Cup stones

Image 3. This cup stone was found near Uddel in the municipality of Apeldoorn (Netherlands)

How were the cup marks made and on which stones do we find them?
Cup marks were usually made by striking the stone on which they were to be created. However, it is also mentioned that they were chiselled or drilled into the stone. We find them on all kinds of rocks with different hardnesses. They even occur on rocks with hardness 7 (on the Mohs scale of hardness, which ranges from 1 to 10). On rocks with hardness 7, the makers would have had to make a considerable effort to make the cup marks. Tens of thousands of blows would have been needed for a single cupule. With softer rocks, considerably less effort was needed. Experiments have shown that they could be made in a few minutes, depending on the method used.

Image 4. On one of the capstones (see red arrow photo above) of the dolmen D16 at Balloo in Drenthe (Netherlands) there are six cups. The cups were not so easy to see because the stones were dry (photo bottom left). With a little water from our water bottle they became more visible (see red arrows at the photo bottom right).

How old are cup stones? 
Dating the individual cups on the cup stones is often difficult. The oldest ones can be placed in the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age). Most cup marks and cup stones however, date from the Neolithic (New Stone Age)  and in Scandinavia, among other areas, mainly from the Bronze Age (due to their occurrence in the rock engravings dating from that period) but we also know them from later periods.

Image 5. Cups can be seen on two of the capstones of the dolmen D32 near Odoorn in Drenthe. The photo above left shows on which stones the cups are located. The cups on the capstone of the bottom row of photos have been moistened with some water so that they are easier to see. The cups look slightly different on the individual capstones because one stone is coarse-grained and the other more fine-grained in structure. GPS coordinates: N 52°51.474' E 006°50.519'.

What were cup stones used for?
Nothing is known with certainty about the precise purpose of the cup marks. Because they have different sizes and are known from different times, they were probably made for different reasons and for different applications. They could have been used for practical purposes such as preparing and processing food (for example as a mortar for grinding plant seeds, among other things), for collecting water (for healing) and for grinding dyes. But they could also have served ritual purposes. And then there is the possibility that they were made to record astronomical phenomena. But because evidence for this is often lacking, it is difficult to be certain about this.

Image 6. On one of the kerbstones of dolmen D49 'De Papeloze Kerk' near Schoonoord in Drenthe (Netherlands) two cups can be seen. Here too the GPS coordinates are determined (photo bottom right): N 52°49.208' E 006°46.433'.

Offerings and the extraction of stone powder for magical or folk medicinal purposes 
The cup marks could have been used to collect fat, blood or honey, for example. In that case, they could have been offerings to gods or to the deceased. Since cup marks also occur in vertical positions, they certainly cannot have been liquid substances in all cases. In addition, there is the possibility that the cup marks were created by extracting stone powder that was used for magical or folk medicinal purposes.

Image 7. Left and middle: on the back stone (red arrow) of hunebed D12 at Eext in Drenthe two rows of cups can be seen. GPS-coordinates: N 53°00.922' O 006°43.455' Right: at hunebed D2 at Westervelde in Drenthe there are two cups on the front cover stone (red arrow). GPS-coordinates: N 53°03.342' O 006°26.750'.

Image 8. Hunebed D3 and D4 near Midlaren in Drenthe are located behind each other near a small farm. To get there, we follow a narrow path between the hedges. We find two cups at hunebed D3 (see red arrows). GPS coordinates: GPS-coordinates: N 53°06.467' O 006°40.298'.

Image 9. Cups are found mainly on the smaller cap stone (photos above; see red arrow) of the megalithic grave 'Teufelsbackofen' in the Everstorfer Forst in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A total of twenty cups can be found on the cap stone and one of the supporting stones of the 'Urdolmen von Neu Gaarz' (photo below left), also in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In the cemetery around the church of Rinsumageest in Friesland there are still two small cup stones (photos in the middle and right below) . They are locally known as 'napkesstienen'. A woman we meet at the cemetery tells us that there used to be more. In these cup stones people used to put coins as an offering. Women took the stone powder from the cups, in the hope of becoming pregnant.

Image 10. The Bargloyer Steinkiste is located north of Bargloy near Wildeshausen in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is a megalithic grave of approximately 2 x 1.5 meters with approximately 25 cups on the cover stone. The red arrows indicate the main groups that can be seen in the photos below left and in the middle. Below right: the path to the megalithic grave.

Use as a mortar
In addition to the magical and supernatural use, more everyday applications of cups are also known. In coastal areas in Scotland, the holes were used in the recent past as mortars in which, among other things, shells and snails were crushed to use as bait for fishing.

Image 11. Left: The Tregiffian Barrow or Tregiffian Burial Chamber is a megalithic tomb in Cornwall, Great Britain. In front of the tomb lies a replica of a cup stone. The original stone is in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. Middle and right: The Driehauser Steine, a megalithic tomb southwest of Schwagstorf in the German state of Lower Saxony. Cups are found on two of the capstones. They are most clearly visible on the capstone shown here (right). The photo in the middle shows which stone it is.

Image 12. We also encounter cups in the rock engravings in Sweden. They are often part of a larger whole. The photo on the right shows the rocks worn away by the glacial ice on which such engravings are often made. The red and white colours were added recently to make the engravings more visible.

In short
The use of the cup marks and the associated belief will not have been the same everywhere. This could vary from region to region. Moreover, it is of course not certain that the customs that we know from historical times have always been the same and have existed since the creation of the cup marks. Beliefs, rituals, the social organization of communities and the like can change significantly over thousands of years. Unfortunately, many things about the cup stones and cup marks from the more distant past are still unknown and therefore often give rise to speculation. Publications on this subject show that the thoughts about the origin and function of the cup stones and cup marks go in many directions.

Image 13.  We also encounter cups in the rock engravings in Norway. They are often part of a larger whole. The red colour was recently applied to make the engravings more visible.

For those who want to know more about cup stones, the following works (in random order) may be interesting. These works were also used to write this item about cup stones and cup marks.

Text: Jan Weertz
Photos image 2: Wim Mulder
Other photos: Jan en Els Weertz