richard.heeks
Kettley Crag Rock Art
Edited to B&W with some PS contrast work to highlight the shapes.
We braved some pretty extreme winds to find this rock art today. But it was well worth it, especially as we could hide under the natural rock shelter here.
This is ancient rock art, known as Kettley Crag. I don't know how old the etchings are. Maybe in the region of 4,000 years old.
Note on spelling of Kettley! Most people are spelling it Ketley, but the Ordnance Survey maps and The Modern Antiquarian spell it Kettley, so I'm going with Kettley.
I've put on a note on this picture, bottom left, because that shape looks a lot like a vagina. I've just Googled this and no one else has made a direct link to this online. I know there's a lot of theory that links rock art etchings with sexual images, but I'm guessing no one has had the time or the nerve to flag this up online as yet. I'm just blathering here really because I'm English and don't take easily to writing the word 'vagina' on public forums. I don't know why I posted my message with 'is this a vagina?' I mean, it couldn't be more like a vagina if it tried. The issue, really, is that it's so clear and well carved. It's not some obscure piece of veiled symbolism. It's mimetic, representational, realism!
I don't know much about rock art in landscapes, but I'm doing a Phd on how and why people write. Specifically, my Phd is on discovery writing - a sense that you might find things out by writing. Discovery writing is often seen as opposite to a sense of planning, because planning things out in advance seems to negate learning as you go along. Anyway, I found this nice quote from Picasso, in Ghiselin:
“I put in my pictures everything I like. So much the worse for the things – they have to get along with one another.”
I wonder if the rock artists did that, i.e. did bits because they liked them or liked doing them. That seems pretty natural as a way to make things. Kind of collage. Or maybe it was more coherent than that. Who knows? Not me! But I do like throwing my ten pence worth in there.
I find it fascinating that people were such good artists thousands of years ago. Watching Werner Herzog's film about Chauvet Cave really opened my eyes to how people could create such stunning drawings and etchings. Those images make these Kettley etchings look a bit pathetic. I can imagine my dad etching shapes into cave walls or on rocks in fields. He's old now, and his hands shake, but he used to enjoy carving wood, and could have been a sculptor in another life. As a writer reminded me recently, people are much the same now as they were thousands of years ago. Still, it would be incredible to pop back a few thousand years.., just to see.
Kettley Crag Rock Art
Edited to B&W with some PS contrast work to highlight the shapes.
We braved some pretty extreme winds to find this rock art today. But it was well worth it, especially as we could hide under the natural rock shelter here.
This is ancient rock art, known as Kettley Crag. I don't know how old the etchings are. Maybe in the region of 4,000 years old.
Note on spelling of Kettley! Most people are spelling it Ketley, but the Ordnance Survey maps and The Modern Antiquarian spell it Kettley, so I'm going with Kettley.
I've put on a note on this picture, bottom left, because that shape looks a lot like a vagina. I've just Googled this and no one else has made a direct link to this online. I know there's a lot of theory that links rock art etchings with sexual images, but I'm guessing no one has had the time or the nerve to flag this up online as yet. I'm just blathering here really because I'm English and don't take easily to writing the word 'vagina' on public forums. I don't know why I posted my message with 'is this a vagina?' I mean, it couldn't be more like a vagina if it tried. The issue, really, is that it's so clear and well carved. It's not some obscure piece of veiled symbolism. It's mimetic, representational, realism!
I don't know much about rock art in landscapes, but I'm doing a Phd on how and why people write. Specifically, my Phd is on discovery writing - a sense that you might find things out by writing. Discovery writing is often seen as opposite to a sense of planning, because planning things out in advance seems to negate learning as you go along. Anyway, I found this nice quote from Picasso, in Ghiselin:
“I put in my pictures everything I like. So much the worse for the things – they have to get along with one another.”
I wonder if the rock artists did that, i.e. did bits because they liked them or liked doing them. That seems pretty natural as a way to make things. Kind of collage. Or maybe it was more coherent than that. Who knows? Not me! But I do like throwing my ten pence worth in there.
I find it fascinating that people were such good artists thousands of years ago. Watching Werner Herzog's film about Chauvet Cave really opened my eyes to how people could create such stunning drawings and etchings. Those images make these Kettley etchings look a bit pathetic. I can imagine my dad etching shapes into cave walls or on rocks in fields. He's old now, and his hands shake, but he used to enjoy carving wood, and could have been a sculptor in another life. As a writer reminded me recently, people are much the same now as they were thousands of years ago. Still, it would be incredible to pop back a few thousand years.., just to see.