Human representations are one of the most important groups of depictions in rock art in southern Scandinavia. These humans have long been discussed as complete, stable, and temporally-fixed images. The results of a new survey challenge this view. Recording rock art with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) enabled us to discern a possible sequence of production of individual human representations, their bodily features, and associated objects. Figures from a rock art site in Finntorp (Tanum, Sweden) will be used as an example. Differences in the dimensions of the engraved lines, the chronology of the depicted objects, and the placement of body parts suggest that several individuals may have been involved in making human representations on the rocks, and that their appearance as complete figures is the result of repeated transformations. The results presented demonstrate that Scandinavian rock art is not stable in time. We suggest that rock art is best understood as the creation of communities over time, which enables them to engage with the past by transforming the rocks.
Rock art carvings, which are best described as petroglyphs, were produced by removing parts of the rock surface to create a negative relief. This tradition was particularly strong during the Nordic Bronze Age (1700–550 BC) in southern Scandinavia with over 20,000 boats and thousands of humans, animals, wagons, etc. This vivid and highly engaging material provides quantitative data of high potential to understand Bronze Age social structures and ideologies. The ability to provide the technically best possible documentation and to automate identification and classification of images would help to take full advantage of the research potential of petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia and elsewhere. We, therefore, attempted to train a model that locates and classifies image objects using faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster-RCNN) based on data produced by a novel method to improve visualizing the content of 3D documentations. A newly created layer of 3D rock art documentation provides the best data currently available and has reduced inscribed bias compared to older methods. Several models were trained based on input images annotated with bounding boxes produced with different parameters to find the best solution. The data included 4305 individual images in 408 scans of rock art sites. To enhance the models and enrich the training data, we used data augmentation and transfer learning. The successful models perform exceptionally well on boats and circles, as well as with human figures and wheels. This work was an interdisciplinary undertaking which led to important reflections about archaeology, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. The reflections and the success represented by the trained models open novel avenues for future research on rock art.
Southern Scandinavia is Europe’s richest region in terms of figurative rock art. It is imperative to document this cultural heritage for future generations. To achieve this, researchers need to use the most objective recording methods available in order to eliminate human error and bias in the documentation. The ability to collect more data is better, not only for documentation, but also for research purposes. Recent years have seen the wider introduction of image based 2.5D and 3D modelling of rock art surfaces. These methods are Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), Structure from Motion (SfM), and Optical Laser Scanning (OLS). Importantly, these approaches record depth difference and the structure of engraved lines. Therefore, they have clear advantages over older methods such as frottage (rubbings) and tracing. Based on a number of short case studies, this paper argues that 2.5D and 3D methods should be used as a standard documentation techniques, but not in an exclusionary manner. The best documentation, enabling preservation and high-quality research, should employ all methods. Approaching rock art with all the research tools available we can re-appraise older documentation as well as investigate individual action and the transformation of rock art.
The Vlochos Archaeological Project (2016–2018) was a Greek-Swedish archaeological investigation of the remains of the ancient urban site at Vlochos in western Thessaly, Greece. Employing a wide array of non-invasive methods, the project succeeded in completely mapping the visible remains, which had previously not been systematically investigated. The extensive remains of multi-period urban fortifications, a Classical-Hellenistic city, a Roman town, and a Late Antique fortress were identified, evidence of the long history of habitation on this site. Since comparatively little fieldwork has been conducted in the region, the results significantly increase our knowledge of the history and archaeology of Thessaly.
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