Rock Carvings in Central Norway - Two Kinds of Rock Art

Two Kinds of Rock Art

Scandinavian rock art comprise two categories. The first type dates to the Stone Age (in Norway from between 8000-1800 BC), and usually depicts mammals such as elk, red deer and reindeer, but also brown bears, whales and porpoises. It also depicts fish such as halibut and salmon, 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 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 totems for clans or the animals being spiritual animals seen in trance. 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 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 rock art was made by farmers, usually in the Nordic Bronze Age, the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the Roman Iron Age (In Norway approx. 1800 BC until AD 400). The most common motifs are the cup mark (cupule), boats, horses, people (often brandishing weapons), foot soles, 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, 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 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 during night-time.