Rock art on Weetwood Moor, 702m north east of Wooler Post Office Radio Station

Summary

Prehistoric rock art comprising three small sandstone panels of Neolithic/early Bronze Age date (approximately 3800 BC to 1500 BC).

Reasons for Designation

The prehistoric rock art on Weetwood Moor, 702m north east of Wooler Post Office Radio Station, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: despite their susceptibility to natural weathering, the panels are reasonably well preserved;
* Documentation: ritual and religious sites of Prehistoric Britain including rock art are relatively scarce and lack contemporary documentation, hence the value of the archaeological remains is enhanced as they provide our only evidence of the belief system and society which produced them;
* Diversity: a number of individual motifs are represented ranging from simple cups to more complex forms;
* Potential: these survivals will contribute to our knowledge of prehistoric society through study of the individual motifs and through an increased understanding of the circumstances in which rock art was created and the sites used;
* Group value: taken as a group with other rock art in the vicinity, they will enhance both our understanding of the inter-relationships between individual panels and their relationship to the wider landscape. The panels lie in the vicinity of nearby scheduled prehistoric rock art at Weetwood and Fowberry.

History

The term Prehistoric rock art is most commonly applied to a specific style of carvings created in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age (approximately 3800 BC to 1500 BC). This type of carving shares a limited set of motifs, with numerous variations around the main themes, and is found throughout northern Europe in a wide range of contexts, from isolated natural outcrops to burial cairns and standing stones. The most common form of motifs are the simple ‘cup mark’ (a shallow bowl-shaped depression a few centimetres across ) and the ‘cup and ring’ (a cup mark surrounded by one or more concentric circular grooves); many carvings also incorporate or are framed within linear grooves. Motifs may occur singly, in small groups, or may cover extensive areas of rock surface. The exact meaning of the designs remains unknown and a wide range of interpretations have been suggested, but they appear to be abstract and held some unknown, possibly sacred meaning for those who created and observed them. Over 5000 separate rock art sites are known in Britain of which more than half are in England and while some examples do occur further south, they are mainly confined to the upland areas of the north.

Some of the more prominent carved rocks on Weetwood Moor have been known about since the mid C19, and are described in early C20 works and by Ordnance Survey field surveyors in the later 1950s. More recently in the 1980s they were recorded by Stan Beckensall who identified many more examples. The rock art on the moor was resurveyed by The Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. One group of carved rocks on Weetwood Moor is already scheduled as an ancient monument (Westwood Bank cup and ring marked rock, NHLE entry 1006559), and in addition to rock art, Weetwood Moor retains evidence of further prehistoric activity in the form of scattered round cairns; one pair of round cairns is also scheduled (Westwood Moor round cairns, NHLE entry 1006454).

Details

Principal elements: Prehistoric rock art comprising three small sandstone panels of Neolithic/early Bronze Age date (approximately 3800 BC to 1500 BC).

Description: the more westerly of this compact group is a sandstone outcrop (ERA 125) 0.5m long and 0.45m wide, which slopes down gently from west to east. There is a natural fissure oriented east to west and three closely sited and separate motifs are present: the first situated to the north of the natural fissure is a cupmark surrounded by a penannular, with a second cupmark and penannular immediately to its south west which also has a radial groove; the third motif lies to the south of a natural fissure and is visible as a cup mark with a penannular and a radial groove. The more northerly outcrop of the group (ERA 124) is 1.2m by 0.8m and bears two well-defined cups, one with a complete ring and a groove connecting it to a second, larger cup; a second groove leads to the edge of the outcrop. The third outcrop (ERA 392) measures 0.5m by 0.45m and bears a single cup with a groove.

Extent of scheduling: a 12m diameter circle, which includes the three outcrops defined around a central point within the group.

Sources

Books and journals
Mazel, et al (eds), Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-Art of Britain, (2007)

Websites
, accessed from http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/section/access/results.jsf

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