Cup and ring mark

Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found on the Atlantic seaboard of Europe (Ireland, Wales, Northern England, Scotland, France (Brittany), Portugal, and Spain (Galicia); and in Mediterranean Europe, Italy (in Alpine valleys and Sardinia) and Greece (Irakleia (Cyclades)).

Similar forms are also found throughout the world including Australia, Azerbaijan, Gabon, Greece, Hawaii, India (Daraki-Chattan and Dwarahat), Israel, Mexico, Mozambique and the Americas. The oldest known forms are found from the Fertile Crescent to India.

They consist of a depression, no more than a few centimetres across, pecked into a rock surface and often surrounded by concentric circles also etched into the stone. Sometimes a linear channel called a leads out from the middle. The decoration occurs as a petroglyph on natural boulders and outcrops and also as an element of megalithic art on purposely worked megaliths such as the slab cists of the Food Vessel culture, some stone circles and passage graves such as the clava tombs and on the capstones at Newgrange.