Boulder with prehistoric rock art at Glovershaw Farm

Summary

A relocated boulder retaining a complex panel of prehistoric rock art.

Reasons for Designation

The Boulder with prehistoric rock art at Glovershaw Farm sited at SE 13216 40575, immediately to the east of the gateway to the farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Documentation: rock art can be viewed as a form of documentation, markings left by people before the development of written records. Consequently surviving examples, especially those of the complexity displayed here, have a particular value whilst being enigmatic;
* Diversity: this boulder displays a set of carvings that is relatively complex in comparison with most examples of prehistoric rock art identified in West Yorkshire;
* Survival: although no longer in its original position, parts of this example of prehistoric rock art are particularly well preserved, retaining evidence of tooling in the form of peck marks;
* Potential: in providing an understanding of prehistoric rock art and via this, a greater insight into prehistoric society and beliefs.

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 6,000 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.

The boulder carved with prehistoric rock art to the east of the gateway to Glovershaw Farm was identified by a community archaeology project (Carved Stones Investigations: Rombalds Moor) which ran in 2010-2013, contributing to a larger project, England’s Rock Art. This boulder is believed to have been moved to its current position in around 2001, with evidence (in the form of plough damage to two opposite edges) suggesting that it had been moved at least once previously. It is not known where the boulder originated, but it is thought to have originally been part of the local bedrock, rather than being moved any great distance, either as a glacial erratic or in more recent times. There are numerous carved rocks in the local area that are thought to be in their original locations, together with at least eight carved rocks that have been incorporated into drystone field walls to the west of the farm buildings. These other relocated carved rocks, that are not included in the scheduling, have carvings that are much less extensive than those displayed on the boulder to the east of the gateway to the farm.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENT: boulder retaining a panel of Neolithic to early Bronze Age rock art carving.

DESCRIPTION: the boulder is of local sandstone, wedge-shaped and straight-sided, measuring 2.1m by 1.4m by nearly 1m high at its thickest, western end. It was probably part of the bedrock when carved, rather than being a glacially deposited boulder. The upper face is sub-rectangular and glacially polished to a smooth surface, the western two thirds of which is covered with a complex set of carvings including around 60 cups of varying size, shape and depth, and long sinuous grooves enclosing some areas of carving and connecting others. This has been described as presenting a very ‘organic’ form to the overall design of the panel. A large number of the cups and grooves show very clear and distinct pecking including one dense area of pecking around a central cup. The excellent preservation of this tooling is unusual. A group of cups, at what is now at the south western part of the boulder, are positioned on a raised and domed area that is more weathered than the rest of the carving.

EXTENT OF MONUMENT: the boulder is no longer in its original location and so the monument extends to include the boulder, but not the underlying or surrounding ground. The monument has been mapped as a 3m diameter circle to fully enclose the boulder.

Sources

Websites
Entry on the database for England's Rock Art (ref number 2657), accessed 8/3/18 from http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/section/panel/overview.jsf?eraId=2657

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