Location
State: Latvia
Region: Kurzeme
County: Talsi
Parish: Abava
Other references to the location
At the Pedvāle complex, near the parking lot.
Coordinates
lat=57.0334333333, lon=22.5662833333
57° 2′ 0″ N, 22° 33′ 58″ E
Description
The ancient cult stone with cup marks of spherical form, unfortunately it is no longer located in its original place, thus it is not considered to be a whole archaeologically significant object, but rather a single object that was transformed by the human in ancient times while performing cult activities. The dimension of the stone: length of 3.0 m, width of 1.9 m, height of 1.25 m. There are 20 cup marks of spherical form carved into the stone. The former surface of the stone in its current position is its side. The cup marks had been made rather shallow — the deepest is only 2 cm deep and 6 cm in diameter. Red rapakivi granite.
Narrative
About the reasons of carving the cup marks, scholars have made more than 30 various assumptions, out of which the most reliable one is related to cult rituals held by such stones. This stone has been moved several times. In Soviet Times it was found somewhere in a heap pushed together during melioration works in the surroundings of Blome (in Vidzeme, Smiltene county) and brought to a quarrel in Riga where they found cup marks in the surface of the stone and decided to preserve the stone by not carving a monument of it. In 2011, the stone was transported from Riga to Pedvāle.
Attraction
Some
Availability
Easily accessible. Situated in the Open-Air Art Museum of Pedvāle, about 1 km from the parking lot, reachable by a path.
Infrastructure, management, facilities
The surroundings are well arranged because located next to the entrance gate to the Pedvāle Open-Air Art Park. Nearby there is a parking lot, a pub, and accommodations with paid lavatories. But about the tree there is no information sign or stand.
Local info
There is no information stand on site
Capacity
41 and more
Publicity
Known
Legal Status
Private
Comments
Scholars found out about the stone and studied it only in 2002. The proprietors of Pedvāle can tell the history of the stone’s move-abouts.