Rock art as a manifestation of power and status in Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Acquiring Status and Power in Transegalitarian and Chiefdom Societies" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper we argue that the Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art can be associated with status and power and that the institutional idea of secret societies is the concept that best connects the warrior ideals shown in the rock art. It has recently been proposed that Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art was created by warrior-trader secret societies as part of the ritual practices associated with long-distance exchange activities conducted by initiates of these societies. These sodalities had a focus on surplus production and gift exchanges to establish networks of power and alliances for control of long-distance trade in valuable goods such as metals. Furthermore, we argue that this institution created exclusive pilgrimages and strived after esoteric knowledge about exotic goods, martial arts, navigation (including astronomy), and cosmopolitan affairs. A central advertising component for these groups was the making of rock art in the form of power iconography of social and ritual importance featuring war canoes, warriors, fighting, animals, myths, solar depictions, and metals. Interestingly, these warrior images are often accompanied by depictions of supernatural beings, large ships, the wearing of ritual gear especially with birdlike attributes, bi-horned helmets, masks, and other exotic items characteristic of secret societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Acquiring Status and Power in Transegalitarian and Chiefdom Societies

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52737