Europe's Stone Age Mystery Symbols? I PREHISTORY DOCUMENTARY 

Thanks, I appreciate that...

Navigation may have been very important, for both carvings and standing stones. I did originally have a part in the script on a study. Basically, the most intricate rock in the UK sit nearest known route-ways. Probably more effort = bigger audience expected

Well said. These signs and symbols are very ancient indeed. Some of them represent actual night sky images other are attempting to express ideas about the relations among these images. The hole (cup) and ring relates to two specific "constellations", sometimes represented as two concentric circles. These were conceptualized as the celestial vagina symbolized by terrestial female vagina and there is a specific reason for them to have made this association. Later the vagina was symbolised by differents vessels, especail water or burial pots. Several concentric circles are not "cup and ring" but may symbolise two different ideas. The first is that these reflect "levels" at which celestial images where seen, they are a two dimential representation of a 3D sky space, for example, think of a wall, you have a bottom part, a middle part and top part and you can draw three lines to represent these levels. The second idea that several concencentric circles represents is that of counting, that is, the mqny times certain sky phenomena came around. Scattered potholes can represent counting of specific images and when scattered, these reflect the stars. Churchward, a Mason, published a book on signs and symbols from around world and rightfully claimed these emerged from Africa but ascribed ridiculously long periods of years to their emergence. These signs and symbols are the archetype for tge development of later signs and symbols of various cultures and their cultural expressions, ideas and traditions which were also captured in stories which formed the basis of myths, folktales, legends which further evolved into what we now call religion and esoterism.

@@ChrisN1973 an amazing site, and the Five Stones are a weird and wonderful site too

@@Traveler13 wow - that was fast! Really glad you enjoyed the video :)

Just caught it right

@@susannelambropoulos6185 We hear relatively little about the German / Austrian Neolithic here in Britain. Wish there was more English language info out there in it!

Do you have any hieroglyphs ?

@@megw7312 whaaaaaat? Austria, not Egypt

@@susannelambropoulos6185 How far is Rhaetia from you? (Though you may be interested to know that there are hieroglyphs found as far away as Australia - not placed there recently).

@@AdamMorganIbbotson yes.. Sorry!

@@alan- I hope you and a few thousand others do that! Controversial topic = bad engagement for a small channel.

@@Henrikbuitenhuis the spiral is a universal symbol. Give a child under 5 a crayon and paper, and they’ll draw a spiral

@@fillyfresh many thanks!

Brilliant, glad you enjoyed the video!

Thanks! Really appreciate it

@@alecjones7299 thanks!

@@neddoucet7779 Thanks! Really appreciate it. You’ve made the best decision of your life! ❤️

@@biffa1234100 many thanks!

Thanks for the support!

@@AdamMorganIbbotson Anytime Pal .

@@AndyJarman that could well be the case here. Though again, those rings and decorative elements wouldn’t fit

@@janecapon2337 Thanks!

@@B50Stevie Thanks! Really appreciate it. There actually aren’t hundreds of them! The people making those lists mistake Bronze Age funerary sites and damaged burial mounds (with left kerb stones) as stone circles. In reality, there are 40 or so mid-to-late megalithic stone circles, intended for ritual enclosure. Not ever circle of stone IS a stone circle!

@@jamiebooth135 Thanks Jamie

@@harrisonofthenorth ah - well - I do have two books that cover those areas. Fylingdales, there’s a good report by Blaise Vyner. And Cumbria, there are a few books, and a massive report from 2019 - “After the Axes” by Richard Bradley et al. This video is very surface level, so I suggest reading on those areas if interested

My scrawled notes in maths class had a few more cartoon cocks

Ah, if only I had asked the author of the popular “Yorkshire’s Prehistoric Monuments”. Oh wait - I am him! There are certainly standing stones in Yorkshire, and some in Kent and Northumbria - but far, far fewer. AND, those that exist are more associated with the Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age - not the mid-to-late Neolithic, when most of the west coast examples were erected.

@@AdamMorganIbbotson I wasn't calling you out, just surprised that those had not been mentioned. I alerted archaeological surveyor Tim Lawrie to the existence of the Agra group and together we plotted & recorded most of the stones.

@@neilmcintosh1200 don’t worry, I know you weren’t! The Agra art is potentially the best in Yorkshire - so an amazing discovery!

@@AndyJarman hm, well I do remember drawing spirals when I was a young child. It’s such a simple shape, I would imagine everyone has at least traced it before. Easy coincidence

@@maxinemontgomery9162 I suppose it’s a universally easy set of symbols to carve. Give a child a pen and paper, and they’ll probably scribble a few spirals and circles.

