George Currie (musician)

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.[3]

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.[4] He reported his findings to Archaeology Scotland’s Discovery and Excavation in Scotland[5] 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.[6][7]

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.[8]

• Dalya Alberge, 2016, "Amateur archaeologist finds ‘phenomenal’ trove of rock engravings", Observer article.
• 2009, "Amateur rings up major discovery at Ben Lawers", The Scotsman article.
• Jason Daley, 2016, "Amateur Archaeologist Discovers Significant Amount of Scotland’s Ancient Rock Art", Smithsonian.com
• Ciaran Sneddon 2016, "From rock and roll to rock art – Darts guitarist now uncovers Tayside’s prehistoric past", The Courier
• George Currie page on Darts website