Levels of Narrativity in Scandinavian Bronze Age Petroglyphs

Abstract

In Europe, Scandinavia holds the largest concentration of rock art (i.e. petroglyphs), created c. 5000–first century bc, many of them showing figurative and seemingly narrative representations. In this paper, we will discuss possible narratological approaches applied to these images. We might reasonably distinguish between three levels of pictorial narrativity: representations of (i) single events, understood as the transition from one state of affairs to another, usually involving (groups of) agents interacting; (ii) stories, e.g. particular sequences of related events that are situated in the past and retold for e.g. ideological or religious purposes; and (iii) by implication, master-narratives deeply embedded in a culture, which provide and consolidate cosmological explanations and social structures. Some concrete examples of petroglyphs will be presented and analysed from narratological and iconographical perspectives. We will as a point of departure focus on (i), i.e. single events, though we shall also further consider the possibility of narrative interpretations according to (ii) and (iii).

Seeing different motifs in one picture: Identifying ambiguous figures in South Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art

“…People tend to not remember specific narrations of stories, but rather the gist of them. Thus, condensed pictorial compositions can remind people of possible gists, which can be extended into larger narratives (Ranta et al, 2019).…”

Art (Pre)History: Ritual, Narrative and Visual Culture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe

“…Wells (2012) has identified aesthetic patterns across genres of material culture in Iron Age Central Europe, relating them to social changes in the mid-late 1st millennium BC. Most relevant for this study, Jones (Jones 2012b(Jones , 2012aJones et al 2011) has interpreted British Neolithic rock art and material culture as reflecting an animated world view, and Ranta et al (2019) have used art theory to identify narrative characteristics in Bronze Age Scandinavian rock art. We return to these studies below.…”

“…Above all, the Bronze Age sees the birth of narrative art. Archaeologists have often recognised a narrative element in Bronze and Iron Age art, either explicitly (Ranta et al 2019) or implicitly by discussing the stories motifs may reference. What makes art narrative?…”

“…Bronze and Iron Age art rarely includes explicit reference to sequential time (as in a comic-book style series of images, or the Chauvet Cave lion in which multiple images may show the same thing in a series of stop-action moments). But it is built out of recognisable elements which carry clear references to a broad audience (Ranta et al 2019). Moreover, it often explicitly shows actions-people ploughing, warriors fighting, a boat loaded with crew and sailing, a rider mounted on a horse, a hunter chasing a quarry.…”

Narrative Aspects of Images of Spear Use in Scandinavian Rock Carvings

“…Stories can be manifested in non-verbal media, including those without (obvious) temporal structure, e.g. static pictorial representations, including rock art (Ryan, 2011;Ranta et al, 2019Ranta et al, , 2020. Certainly, Genette's criterion for 'mini-narratives' would permit classifying certain static pictures as narratives if they imply a past and a future or, in a Husserlian sense, are representations of temporarily extended events in terms of retention and protention (anticipation) (see Lewis & Staehler, 2010: 26).…”