Is the remarkable Cochno Stone evidence of a lost civilization, or an indication of long ago visitors from another world.

In ancient artwork, cup and ring marks appear at archaeological sites all over the world.  They consist of a concave circular depression surrounded by concentric circles etched into stone with tools.

They were created from 4,000 B.C. to 1,500 B.C. from the Neolithic, to the Bronze Age.

That’s right.  The cup and rings appeared all over the world when far-flung tribes had no way to communicate with each other.  What caused distant people to create the same thing, the same symbol?

Cup and rings drawings and carvings have appeared in Scotland, England, Ireland, Portugal, Northwest Spain, Northwest Italy, Central Greece, and Switzerland.  They have also been found in Mexico, Brazil, and India.  A few have even been found in North America.

One example of magnificent artwork with cup and ring etchings is the Cochno Stone in Scotland.  It is so beautiful, I would love to have a large black and white print of it hanging in the den.

The flat slab of rock is located at Auchnacraig, Faifley, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, located next to a spot known as the Cochno Farm.  It also carries the name Whitehill 1, and The Druid Stone.  It is on the outskirts of Clydebank.

Ancient Scotland was a land of mysterious beauty and intrigue.  Rocky hills met green and mossy glades.  The people thrived on legends of bizarre animals and hero warriors.  The Britons, Scots, and Picts were tribal cultures, hunter-gatherers, that evolved into cattlemen.  They kept to themselves unless confronted by an outside threat.  They became individual warriors that did not organize into massive armies.

Their poetry, their rhythmic, mystical, tunes and dances, survive in some of our own folk music and literature.

These people were Celtic pagans whose personal lives were based on unity between the worldly and the spiritual.

Reverend James Harvey uncovered the Cochno Stone there in Scotland in 1887.  It measures 42 feet by 26 feet.  It has over 90 etched symbols on it and it is thought to be one of the most remarkable examples of petroglyphs in Scotland.

Wise people re-buried the stone in 1965 to protect it from vandals and souvenir hunters.

In 2015, a team of archaeologists from the University of Glasgow uncovered the stone to study it some more for a three day period. It was re-covered, then studied again the following year.

The artwork on this special stone is thought to be 5,000 years old.  In addition to the many cups and rings, there are:  a pre-Christian cross within an oval, two sets of carved footprints–they have only four toes, each.  That is an attention getter.  Who served as the foot models? There are representations of domes, arches, lines, dot clusters, and cross hatching.

None of the experts know What the symbols mean.  Is it a sky map?  An Earth map?  Does it represent the womb?  Does it mark the spot of a believed portal to another time or dimension?  Is it an imagined portal to an afterlife?

Could it be an altar?  Has it been tested for tiny remnants of blood?  If so, no one is talking, yet.

Is the remarkable stone evidence of a lost civilization?  Some think it is an indication of long ago visitors from another world.

Will the Cochno Stone give up its secrets any time soon?  We are waiting.

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