Approaches to Scandinavian rock-art

Summary

The aim of this paper is to discuss and evaluate some general trends in Scandinavian rock-art research. For a larger part of the 20th century scholars from the history of religion had a strong impact on the interpretation of south Scandinavian rock-art. Images were contextualized by a comparative approach where scenes and details from rock-art were compared to similar phenomenon in other media.

Today, this perspective is complemented by a variety of approaches; but a dominating perspective focuses on landscape archaeology and the maritime character of many rock-art sites. The landscape perspective is often combined with an interest in chronology and the notion that the same panel could have been used by different people for a very long time.

Based on a case study of rock-art in southernmost Sweden, I will evaluate the different approaches and argue that they both may contribute to an understanding of the south Scandinavian rock-art tradition. However, their relevance may vary through time as the rock-art tradition underwent rather significant changes during the course of the Bronze Age.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Atlantic crossing: side views on the rock art

Keywords

Spatial Coverage