This is an extract from the paper by Dr Graves referred to in Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge. It was read on 13 February 1860, but not published till 13 years later. The author’s object is to describe some Irish cup-and-ring marks; the following speculations about their purpose appear at the end of the paper.
From Charles Graves, “On a previously undescribed class of monuments”, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 24, Part III: Antiquities (1873), 421–431
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The idea which occurred to my own mind was, that the incised circles
were intended to represent the circular buildings of earth or stone of
which the traces still exist in every part of Ireland. This conjecture
is supported by the following considerations:—
1. The circles are of different sizes; and some are disposed in concentric groups. The ancient dwellings and fortified seats of the ancient Irish were circular; they were of various sizes, from the small cloghan, or stone house of ten feet in diameter, to the great camp including an area of some acres; and the principal forts had several concentric valla.
2. The openings in the inscribed circles may have been intended to denote the entrances.
3. The other inscribed lines may have represented roads passing by or leading up to the forts.
The conjecture that these carvings were primitive maps, representing the disposition of the neighbouring forts, appeared to be a fanciful one; and, discouraged by the scepticism of the friends to whom I communicated it, I laid aside the drawings and rubbings for some years, hoping that some light might be thrown upon the subject by the discovery of monuments the purpose of which was more evident.
This expectation has not been fulfilled. Nevertheless, I have some hope that my original guess has been confirmed in such a way as to warrant me in submitting it for the judgment of our antiquaries.
In the course of last autumn, after a careful examination of the drawings, I came to the conclusion that the centres of the circles and the neighbouring cups and dots arrange themselves generally three by three in straight lines. This disposition of the symbols could not be said to be perfectly accurate; but I thought I could observe a close and designed approximation to it. If then the circles represent forts, and are disposed three by three in straight {431} lines on the inscribed stones, I saw that we might expect to find the forts disposed in like manner over the surface of the country; and I think that I have succeeded in verifying this inference. The ancient raths have fortunately been laid down on the six-inch Ordnance Survey Maps of Ireland; and, unless I am deceived by fortuitous collineations, I find that the forts are actually arranged three by three in straight lines. The discovery of this fact, if it be a fact, would be of much more consequence than the explanation of the meaning of the inscriptions of which I have just given an account. But this further inquiry must be conducted with care. Large portions of the country must be examined, and those difficulties must be confronted which the disappearance of ancient remains must inevitably give rise to.