Changing perceptions of rock art: storying prehistoric worlds

Abstract

Temporality and changeability are here considered vital characteristics of rock art, expressed through shifting light and moving bodies. Demonstrating deliberate use of non-quantifiable elements such as light is challenging. Nevertheless, there are rock art sites where its importance is apparent. For example, the results of a 3D scan of the site Hammer IX in Central Norway show how the same lines make out both an elk head and a whale. Whereas in Vingen in Western Norway, 77 panels positioned across a scree slope, non-corporeal elements appear to be as important as the motifs. Approaching rock art in a non-representational framework, we consider the involvement of intangible elements as part of the constant knowledge production and shaping of realities at sites. This is the point of departure for our discussion of the making and use of rock art as a meaningmaking and storytelling practice in Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Norway.

Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning

“…Parallel and interspersed are the structuralist and post-structuralist text and languageinspired interpretations, where negotiating and mediating aspects in a meeting place setting are emphasized. The rock art is also conceived of as mnemonic and informational, as keeping or sharing knowledge, providing geographical reference and as involved in storytelling, the latter lately also explored by non-representational and narratological approaches (Nyland andStebergløkken 2020, Ranta et al 2020). Furthermore, the art can simultaneously represent both real and mythological happenings and entities.…”

“…Generative effects or processes have also been suggested by Fredrik Fahlander after studying the Bronze Age rock art in the Boglösa area in Sweden, which he considered to be a landscape passed through, rather than dwelt in (2020b). Instead of taking the perception of the rock art as reflections or illustrations of ideology or cosmology as his point of departure, Fahlander focused on what it did (or does), as material articulations working beyond representation (see also Nyland and Stebergløkken 2020). Acknowledging that rock art figures might incite and influence actions and events, the recurring production of similar motifs, the transformations of, additions to and even the destruction of rock art figures might be viewed as imagery in the becoming.…”