What is recorded here

Bluid rock art includes a thick stone marked with eight linear cups on one face and fourteen semi-circular cups on the other. It left the western shore, entered Admiral Boyle Somerville’s collection, and now rests in the Cork Public Museum. The cups still suggest a hand moving across stone, counting, marking or praying in the dark before memory faded.

Donated to UCC from the collection of Admiral Boyle Somerville (1938, 59) and said to come from Bluid. Shee (1968, 149) describes a stone '75cm x 50cm and approximately 10cm thick' with 'cupmarks on both faces'. Face A has eight cup-marks, linearly arranged; face B has fourteen cup-marks arranged in semi-circular patterns. The stone is now in the Cork Public Museum (see CO074-181----). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Likely dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the stone's cupmarks may have had ritual or symbolic significance, possibly related to water or fertility. Such markings are commonly associated with ceremonial practices in prehistoric Europe.

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