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Mysterious Rock Carvings From The Past Are Unearthed… Again
Mysterious Universe
1887 had already proven to be a year for the books, and in particular, for what would become known as “Forteana” within just a few decades. Stateside in Montana that January, a snowstorm at Fort Keogh produced what still remain the largest snowflakes ever recorded, with crystallizations that were 15 inches wide, and 8 inches thick at the very largest.
Halfway across the world in Scotland, innovation was underway in the early summer months, as academic James Blyth was installing the world’s first wind turbine used to produce electricity at his holiday home in Marykirk. Within months, a particular single malt Scotch whisky of renown, the Glenfiddich brand, would also be first produced during this year of renown.
However, not all of the discoveries taking place in 1887, particularly in Scotland, were innovations of the modern varieties that afford mankind its leisures. In fact, one would hint at some of the strangest mysteries of Europe’s ancient past.
Two hours south of Blyth’s holiday retreat in Marykirk that same summer, the Rev James Harvey had been walking along a stretch of farmland near the outskirts of modern day Clydebank when found something remarkable. More than 40 feet wide, a huge stone covered in scooped impressions lay partially hidden beneath green grass and soil that had eroded around it. It was a remarkable discovery indeed: a Bronze Age monolith covered in the ancient rock markings (petroglyphs), made by humans who had walked this very field some 5000 years earlier.
This remarkable find, dubbed the Cochno Stone, would be widely accepted by experts as one of the finest instances of prehistoric rock art ever found in Europe, bearing exquisite “cup and ring” impressions that later caught the eye of Ronald Morris, who in his book The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, ranked it as “one of Scotland’s finest” among petroglyph collections.
Reposted with permission
