wide areas can be seen. They are also often found near natural features and sources of water.
Northumberland contains the largest number of recorded cup and ring marked sites in Britain with excellent open air sites at Roughting Linn, Dod Law, Lordenshaw, Weetwood Moor and where rock art was first recognised as being of historical importance at Old Bewick in the 1820s . These ancient markings are found on exposed rock faces in the northern hills. They usually involve cup shaped depressions surrounded by concentric circles that are often joined by grooves.February
2003
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