Scotland’s Neolithic Rock Art Mapped

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—The Scotsman reports that Tertia Barnett of Scotland’s Rock Art Project and her colleagues have found evidence of a “ring” of settlements dating back 5,000 years in the area around Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire. She suspects there were probably more settlements, but they have been lost over the years. “It is likely the [River] Clyde was an important artery, connecting different areas to the sea and to the islands,” she said. “People would have traveled by water instead of through the wooded interior of the country and people were generally concentrated in the coastal regions.” Discovered in the late nineteenth century, the Cochno Stone, a Neolithic cup and ring rock art panel, is one of the 30 markers in West Dunbartonshire. Another 36 carvings in Inverclyde to the north have also been recorded. The next step is to plot the rock art sites on a map of other Neolithic remains. Barnett said the project could help scholars understand how rock art was used, and if it may have marked meeting points for trade and the sharing of news. For more on archaeology in Scotland, go to “Fit for a Saint.”