Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck
21. Marine Ventures in Stone Age Rock Art of Fennoscandia
Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck
Jan Magne Gjerde [+]
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
Description
In rock art research there has been/still is a general assumption and interpretation that the boats depicted in rock art are not real boats but cosmological depictions of boats. This paper will look into the marine ventures in Stone Age rock art where the boat depictions are reconsidered as part of both a real and a cosmological world. Indirect evidence of an advanced marine technology is the settlement pattern on the numerous islands along the Norwegian coast. The boat was a vital conveyance connected to hunting and fishing. Added to this, they were important for journeys in these seascapes. The oldest boat depictions date to the Late Mesolithic. The Stone Age boat scenes include driving and hunting of reindeer, halibut fishing, seal hunting and whale hunting. Whereas boats may represent cosmological journeys, this paper will focus more on the actual activities depicted in the rock art as representations of real events in the past. Among recent hunter-gatherers, there is often no clear-cut separation between the real and the imaginary in the ethnographic record. It is thus argued that Stone Age rock art compositions are intertwined representations depicting and denoting both real and cosmological boats.