@@loriwooten5249 thanks, will do

Not really similar: Those man-in-the-maze patterns are - as you know - similar to the mazes found across the world (although notably absent from Australia, New Zealand, China and sub-Saharan Africa except Ethiopia), which are constructed by geometric algorithms topologically related to evolutes. A graffitto in Strabiniana Street, Pompeii, was labelled "labyrinthus hic habitat Minotaurus" in c. 79 AD, and there is one exactly like it in an adobe lodge in Arizona - as well as on a clay tablet found in Pylos, Greece. The same squared-off algorithmic design has been used recently on traditional Navajo blankets. One algorithm variant can be used to construct those patterns to fit around a central field. Examples include numerous Roman tesselated pavements (rectangular to fit rectangular rooms in rectangular buildings in rectangular street-patterns which were oriented, so those mazes are oriented, too). The same type has been found in the USA. The number of possible designs is infinite within constraints mathematically described by the Catalan Series. In the specific type that you mention, the construction algorithm is a variant which makes it possible to weave the pattern into a tray or bowl such those made by Pima. They are woven around a spiral, which severely limits freedom for design variation. The algorithm used to make the more widely occurring evolute type can make infinite different designs around the vertices and internal arcs of any regular constructable circumsection. The designs converge on two types of attractor, - spirals and cardioids - at opposite extremes of their range. Mazes with different patterns made by the same algorithm are found in Nazca, Peru, Madras, India, and on skerries of the Baltic and White seas, and in many other places. Taken as a group, the above pattern types are - geometrically - much more closely related to key-pattern meanders and to swastika mandalas than to cup-and-ring marks (although the two are found together as petroglyphs in Pontevedra, Spain). Contextual analysis suggests that they symbolised the chthonic path, and this seems to be confirmed by one built into the foundations of the tholos at Epidavros, Greece - physically occupying the plane separating Cthon and Antichthon. Their use in magic in Africa, India, and Sweden is consistent with exorcism, and the myths are thematically consistent with use as incantations (in the yantra-mantra-puja type of sympathetic magic). There is a later, specifically Christian, analogue labelled "laborintus" on Mappa Mundi, Hereford Cathedral, England. The various designs always include elements made by the algorithms that I have mentioned above... but these mazes are oriented. Also paths are turned back at the cardinal directions (as represented on T O maps of the Middle Ages) to depict an undrawn cross. This disrupts the pattern-grammar, thus the entirety of each design is not algorithmically constructed, but is governed by a schema in a similar way to using geometric shapes - such as the triangle or pentagon, or proportions such as the double square or golden ratio - to aid composition of a landscape painting. Both groups of mazes are co-located with types of computus - in Christianity for the determination of the date of Easter and thus with an eclipse, whereas the narrative of Mahabharata links the construction of Cakra-Vyuha (depicted as a maze) with an eclipse. Baltic petroglyphs depicting a computus with a maze link their occurence to a known method of predicting tide times, but the use of the maze - if it is also a computus - is not known. So... not cup-and-ring marks... different rabbit-hole. Catalogue: "Labyrinthe" Hermann Kern, Prestel Verlag, Germany (and translations) Best libraries: University of Uppsala, Sweden; Gotland Museum, Visby, Gotland, Sweden.

@@lindsayheyes925 Well, that's over my head; I just thought they were cool to be so far away from each other yet look similar AND have meaning to more than one culture. (I remember also when the pyramids were said to be happenstance similar.) If memory serves, and it may not, I was told saguaro cacti are found those same 2 places in the world. Thank you; I'll reread for understanding. Respect!

@@loriwooten5249 You might find their non-geometric analogues interesting too: Magic squares, Ba Gua, acrostic rectangles and latin word-squares, beheadments and literary labyrinths of ambiguity, mystic roses, certain mandalas and some Western esoterica. Chaucer's "The Merchaunte's Tale" is a shaggy-dog story in which the punch line is a pun on the word "mase". The entire tale is a maze analogue which is signalled throughout the text. Rabbit-holes...

Could be, but honestly, the ring marks are often very complex and abstract - almost certainly art. They COULD be later additions to cup marks, which once had a practical function (e.g dust for polishing axes)

Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

Thanks!

Could be, but there ARE carvable stones everywhere. Why this division is in place is not so simple.

Thanks!

@@giuseppersa2391 thanks!

@@ReyArteb not a bad idea! Though, I’d like to see someone try to prove it!

@@lindsayheyes925 very interesting AND similar you’re right! Wonder if there’s ever been a connection drawn? Needs an ethnoarchaeologist!

@@AdamMorganIbbotson I wrote a short paper on it for the Open University History of Mathematics Course. It was all known previously, I just drew the threads together from different disciplines.

@@jbaker6745 thanks!

