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A Dagger in Relief on Stonehenge?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

R. E. Kaske
R. E. Kaske*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

In 1953, R. J. C. Atkinson made the first discovery of prehistoric carvings on Stonehenge: a dagger and several ax-heads on the inner face of sarsen stone no. 53. Since then a number of other carvings have been identified, including two additional daggers on the west side of stone 53 and the south side of stone 23. In May 1972, on a casual visit to Stonehenge, I noticed what appeared to be an incised cartwheel with eight spokes, low on the southeast side of stone 30, within the main entrance; this same apparent design was immediately recognized by my wife and son, with no prompting from me. When I re-examined the area in July 1974, I was astonished to find not only that I could see no cartwheel, but that I could see nothing which might plausibly have led me to think of a cartwheel. This striking discrepancy between two clear visual impressions of the same surface made me suspect that some delicate trick of lighting must be involved, and I accordingly visited Stonehenge at night to explore the problem with the help of crosslighting.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 31 , 1975 , pp. 315 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Atkinson, , ‘The Date of Stonehenge,’ Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 18 (1952) 236–7, and Stonehenge (London 1956 and Penguin Books 1960) 30–4 and 43–7 respectively; and Crawford, O. G. S., ‘The Symbols Carved on Stonehenge,' Antiquity 28 (1954) 25–31.Google Scholar

2 One is naturally tempted to see, projecting from the upper left corner of this rectangular handle, a more slender cylindrical handle ending in a knoblike or ringlike pommel, with its top almost touching the topmost point on the rim of the depresssion. If the pommel is construed as a knob, this elongated ‘handle and pommel’ would coincide perfectly with those of the dagger on the famous stele from grave V of the citadel at Mycenae (repr. Spyridon Marinatos and Max Hirmer, Crete and Mycenae [New York ( 1960)] pl. 147), thus adding a possible grain of support for Atkinson's identification of the dagger on the inner face of stone 53 as Mycenaean (Stonehenge 84–5 and 92–3 respectively). The very existence of this second handle, however, strikes me as extremely improbable.Google Scholar