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Description
Romano British rock carvings? Photograph taken in autumn 1989. Three primitive looking animals can be seen.
NT975370
Posted Comments:
soupdragon (2018-02-07)
My wife is welsh and she sings a song about counting goats. The welsh word for a goat is 'gafr'. I don't know but there is Yeavering Bell, which is sight of the Goat Crag and there is the name of the ancient site at the foot of the Bell, Ad Gefrin, and the name of the range of hills: The Cheviots which reminds me of modern French chèvre. It's all very goaty and surely you will meet wild goats sometimes in the range of hills all the way down to Simonside.
And there in Goat Crags are these presumably ancient pictographs of what are usually described as goats. I have been to the crags. This often-reproduced picture is strange in that the carvings appear to be in relief but they are actually incised into the rock. The crags are on a hill to the east of the wide valley and the pictographs are on the backdrop of a natural shelter which looks to the West over the valley towards Yeavering, Ad Gefrin and the Cheviot hills. It is a very comfortable natural shelter above the wide valley and I can easily understand the attraction of the site, especially as the sun goes down.
I believe that the site was excavated in the past and traces of ancient occupation were found there. I looked hard at the carvings and I would not say that they resemble goats. The left-most and the right-most look like completely different animals and the animal in the middle is too indistinct. The right-most looks like maybe a beast of burden with a load, possibly a man on its back. They are all lined up, heading north, and maybe this shows herding and a pride of stock by the rider. Thought of this way, it reminds me of a frieze I saw in Malta, but so much cruder in execution.
Whatever, I was on Simonside Crags once and I met an old billie goat. The goat did not run away and it seemed to be quite tame, it just stood its place as I approached and it was curious to meet me. I acknowledged it with a friendly word and smile and it sauntered off. I later asked a ranger how come so tame and she told me it was not tame but probably very short sighted. She said that poor eyesight often afflicts old billies and they get lost from the herd. They then wander for miles and do the best they can. She said it might well have come from Yeavering. Being myopic myself, but having the use of specs, that old billie has a place in my heart. Mind I could smell it before I saw it.
And there in Goat Crags are these presumably ancient pictographs of what are usually described as goats. I have been to the crags. This often-reproduced picture is strange in that the carvings appear to be in relief but they are actually incised into the rock. The crags are on a hill to the east of the wide valley and the pictographs are on the backdrop of a natural shelter which looks to the West over the valley towards Yeavering, Ad Gefrin and the Cheviot hills. It is a very comfortable natural shelter above the wide valley and I can easily understand the attraction of the site, especially as the sun goes down.
I believe that the site was excavated in the past and traces of ancient occupation were found there. I looked hard at the carvings and I would not say that they resemble goats. The left-most and the right-most look like completely different animals and the animal in the middle is too indistinct. The right-most looks like maybe a beast of burden with a load, possibly a man on its back. They are all lined up, heading north, and maybe this shows herding and a pride of stock by the rider. Thought of this way, it reminds me of a frieze I saw in Malta, but so much cruder in execution.
Whatever, I was on Simonside Crags once and I met an old billie goat. The goat did not run away and it seemed to be quite tame, it just stood its place as I approached and it was curious to meet me. I acknowledged it with a friendly word and smile and it sauntered off. I later asked a ranger how come so tame and she told me it was not tame but probably very short sighted. She said that poor eyesight often afflicts old billies and they get lost from the herd. They then wander for miles and do the best they can. She said it might well have come from Yeavering. Being myopic myself, but having the use of specs, that old billie has a place in my heart. Mind I could smell it before I saw it.
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