Elevated Rock Art: Towards A Maritime Understanding Of Bronze Age Rock Art In Northern Bohuslän, Sweden (swedish Rock Art Research Series)

How may Bohuslän rock art and landscape be perceived and understood? Since the Bronze Age, the landscape has been transformed by shore displacement but, largely due to misunderstanding and certain ideas about the character of Bronze Age society, rock art research in Tanum has drawn much of its inspiration from the present agrarian landscape. This perception of the landscape has not been a major issue. This volume, republished from the GOTAC Serie B (Gothenburg Archaeological thesis 49) aims to shed light on the process of shore displacement and its social and cognitive implications for the interpretation of rock art in the prehistoric landscape. The findings clearly show that in the Bronze Age, the majority of rock art sites in Bohuslän had a very close spatial connection to the sea. Much rock art analysis focuses on the contemplative observer. The more direct activities related to rock art are seldom fully considered. Here, the basic conditions for the production of rock art, social theory and approaches to image, communication, symbolism and social action are discussed and related to palpable social forms of the “reading” of rock art. The general location and content of the Bronze Age remains indicate a tendency towards the maritime realm, which seems to have included both socio-ritual and socio-economic matters of production and consumption and that Bronze Age groups in Bohuslän were highly active and mobile. The numerous configurations of ship images on the rocks could indicate a general transition or drift towards the maritime realm. Marking or manifesting such transitions in some way may have been important and it is tempting to perceive the rock art as traces of such transitions or positions in the landscape. All this points to a maritime understanding of Bronze Age rock art in northern Bohuslän. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 Abbreviations 12 Abstract 13 Preface 14 Part I - Launching 16 Chapter 1: Introduction – The Rock Art Phenomenon in Northern Bohuslän 18 Introduction 18 “Finding the lost sea” 19 Aims 21 Temporal and spatial limitations 21 Chapter 2: A General Picture of the Bronze Age in Bohuslän 22 Bronze Age conditions in Bohuslän 22 Investigations at rock art sites 23 Household and metallurgic activity 23 Graves 24 Bronze items and flint daggers 25 Conclusion 25 Chapter 3: Social Landscapes 26 Introduction 26 Conclusion 28 Part II - Embarking 30 Chapter 4: The Terrestrial Paradigm: History of Research 32 Introduction 32 Theory 33 Paradigm and thought style 33 Conditions and questions 35 A history of landscape and rock art research 35 The perception of geology and landscape among19th century antiquarians 36 The landscape via the rock art image 37 The shore-connected rock art 39 Land uplift and the landscape 40 The image via the landscape 42 Modification of the terrestrial paradigm 46 The sea is advancing 48 Conclusion 50 Chapter 5: Rock Art and Seascapes in South Scandinavia 52 Introduction 52 West Norwegian rock art 53 Högsbyn in Dalsland 56 The Simris area in Scania 59 Conclusion 61 Chapter 6: Shore Displacement, Tides and Altitudes 64 Introduction 64 The shore displacement phenomenon 64 Dating and estimating shore displacement 66 Shore displacement in Bohuslän 67 Aims and outcome of the new shore displacementstudies in the Tanum and Kville areas 68 Altitudes and tides 72 Chatper 7: Rock Art Chronology and Seascape in Bohuslan 76 Introduction 76 Rock art chronologies: traditions and concepts 76 Chronological standpoint 78 The analysis 80 The general setting of the rock art in relation toshore displacement 81 The specific chronological setting of ship featuresin the landscape 82 The Kungälv area (Solberga 50) 82 The Uddevalla area, Utby (Herrestad 58:1–5) 89 Maritime rock art at the Stångenäset isthmus(Bro 622, 636, Brastad 123) 92 The Sotenäset area (Tossene 107) 93 The Kville area (Kville 172, 114) 100 The Tanum area, the “Runohäll” at Ryk (Tanum311) 104 The vertical cliff at Tyft (Tanum 234) 108 A low-lying panel in the Kalleby area (Tanum 425) 109 The “Wismar and Kivik” panel in Kalleby(Tanum 427) 111 Rock art sites in the Orrekläpp area (Tanum 241,369) 115 A tentative ship chronology of the landscape 116 Conclusion 119 Chapter 8: Modeling Landscapes and Seascapes in the Tanum Area 124 Introduction 124 Aims 124 The landscape and Bronze Age in Tanum 128 Maritime models of the Vitlycke area (Tanum 1, 833) 131 The Aspeberget area – a maritime aggregationsite? (Tanum 17, 19, 120) 134 Terrestrial landscapes and images at Tanum 33 140 Sea shores and rock art in the Tegneby area, Bostället (Tanum 48, 61–64, 105:3, 345, 346 and 490) 142 Ships and seascapes at Skatteklåvan in the Tegneby area (Tanum 65–67) 144 Embarking and disembarking by Bro Utmark (Tanum 192) 150 Reconstructing Tanum 311 – a maritime approach 