George Currie (born 1950) is a Scottish musician and amateur archaeologist. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Currie was the lead guitarist with the band Darts, and as an amateur archaeologist has discovered some 680 of the 3,000 known prehistoric rock carvings in Scotland.[1]

Early life and music career

Currie was born in Dundee and left school at 14 to pursue a musical career.[2] He was in the John Dummer Band before joining Darts in 1976 as lead guitarist. He left the band in 1980 to teach music theory and guitar, and also to pursue his passion for hillwalking.[2]

Amateur archaeology

While walking in the Scottish hills, Currie found some previously unknown prehistoric rock art, comprising carved 'cup marks', circles and troughs on boulders and rocks. In 2009 he found an especially impressive example bearing more than 90 cup marks at Ben Lawers, near Loch Tay.[3] He reported his findings to Archaeology Scotland’s Discovery and Excavation in Scotland[4] and since his first findings has increased the number of known examples of prehistoric rock art in Scotland from c. 2,300 to nearly 3,000.

The symbolism of cup and ring marks is unknown. Suggestions include waymarkers, star maps, fertility symbols, burial ground plans, tribal symbols or simply doodles.[5][6]

Currie's finds will form part of a five-year research project starting in 2017 to 2D and 3D map all known examples of rock art in Scotland, funded by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) under the direction of Dr Tertia Barnett, an honorary fellow of the University of Edinburgh.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Sam Wollaston, 'Kilroy was here - 5,000 years ago' in the Wild supplement of The Guardian, Saturday 17 June 2017, pages 10-11. Not apparently available online.
  2. 1 2 Wollaston 2017
  3. ↑ "Ancient stone artwork discovered". News.bbc.co.uk. 17 August 2009.
  4. ↑ "Discovery and Excavation in Scotland". Archived from the original on 2017-10-21. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
  5. ↑ "Amateur rings up major discovery at Ben Lawers - the Scotsman". Archived from the original on 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
  6. 1 2 "Amateur archaeologist finds 'phenomenal' trove of rock engravings". TheGuardian.com. 17 September 2016.
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