The 1st and 2nd Cup-Marked Stones of the Buses Hillfort

2020-01-13 In Cult Identity Latvia Rīga region Stone

Location

State: Latvia
Region: Riga
County: Kandava
Parish: Matkule

Other references to the location

1. The Cup Marked Stone at the foot of the Buses Hillfort’s W slope 2. The Cup Marked Stone by the 1st Cup Marked Stone

Coordinates

lat=56.99, lon=22.6027777778
56° 59′ 24″ N, 22° 36′ 10″ E

Description

By the Buses Hillfort, there are certainly three cup marked stones and one stone formed in a different way (the Crocodile Stone) that former was attributed to cup marked stones without any ground. The 1st Cup Marked Stone (1.2 x 1.1 x 0.5 m) is situated at the foot of the W slope of the Hill Fort’s front part. It had been split once and now you can see 17 whole cup marks and a half of a cup mark (the second half was split off). The 2nd cup Marked Stone (1.3 x 0.8 x 0.3 m) is located by the 1st Cup Marked Stone, it has one cup mark. It is possible that this stone used to form one whole together with the 1st Cup Marked Stone. The 3rd Cup Marked Stone (1.9 x 1.0 x 0.7 m) is situated at the opposite side, namely in the middle part of the A slope, closer to its lower part and the Imula River. The stone is overgrown with moss, it is not visited by people, hard to approach, it has one certain cup mark and the other one of a small size is uncertain. The Crocodile Stone is a stone (0.8 x 0.7x 0.3 m) with a strange finely grooved surface located in the vale of the Imula river, at the verge of the slope towards the old river bed, about 20 m W of the 1st and 2nd Cup Marked Stones. The stone is a natural formation. Researchers of cup marked stone in Latvia have discovered several such pseudo cup marked stones that are called the Crocodile Back Stones or Crocodile Stones.

Attraction

Attractive

Availability

Easily accessible, a good road, a parking lot, a path, a well facilitated place.

Infrastructure, management, facilities

At the edge of the road, there is a parking lot with an information stand, further on there are paths.

Local info

None

Capacity

41 and more

Publicity

Known

Legal Status

Private

Comments

The Buses Hillfort is a distinguished archaeological monument that is being taken care of, it is much visited and used for various events, inter alia, also as a new sacred site. There are signs indicating the hill fort by the Plostakrogs – Matkule highway; a good countryside road leads to the hill fort through the Buses homestead, by the hill fort there is a facilitated parking lot, at the edge of which there is an information stand with a large air photo marking the places of the Buses archaeological complex, including the Church Hill.