153 Maritime positions in the Kyrkoryk and Ryk area (Tanum 213, 216, 217, 219, 321, 325, 335, 336) 157 Revisiting the vertical cliff at Tyft (Tanum 236) 159 Landscapes and seascapes in the Kalleby area (Tanum 425, 427, 419, 944, 420, 421, 418, 417) 161 Concluding remarks 163 Part III - Social and Maritime Praxis 176 Chapter 9: Social Practice and Rock Art 178 Introduction 178 Background 178 Ships in rock art, in graves and on bronze items 179 The production of rock art 182 Social practice, analogies and fictions 183 Ideology and social theory 184 Material and spiritual production 186 Palaeolithic rock art and Marxism 188 Later Marxist approaches 189 Rock art between practice and structure 190 Images, symbols and social action 192 Image, speech, social praxis and social communication 192 The symbological project 193 The social dimension of rock art images 195 1. Depictions of social environments and actions 196 2. Depictions of certain social positions or social rhetorics 197 3. Depictions of “iconic” features or elements 198 Concluding remarks 199 Chapter 10: From Terrestrial Ships to War Canoes 202 Introduction 202 Background 202 General features of the rock art ships 204 General outcome of the proportional study;codes of dimension 206 The Early Bronze Age ship images 208 The Late Bronze Age ship images 211 The Pre Roman Iron Age ship images 213 Depictions of social realities 214 Helmsmen and steering rods 216 Depictions of social and ritual positions 219 Warriors, acrobats, adorants, and lure blowers 220 Spatial and social aspects of the ship 221 Conclusion 222 Chapter 11: Rock Art and Society 226 Introduction 226 The concept of chiefdom and the Bronze Age 226 “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians” 229 Ideas of social transformation during the Early Bronze Age 230 Chiefdoms during the Late Bronze Age 232 Rock images of chiefs, aggrandizers, commoners or girots? 233 Material and ecological conditions of Bohuslän Bronze Age social formations 236 Praxis, production and ideology 237 1. Fishing 238 2. Maritime trade, barter, communication 239 3. Maritime warfare 241 4. Maritime rituals and ceremonies 242 5. Boat-building 243 Discussion 244 Dual social praxis, positions and transitions in Bronze Age Bohuslän 245 Conclusions 247 Chapter 12: Maritime Transitions 248 Introduction 248 Rock art in a maritime zone 249 Maritime transitions and rituals by the sea 250 Rock art and maritime mobility 252 Rock art as a traveler’s picture 253 The sea in the rock and the rock in the sea 253 The ships on the rocks 254 Maritime performances 257 Coda 258 Part IV - Disembarking 260 Chapter 13: Summary 262 Towards a maritime understanding of rock artin northern Bohuslän 262 Chapter 14: References 274 Chapter 15: Appendix 1 286 Appendix 1. 286 How may Bohusln rock art and landscape be perceived and understood? Since the Bronze Age, the landscape has been transformed by shore displacement but, largely due to misunderstanding and certain ideas about the character of Bronze Age society, rock art research in Tanum has drawn much of its inspiration from the present agrarian landscape. This perception of the landscape has not been a major issue. This volume, republished from the GOTAC Serie B (Gothenburg Archaeological thesis 49) aims to shed light on the process of shore displacement and its social and cognitive implications for the interpretation of rock art in the prehistoric landscape. The findings clearly show that in the Bronze Age, the majority of rock art sites in Bohusln had a very close spatial connection to the sea.Much rock art analysis focuses on the contemplative observer. The more direct activities related to rock art are seldom fully considered. Here, the basic conditions for the production of rock art, social theory and approaches to image, communication, symbolism and social action are discussed and related to palpable social forms of the reading of rock art. The general location and content of the Bronze Age remains indicate a tendency towards the maritime realm, which seems to have included both socio-ritual and socio-economic matters of production and consumption and that Bronze Age groups in Bohusln were highly active and mobile. The numerous configurations of ship images on the rocks could indicate a general transition or drift towards the maritime realm. Marking or manifesting such transitions in some way may have been important and it is tempting to perceive the rock art as traces of such transitions or positions in the landscape. All this points to a maritime understanding of Bronze Age rock art in northern Bohusln. [Elib] How may Bohuslan rock art and landscape be perceived and understood? Since the Bronze Age, the landscape has been transformed by shore displacement but, largely due to misunderstanding and certain ideas about the character of Bronze Age society, rock art research in Tanum has drawn much of its inspiration from the present agrarian landscape.