Chatton Neolithic rock art
       
     
DSI_0674.jpg
       
     
 Modern graffiti (by Neolithic standards), but probably Victorian. At least they placed it slightly away from the original patterns!
       
     
DSI_0680.jpg
       
     
DSI_0681.jpg
       
     
DSI_0683.jpg
       
     
 A carved water bowl. It’s difficult to know whether this is contemporary with the rock art. It certainly avoids contact with the patterns.
       
     
Chatton Neolithic rock art
       
     
Chatton Neolithic rock art

Chatton, or Chatton Park as it’s also known, is an area of exposed sheet rock which has numerous Neolithic rock art designs carved into it. These consist of a mixture of concentric circles (some with lines extending from the centre outwards and some almost converging circles of different sizes) and cup marks which occur singularly, in lines or in ‘egg box’ type patterns. Nobody, as yet, has come up with a meaning for these patterns, but because they occur in large numbers and are vey similar across large areas of Northern England and Scotland it’s difficult not to attribute some sort of explanation to them. Possibly it’s some sort of local mapping or way-finding symbolism or maybe it’s astronomical. At the very least it could be saying ‘Private land. Keep out!’, something we’re all familiar with.

DSI_0674.jpg
       
     
 Modern graffiti (by Neolithic standards), but probably Victorian. At least they placed it slightly away from the original patterns!
       
     

Modern graffiti (by Neolithic standards), but probably Victorian. At least they placed it slightly away from the original patterns!

DSI_0680.jpg
       
     
DSI_0681.jpg
       
     
DSI_0683.jpg
       
     
 A carved water bowl. It’s difficult to know whether this is contemporary with the rock art. It certainly avoids contact with the patterns.
       
     

A carved water bowl. It’s difficult to know whether this is contemporary with the rock art. It certainly avoids contact with the patterns.