namentation consists of a
strongly incised line running downwards from the perforation with
small branch lines directed alternately right and left. Any human
being, who would wear this object, either as an ornament or religious
emblem, would be endowed with the most archaic ideas of decorative art
known in the history of human civilisation. Yet we can have no doubt
that the individual who manufactured it, if he were an inhabitant of
any of the Clyde sites, was at the same time living in a period not
devoid of culture, and was in possession of excellent cutting
implements, most likely of iron, with which he manipulated wood, deer-
horn, and other substances. These objects are nearly all perforated,
as if intended for suspension, but sometimes, in addition to this,
there is a large central hole around which there is always an
ornamentation, generally consisting of incised circles or semicircles,
with divergent lines leading into small hollow points, the so-called
cup-marks."

I shall return to the theory that the stones were "ornaments"; meanwhile
I proceed to the consideration of "cup-marks" on stones, large or small.

XVIII--CUP MARKS IN CRANNOGS

As to cup marks, or _cupules_, little basins styled also _ecuelles_, now
isolated, now grouped, now separate, now joined by hollowed lines, they
are familiar on rocks, funeral cists, and so forth in Asia, Europe, and
North America (and Australia), as M. Cartailhac remarks in reviewing Dr.
Magni's work on Cupped Rocks near Como. {73a} "Their meaning escapes
us," says M. Cartailhac.

These cups, or cupules, or _ecuelles_ occur, not only at Dumbuck, but in
association with a Scottish crannog of the Iron age, admirably described
by Dr. Munro himself. {73b} He found a polished celt, {73c} and a cupped
stone, and he found a fragmentary block of red sandstone, about a foot in
length, inscribed with concentric circles, surrounding a cup. The
remainder of the stone, with the smaller part of the design, was not
found.

Here, then, we have these archaic patterns and marks on isolated stones,
one of them about 13 inches long, in a genuine Scottish crannog, of the
genuine Iron age, while flint celts also occur, and objects of bronze.
Therefore cup markings, and other archaic markings are not unknown or
suspicious things in a genuine pile structure in Scotland. Why, then,
suspect them at Dumbuck? At Dumbuck the cups occur on