Astuvansalmi Rock Paintings - Motifs

Motifs

The Astuvansalmi rock paintings contain the following pictures: 18 to 20 elk, about as many human figures, tens of hands and animal tracks, 8 to 9 boats, and geometrical figures and pictures that are thought to show a fish and a dog.

The paintings could have a link to the Siberian and North European shamanistic tradition, where the sun was thought to be a deer or an elk running through the sky. The Lapps (or Sami people) also had a belief that the sun was a running Cosmic Sun-Reindeer. The people in the paintings were the shamans, who had a contact with the spirit world through trance with their drumming and songs. Shamanism is the oldest cultural tradition of Finland and the North. It has been actively present already in the Paleolithic age.

The elk has traditionally been a very important prey for the people of the north. The elk has also meant the Center of the Universe. Some of the eighteen elk of Astuvansalmi have dots on their heart. All except one is looking west. Some are moving and some are standing.

The sun, the symbol of life, rises in the east. That was the home of the Big Elk and all the Good Spirits and Gods. The west was the symbol of the Land of Death where the dead were going with their elk-headed boats.

The boat was an important means of transport in the lake regions of prehistoric Finland. Big boats of skin and wood were already being made before the Vikings started making their big ships. The boats were quite similar to the North American Indian models.

The human figures are both shamans and spirits, who are connected with hunting ceremonies. The human figures could also have meant the people who drew them. The rare woman figure holding a bow in her hand is thought to show the mythic "Tellervo", a goddess from the Kalevala mythology, who is thought to be the progenitor of the human race. Women never usually took part in the hunting, that is why she is thought to be of a more divine nature.