|
|
 |
 |
Country: |
Ireland |
Locality: |
Milltown |
|
 |
Region: |
County Kerry |
Area: |
Dingle Peninsula |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Environment & Surface |
 |
 |
 |
|
Altitude:
|
10 m
Open-air
Shelter
Cave
Portable
Megalithic
|
Geography: |
Located in gently sloping pasture on the N side of Dingle Habour. The land slopes slightly to the southeast |
Proximity: |
Within 50m of a pair of standing stones and within 20m of a single tall standing stone. Located c500m from the coastline of Dingle Harbour, 15m from the main Dingle-Ventry road, and a short distance from a modern cemetary, settlement and field boundaries |
|
 |
Geology: |
Sandstone boulder |
Surface: |
Sloping, gently undulating surface with multiple fissures and lichens. The bedding planes of the stone were visible. Carved surface has a current inclination of 30 degrees, but the stone may once have been upright. No sign of dressing, but appears to be broken at the northern (thickest) end |
|
Dimensions:
|
Length 4.20 m.
Width 1.25 m.
Depth 0.60 m.
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Art |
 |
 |
 |
Description: |
Engravings
Paintings
Painted engravings
High or low-relief
Sculpture
The range of complex motifs consist of abstract 'cup-and-ring marks' of the Galician style found across Ireland, the United Kingdom Western France and Iberia. They consist of deep pecked glyphs produced with a hard tool (probably stone or antler). On the eastern face the motifs are concentrated at the wider northern end of the panel, with a solitary cup and ring positioned at the southern end. O'Nuallain (1978) suggested that the stone may once have been upright, along with a second undecorated stone close by. The motifs include some complex designs incorporating enclosing curvilinear grooves and long radial grooves. Also featured is an unusual spiralling ring enclosing a cup with a radial groove. The cup and rings are arranged across the upper edge of the face, with their radial grooves running parallel directly down the sloping surface. The majority of cup marks are arranged seemingly randomly across the decorated section of the panel. The ring enclosing the isolated cup at the southern end of the panel is considerably thicker than the other rings (this, along with its isolated position, may indicate that it was added at a different time or that this individual motif was accorded greater significance).
|
Figures: |
total number 58
Cups, cup and ring, cup and spiral, cup and radial groove, linear grooves, enclosing curvilinear grooves curvilinear grooves
|
|
 |
Chronology: |
Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic
Neolithic
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Roman
Middle Age
Modern
Unknown
No absolute dates are available but generally accepted as Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age
|
Notes: |
The site, consisting of a number of standing stones and two recumbant stones (one of which is described here) is known as the 'Gates of Glory' (local information) |
|
 |
 |
|
| |
 |
Bibliography |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Conservation |
 |
 |
 |
Status: |
Public
Private
Park
Classified site
|
Risk: |
Some of the motifs are faint due to natural causes of erosion and weathering. A large crack is forming on the northwestern edge and the resultant fragment is splitting away. |
|
 |
Conservation: |
Good
Quite good
Mediocre
Bad
|
Intervention: |
Recorded by Finlay (1973) and Cuppage (1986) Listed in the Sites and Monuments Record of Ireland |
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
By |
 |
|
| |
| Record n. 389 / 807 |
No commercial use is allowed. Specific © is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution |
|
| |
 |
EuroPreArt, European Prehistoric Art, is a web-based archaeological project funded by the European Union which aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art.
It is proposed by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT, Portugal),
CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Italy - Europe),
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España),
Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón (España),
Université de Liège (Belgique),
Gotland University College (Sverige),
University College Dublin (Eire),
Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Italia),
Study Centre and Museum of Prehistoric Art of
Pinerolo (Italia),
The European Centre for Prehistoric Research in the Alto Ribatejo (Portugal),
ArqueoJovem - a youth NGO (Portugal).
|
|
|
|
 |
|