Pant Ffos-yr-hebog Cup-Marked Stone

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The monument comprises a large cup-marked stone probably dating to the Early to Middle Bronze Age (2500-1600 BC). Cup-marks are a simple form of decoration created by scouring a circular hollow into the surface of a stone and are normally of prehistoric date. The stone is located on the lower north-west facing slope of Twyn y Fidffawydd at around 400m above sea level. It is an earth-fast block of fine-grained, horizontally laminated sandstone, its upper surface being trapezoidal in shape, measuring 2.55m long, 1m wide and 0.42m high. The main area of decoration is located at the western end of the upper surface and comprises three small cup-marks arranged in an arc, measuring approximately 35mm in diameter and 5mm in depth. Adjacent to these cup-marks is a crescent-shaped furrow measuring approximately 0.21m in length and 30mm in depth. Also on this surface, some 0.53m east-northeast of the main group is a slightly larger cup-mark measuring approximately 44mm in diameter and 7mm deep. A fifth possible mark measuring 90mm in diameter and some 30mm deep can be seen cutting across the bedding planes on the southern, downhill face of the stone, 0.8m from the east and 0.2m from the top of the stone.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric society and is a well-preserved example of its class. The exact meaning and function of the cup-mark design remains unknown although a wide range of interpretations have been suggested. They may have acted as route markers or demarcated territorial boundaries, this example standing alongside a trackway to the adjacent higher ground. Alternatively, their association with nearby Bronze Age ritual or funerary monuments may indicate a sacred meaning for those that created and observed them as part of a ritual landscape, the stone sharing group value with a broad range of prehistoric cairns and standing stones on Gelligaer Common, including scheduled cairns GM220 and GM313.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is circular in plan, measures 10m in diameter and is centred on NGR 311603 / 202448.