Over 70 examples of late prehistoric rock art have been identified in the south west of britain being far sparser than those found in the north this may in part be due to the harder nature of the natural rock in the area which is largely plutonic granite alongside a lack of research focused in this region 4. In britain the term rock art is sometimes used loosely to refer to all prehistoric carvings on rock spanning the 10000 years prior to the roman period this includes a wide variety of styles from life like palaeolithic depictions of animals like those found. The most common motif across all rock art worldwide is the simple cup mark prehistoric rock art occurs in england in three main situations the majority is found on outcrops and earth fast boulders and is described as landscape or open air rock art a second group known as megalithic art is associated with monumental . In this latest book the prolific stan beckensall returns to his principal specialism britains prehistoric rock art beckensall has played a key role in recording and researching rock art and in this book he brings this experience to bear in a detailed survey of the types of rock art motifs and patterns to be found in britain and the places often highly prominent in the landscape where it