Rock carvings in Central Norway - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Central Norway is a region in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, comprising the two Trøndelag-counties, Nord-

Nord-Trøndelag

is a county constituting the northern part of Trøndelag in Norway. As of 2010, the county had 131,555 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-least populated county. The largest municipalities are Stjørdal, Steinkjer—the county seat, Levanger, Namsos and Verdal, all with between 21,000 and...

and Sør-Trøndelag

Sør-Trøndelag

- References :...

as well as parts of the Nordland

Nordland

is a county in Norway in the North Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Nord-Trøndelag in the south, Norrbottens län in Sweden to the east, Västerbottens län to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is...

and Møre og Romsdal

Møre og Romsdal

is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...

counties.

This region of Norway contains approximately 300 rock carving

Petroglyph

Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...

and rock painting

Rock art

Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...

sites from the Stone Age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

and Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

. The petroglyph

Petroglyph

sites are much more plentiful than the rock painting sites. The prehistoric art of this area is not as well known as the more popular rock carving sites of Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

, such as the Rock carvings at Alta

Rock carvings at Alta

The Rock art of Alta are located in and around the municipality of Alta in the county of Finnmark in northern Norway. Since the first carvings were discovered in 1972, more than 6000 carvings have been found on several sites around Alta...

, the Nämforsen rock art site, or the many petroglyph

Petroglyph

sites in Bohuslän

Bohuslän

' is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Götaland on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the west, and the county of Østfold in Norway to the north...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

- but in recent years the amount of research into this corpus has increased, due largely to the work of professor Kalle Sognnes at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...

, Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

Two kinds of rock art

Scandinavian

Scandinavia

rock art

Rock art

Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...

comprise two categories. The first type dates to the Stone Age

History of Norway

The history of human settlement in what is present day Norway goes back at least 11,000 years, to the late Paleolithic. Archaeological finds in the county of Møre og Romsdal have been dated to 9,200 BC and are probably the remains of settlers from Doggerland, an area now submerged in the North Sea,...

(in Norway from between 8000-1800 BC), and usually depicts mammals such as elk

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, red deer

Red Deer

The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...

and reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

, but also brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

s, whales and porpoise

Porpoise

Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...

s. It also depicts fish such as halibut

Halibut

Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...

and salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

, as well as birds. There are also examples of boats, humans and various geometrical figures. These rock carvings were probably made by people who used gathering, fishing and hunting

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

as their subsistence. This type of rock art is commonly known as veideristninger (hunter's rock carvings). Since the most common motifs are hunted animals, a popular interpretation has been that the carvings were made as part of "hunter's magic" - in an attempt to gain control of the animals that were hunted.

In the later years, other interpretations have been suggested, such as the animals being totem

Totem

A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...

s for clan

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

s or the animals being spiritual animals seen in trance

Altered state of consciousness

An altered state of consciousness , also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart: it describes induced...

. Some sites with paintings in this style are also known.

In addition to the carved sites dating from the Stone Age, there is a series of caves on the coast of Central Norway containing painted human stick figures. As has been shown by archaeologist Hein Bjerck, these pictures are usually located in the liminal

Liminality

Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van...

area of the cave where the natural light gives way to complete darkness. He has suggested that these pictures were part of initiation rites.

The second kind of Scandinavian

Scandinavia

rock art was made by farmers, usually in the Nordic Bronze Age

Nordic Bronze Age

The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...

, the Pre-Roman Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age

The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River. These regions feature many extensive archaeological excavation sites, which have yielded a wealth of artifacts...

and the Roman Iron Age

Roman Iron Age

The Roman Iron Age is the name that Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius gave to a part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Netherlands....

(In Norway approx. 1800 BC until AD 400). The most common motifs are the cup mark

Cup and ring mark

Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found mainly in Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe although similar forms are also found throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, and India, where...

(cupule), boats, horses, people (often brandishing weapons), foot soles

Sole (foot)

The sole is the bottom of the foot.In humans the sole of the foot is anatomically referred to as the plantar aspect. The equivalent surface in ungulates is the hoof.- Human sole :...

, wagons, and many kinds of abstract geometrical symbols (such as spirals, concentric circles etc.) Interpretations of this kind of art has usually been that of a fertility cult

Fertility rite

Fertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes: 'sexual intoxication is a typical component of the...rites of the various functional gods who control reproduction, whether of man, beast, cattle, or grains of seed'..They...

, with the ship being a mythical ship that is sometimes seen pulling abstract representations of the sun. Danish archaeologist Flemming Kaul has attempted to recreate a complete Bronze Age cosmology

Religious cosmology

A Religious cosmology is a way of explaining the origin, the history and the evolution of the universe based on the religious mythology of a specific tradition...

by examining illustrations on Danish bronze items. He suggests that the ships and horses seen in the carvings and on the bronze items were the sun's helpers - the horse pulling the sun across the sky during the day, and the boat bringing it back through the underworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

during night-time.

