Rock Art Research

Cupules may seem simple features requiring little technological explanation, until one examines them more closely and in their wider context. Before they can be considered effectively, their identification needs to be clarified and the many similar phenomena they have
been confused with are considered here. A review of the secure ethnographic interpretations shows the extremely limited availability of scientifically based explanations, and also that these cannot be archaeologically evident. The incredible longevity of the phenomenon of cupule production, which spans from the Lower Palaeolithic to the 20th century, is then reviewed. Their world-wide ubiquity is considered, and a basis for their scientific study is formulated. This involves primarily issues related to lithology, technology of production, the role of taphonomy in effecting the extant characteristics of the evidence, and redefining the category and its distinguishing characteristics in that light. A simple standard methodology is then proposed to define the surviving global corpus empirically. The paper offers no interpretations of meaning, it merely presents an epistemological framework within which to make scientific propositions about cupules and test them.