@@cargilekm I don’t know if there are many (or any identified). Though, there are a LOT of jadeite axes from the Swiss Alps found across Britain, so trade was happening

@@BenPortmanlewes some people do think they’re maps. Some of them do look like enclosures

@@RaketicBearwood some archaeologists do think they’re maps!

@@kimberlyboldt5213 ah - you may want to watch the video! I discuss this to an extent. Most cup marks in the USA are connected to grain and tool production. Spirals etc are obviously artistic though, but a common and easy motif!

@@PigletCNC thanks!

@@mirandamom1346 the establishment is trying to silence me!

@@AdamMorganIbbotson😂

@@gkidd1963 true!

@@christianwhittaker6718 Cup and ring? I’ll have a look, but always thought there was far less there than elsewhere

@@angusarmstrong6526 It could very well be geological - as those mountains have the stone needed for creation of monuments and rock art. Though, I would still suggest cultural, and the east / west divide is visible in the STYLE of monuments and rock art

Could be the case, though it does seem Scandinavia developed these traditions slightly later than Britain itself. I’m no expert on that though!

In 2016 I spent several days in Northumberland, searching for "cup and ring" symbols. I could not find any, even in locations that are marked on maps. I woukd like to try again.

@@gwaithwyr the Megalithic Portal is your best friend

@@richardclegg7846 Thanks, I really appreciate the support!

@@patrycjakonieczna Maybe so! Many people think they may have been guides

@@AdamMorganIbbotson amazing. For me history traced in stone is really fascinating. Tell you why. I live (and my ancestors did, too) in area in Poland where there are many traces of earlier eons. And of early human activity. This is Góry Świętokrzyskie. Just one stroll in place they are just building a road and you find interesting fossils. Beside of this, I would enumerate several places where prehistoric people lived like Jaskinia Raj/Paradise Cage. Worth to see.

@@yarlkymcfirblatherington9879 My map of Irish Passage Tomb Art does show the Calderatones. They’re spirals and footprints, not typical for cup and ring. Plus, they were within a passage tomb originally! One of the many examples on the west coast, melding cup and ring and passage tomb art

@@ivornelsson2238 good spot, though I would argue any line of three dots could be recognised at Orion’s Belt

@@AdamMorganIbbotson Not at all. The three belt stars are significant by its two larger cupmarks and one smaller, slightly out of line with the two larger ones. Just like you can observed with your own eyes as our ancestors did.

@@ivornelsson2238 If any one of the three are slightly off line it would appear that way. It’s not necessarily purposeful. AND, the rock’s been broken on the art

@@andystagg7668 my presenter is from the south of England, they sound a bit like Boris Johnson there 👍🏻

That's definitely not his actual voice. He's definitely trying to adopt that public school sound, like Johnson, but it's hugely annoying! Just speak normally, man, for god's sake!

@@Paul-ki7mh I’ll let him know

Who cares. As long as it isn't an AI voice or some cackling lunatic and the person pronounces words correctly, a voice is a voice. I rather like this deep voice.

I think the subject matter happens to be more interesting than someone’s voice, if you can understand what he is saying then there’s no problem.

@@neddoucet7779 Thanks!

@@robertstaas9314 no! But I feel that’s a topic all its own (and I have no footage)

Although cup and ring marks are very prolific, covering a larger geographical area, Scotland is not really mentioned in this video.

@@vamboroolz1612 I show some Scottish examples, and it is included on the map. The north of Scotland, like some of the more mountainous regions of England / Wales, was not home to a widespread culture of cup and rings.

@@AndyJarman no, it is a German painting though ‘Wanderer Above a Sea if Fog’

@@rrstows3522 or stars..

Thanks! I am sick of him, and discussion around him, too. That’s actually what the video is about! It got terrible engagement because people thumbs downed it thinking I was arguing for / against him. ALSO - new edition of my Cumbria book out this October, with 40+ new sites, and improvements all around!

@@AdamMorganIbbotson sweet, I can give the previous edition to my mate. He grew up in the lake district so I want to persuade him to show me around

@@cargilekm Good points - though it was more likely the industrial chimneys than any enclosures. The Neolithic landscape was mostly enclosed and deforested - as farming required constant movement to source fertile soils prior to advanced farming techniques. Britain was at minimum forestation during the Bronze Age!

@@sevencranes That would assume there are no rocks to carve in East Anglia. Even if they were perishable in some way, buried examples would survive. Only small cultural differences would be needed to make decorative styles differ

@@AdamMorganIbbotson fair. Is it worth investigating whether there are rock artefacts of any description in East Anglia (other than flint)? (There are the Grimes Graves artefacts, but these seem to be the only ones from the area). If there are then that would give an indication that suitable rock exists but there isn’t any rock art. If there aren’t, then that might suggests that there isn’t any survivable rock. Underlying geology of much of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire is limestone/sandstone. There isn’t any igneous/metamorphic rock that I’m aware of, tho not my area or expertise, so happy to be corrected.