Distribution and placement in the landscape

The hunter's rock carvings are often found in places with striking and highly visible natural features, such as below steep cliffs, by waterfalls etc. This was part of what led to the original hunting-magic-interpretation: supposedly the carvings were made in places where animals could easily be hunted. In Central Norway, these sites have a markedly different distribution than the Bronze Age carvings. Sites are found one by one, often in isolated places.

The Bronze Age-sites, on the other hand, are usually clustered. They are often found in places with arable land

Arable land

In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...

that could have been used for fields and grazing, and were probably quite close to the original settlements and farms. In Central Norway there are concentrations of these carvings mainly in the Stjørdal

Stjørdal

is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen...

municipality, in the Steinkjer

Steinkjer

is a town and a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Steinkjer, which is also the seat of the county government...

area, around the Selbu

Selbu

Selbu is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Mebonden. Other villages in Selbu include Flora, Fossan, Hyttbakken, Innbygda, Selbustrand, Tømra, and Vikvarvet.-General information:...

lake, and in the Melhus

Melhus

Melhus is a village and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Melhus...

area. Certain solitary sites also exists.

Sites open to the public

Most of the rock-art sites in Central Norway, and indeed in Scandinavia as a whole, are not meant to be visited by the public. There are no signs, no maintenance is done on the sites to keep vegetation from covering the carvings, etc. There are however a small number of sites open to the public. These have signs with information, the carvings are usually painted to make them more visible, and there are parking spaces.

Bøla

This site is of the Stone Age type, located approximately 30 kilometres from Steinkjer

Steinkjer

, Nord-Trøndelag

Nord-Trøndelag

. The first figure to be discovered was a naturalistic reindeer

Reindeer

, almost life size. The placement in the landscape is striking: close to a waterfall that becomes quite large during flood season. The site was discovered in 1895, as one of the first sites of the Stone Age type in Norway. In recent years, more figures have been discovered: a bear, a person on skis, an elk, and several parts of other figures. The carvings are thought to be up to 5500 years old.

Bardal

The Bardal site is also in the Steinkjer area. The site is particularly interesting as it contains images from both of the rock carving traditions. There is a multitude of different motifs: boats, elks, people, abstract geometrical figures, horses, and a six meter long whale. The earliest carvings probably date to 6000-5500 BC, while the later ones are from the period 1500-200 BC.

Evenhus

This site on the Frosta

Frosta

Frosta is the smallest municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Frosta. The municipality is located in the middle of the Trondheimsfjord, on a peninsula just north of Trondheim...

peninsula is also from the Stone Age tradition. Motifs ranges from whales, elks, boats and people. A concentration of cup marks were probably made later, perhaps during the Bronze Age.

Hell

Despite its uninviting name

Hell, Norway

Hell is a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the western part of the municipality, about south of the municipal center of Stjørdalshalsen. The village has a population of 1,418...

(meaning "rock shelter" or "cliff overhang" in Norwegian), this is a beautiful site, located near Stjørdal

Stjørdal

is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen...

. It contains two large reindeer, other, smaller reindeer and an intricate, geometrical pattern. These figures could be up to 6000 years old.

Leirfall

This is the only public site in Central Norway with only Bronze Age carvings. It lies in the centre of Stjørdal

Stjørdal

is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen...

, and because of its size, might have been a ritual centre during the Bronze Age. The site is unusual in the number of figures (more than a thousand), and must have been used in several periods from about 1500 BC until a few hundred years AD.

Stykket

This site lies in Stadsbygd on the Fosen

Fosen

Fosen is a traditional district in Trøndelag, consisting of the municipalities Osen, Roan, Åfjord, Bjugn, Ørland, Rissa, Agdenes, Snillfjord, Hemne, Hitra and Frøya. The district is dominated by forested valleys, lakes, coastal cliffs but also shallow areas, and in the interior mountains reaching...

peninsula, and can be reached by ferry from Trondheim

Trondheim

. It dates to the Stone Age. On an almost vertical, undulating cliff face three near life size elks have been carved. In addition there is another animal which might represent a hare.

External links

The interactive "Rock-Art museum" located at Leirfall, Stjørdalen
RANE online - Rock Art in Northern Europe, an EU-sponsored project to document rock carvings throughout Scandinavia.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Two kinds of rock art

Distribution and placement in the landscape

Sites open to the public

Bøla

Bardal

Evenhus

Hell

Leirfall

Stykket

See also

External links