Rock art at Goatscrag, 200m north west of Routin Lynn

Summary

Rock art comprising a single panel of Neolithic/early Bronze Age date (approximately 3800 BC to 1500 BC).

Reasons for Designation

The prehistoric rock art at Goatscrag rock shelter is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: the rock art panel is reasonably well preserved with motifs that are well-formed and deeply incised; its relationship to its wider landscape context is preserved;
* Documentation: ritual and religious sites of Prehistoric Britain are without contemporary documentation and hence the value of the archaeological remains as our only evidence of their belief systems is enhanced;
* Diversity: the panel is unusually characterised by the presence of grooves, mostly of horseshoe form which are clustered into three small groupings;
* Potential: it will contribute to our knowledge of prehistoric society through study of the panel and its individual motifs and through an increased understanding of the circumstances in which rock art was created and used;
* Group value: taken with other examples of rock art nearby, it will enhance both our understanding of the inter-relationships between individual panels, and their wider relationship to the surrounding landscape.

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. Other shapes and patterns such as keyholes and rosettes also occur, but are less frequent. 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.

This rock art panel occupying the top of the crag at about 170m OD was recorded by Stan Beckensall in the later C20 and was re-surveyed by the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP).

Details

This rock art panel (ERA 8) is situated at about 170m OD on the top of the east-west series of sandstone crags known as Goatscrag, where it occupies an outcrop situated on the very edge of a precipitous drop. The site provides an extensive viewpoint south of the surrounding landscape including the Cheviot Hills and areas of prominent Fell Sandstone, the latter containing known rock art sites. Immediately below and at the base of the crags lie the Goatscrag rock shelters that produced contemporary evidence of Bronze Age burials. This panel has three small groupings of motifs, two of which have clearly defined horseshoe grooves and the first group has two single grooves with almost right-angled bends. A third group has a clear, deep horseshoe with cups at the ends.

Extent of scheduling: this is defined as a circle with a diameter of 5m in order to include the rock art panel and the archaeologically sensitive surrounding area. Two rock art panels lie further to the east and are the subject of a separate scheduling (Rock art including four animal carvings at Goatscrag rock shelter, 155m north west of Routin Lynn, National Heritage List entry 1417671).

Sources

Books and journals
Beckensall, S, Prehistoric Rock Motifs of Northumberland Volume 1, (1991), 6-7

Websites
England's Rock Art, accessed from http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/section/panel/overview.jsf?eraId=8

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