@@sevencranes well, Anglia is a specific example, as it was probably marsh / bog. It may also have had a lower population - so you’re right, it may be geographical. There ARE very old monuments, called the ‘Medway Megaliths’ nearby in Kent. But those are outliers

Most of us in cumbria don't like anywhere that isn't cumbria. It's a cumbrian thing. 😂😅

@@AdamMorganIbbotson I can’t cite anything (so take with a pinch of salt) but I think EA was reasonably well populated in the Neolithic. The wet areas are largely restricted to the Broads and the Fens, and the latter has a whole series of causeway enclosures around the margins. And there where the two henges found at Holme (seahenge). There’s a henge monument on the outskirts of Norwich (Arminghall), tho not sure if that’s Neolithic or Bronze Age. Not much survives inland, but suspect that’s because it’s always been good agricultural land. Interesting debate, and love the videos :)

@@eric-wb7gj Thanks for your comment - glad you enjoyed the video! But… I’d suggest you bin your Graham Hancock books. He’s a bore, who has no evidence, and talks complete nonsense.

@@AdamMorganIbbotson Thank you for your reply. I don't have any G.Hancock books. I know he proposes an ancient civilisation, that's it. I look at all the photos of ancient buildings from across the world, from cultures which supposedly had no contact, according to historical narrative, which somehow still have the same architecture - How?! Like your 'swirls' they appear across the world. This gives only 2 possibilities - You've either got some remarkable coincidences, almost impossible, or there was an initial source. With historical narrative, we can go from hunter gatherers to landing on the moon in only 6k years. As we have actually found earlier settlements than historical narrative of thousands of years (& more keep getting found), & Younger Dryas event has been proven at 9500BC, it makes sense that somewhere an advanced civilisation 'could' have appeared, but been lost. Even now, our major cities are built on coastline. I'm not talking about spaceships, lasers etc, but just with enough technology to have ships/trade go around the world. This can be done with wooden or reed ships (which has already been proved).

@@eric-wb7gj Apologies, I assumed you were a Hancock fan as the Younger Dryas lost civilisation narrative was / is his idea. Or, he’s where that ship sails from anyway. Others who profit off spreading those ideas (lots of RU-vidrs / conspiracy theorists) use that idea like it’s fact - but it’s not. Re. the similarities between symbols globally - there are FAR simpler theories on why such carvings are found around the globe. For one, spirals, circles, and dots are such basic designs, that even children doodle them without inspiration. You don’t need an ancient Atlantian to give you that idea. Secondly, cup marks may represent some as-of-yet unknown practice, and not art. Basically, there’s absolutely no need bring in a lost civilisation, and there is literally, genuinely, zero evidence for the existence of such a thing. Feel free to believe it, but it’s probably not true! Sorry!!

@@n0killz44 what about them?

@@AdamMorganIbbotson well, I don’t know. But the ones with multiple layers like my local site is very reminiscent of the pictographs you shared at the beginning of your video. And when you described Stone Age technology you basically explained how we think the hillfort was made, by piling up rocks. I’ve long believed it to be a religious site as we have half a dozen ring forts nearby in defensive locations high up and yet our ‘hillfort’ sits on a plain overlooked by them, and I know of no freshwater source nearby.

hmmmm, yeah - a circle! WEIRD!

@AdamMorganIbbotson I agree it's super weird!

@@gleeart While the geology may play a part, there are still stone tools and monuments in the south. The fact that there is no rock art there, even buried, is curious. And, the wooden coastal ‘henges’ are far later - Bronze Age, not mid-to-late Neolithic

Because rock art is just that exciting

Nothing pretend about it, it’s my brother who lived in Suffolk for 3+ years

What voice is that face supposed to have?

@@ianlaw6410 my presenter has a problem with his larynx

@@buddavaio Thanks!

@@susannebrunberg4174 fair enough! It’s all semantics really, as I’d say anything prehistoric is early! Re. Dating, there is a LOT of evidence that standing stones / megalithic tombs are mid-to-late Neolithic. Carbon-14 dating for one. Even Graham Hancock won’t touch the UK, because the dating evidence is so strong

- Ruhollah Khomeini, 1979

@@macinthewild8116 I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water Mac - despite my presenter’s awful Boris Johnson impression, I think it’s well worth a watch!

@@dangleebals6746 Now, I really want to know what made you think that…

@@darranwilkins4648 Ey? What’s the common thesis? Also, are you from Glasgow?

@@darranwilkins4648 what does “preclude with” mean? And ‘everything’ is one word.