[Illustration: Winding Band (curved Swastika), sculptured in rock near Ilkley, Yorkshire Scale ⅛ linear] There are in different parts of Great Britain a great number of rocks and boulders sculptured with cups, generally surrounded by concentric rings, and often having a radial groove leading from the cup outwards. [Illustration: SPIRAL ORNAMENT ON STONE BALL FROM TOWIE, ABERDEENSHIRE; NOW IN THE EDINBURGH MUSEUM SCALE 1/1 LINEAR] [Illustration: WINDING-BAND CURVED SWASTIKA ON SWORD-HILT FROM DENMARK] [Illustration: BRONZE SWORD-HILT WITH WINDING-BAND PATTERN FROM DENMARK] [Illustration: BRONZE SWORD-HILT WITH SPIRAL ORNAMENT FROM DENMARK] [Illustration: Cup-and-ring Sculptures on rock at Ilkley, Yorkshire Scale ¹/₃₂ linear] The best-known instances are at Ilkley in Yorkshire, Wooler in Northumberland, the district on the east side of Kirkcudbright Bay between Kirkcudbright and the Solway Firth, and Lochgilphead and Kilmartin in Argyllshire. In a few cases the cup-and-ring sculptures are associated with the wheel-symbol, as at Mevagh, Co. Donegal, and at Cochno, Dumbartonshire. Such sculptures are more likely to be symbolical than decorative, but it would take us too far afield to discuss their meaning here. Those who wish to pursue the subject further may with advantage consult Sir James Simpson’s valuable paper on “Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings,” forming the Appendix to vol. vi. of the _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._ The sculptured rock-surfaces of Great Britain in some respects resemble the “Hällristningar” on the west coast of Sweden. The cup-and-ring, the wheel-symbol, and the curved swastika are common to both, but the Swedish sculptures are much more elaborate and include figure-subjects, ships, animals, etc. The age of some of the sculptures is indicated by the characteristic shape of the axes (evidently of bronze) held by the figures, and by the fact that the same set of symbols which occur on the rocks are also to be seen on the engraved knives of the Bronze Age found in Scandinavia. The Swedish rock-sculptures are fully described and illustrated in L. Baltzer’s _Hällristningar från Bohuslän_, A. Holmberg’s _Skandinaviens Hällristningar_, and the _Mémoires_ of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology at Stockholm. Summing up the results of our investigations, we find that the peculiarities in the Pagan Celtic art of the Bronze Age which were transmitted to the Pagan and Christian styles of the Early Iron Age are as follows:— (1) The use of the closely coiled spiral. (2) The use of rows of dots. (3) The use of diagonal lines in preference to those running horizontally or vertically. (4) The use of designs founded on the curved swastika. Of all these the spiral decorative motive is by far the most important, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter. CHAPTER III PAGAN CELTIC ART IN THE EARLY IRON AGE