Photo: The Foundation for Documentation of Rock Carvings in Bohuslän.
One of the petroglyphs recently discovered on a farm in western Sweden.
Erik is from Sweden, so he takes Suzanne and the kids there every summer for about a month, where they connect with his sister’s lively family and his mother (Stuga40 on WordPress).
My husband and I paid Stuga40 a visit back in 2017, and one of the many fun things we did with her was visit a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring ancient petroglyphs. (See a post on that here.)
It turns out that ancient civilizations in Sweden are not done revealing their secrets. Recently, researchers found more petroglyphs, startling the farmer who lives on the land and adding to the world’s pool of knowledge.
Richard Whiddington reports at Artnet, “In early May, a group of researchers scouring the western Swedish province of Bohuslän spotted irregular markings on a moss-covered rock face. They seemed man-made and so the team carefully removed the vegetation and uncovered scores of rock carvings, around 40 in total, depicting ships, animals, and people.
“The rock carvings, or petroglyphs, date back around 2,700 years and are the latest find in Bohuslän, an area known for its rock art, most notably the Bronze Age images at Tanum, a UNESCO site. …
“The recently discovered petroglyphs were found on a steep rock face that once formed the edge of an island before sea levels gradually dropped an estimated 40 feet over the course of several hundred years. This has led researchers to speculate the artists used boats, or a form of scaffolding laid on ice, to reach the rock surface. …
“The designs were made through a laborious process of smacking stones against the granite rock that exposed an underlayer of white. This color, in addition to their size, made them highly visible from both the mainland and passing ships.
“ ‘What makes the petroglyphs completely unique is that they are located three meters above today’s ground surface,’ Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings wrote in a statement. ‘The motifs lie on an even line that follows the height of the sea surface from approximately 700 to 800 BCE. The motifs are also stylistically consistent with this time period.’
“The latest group of petroglyphs found includes a 13-foot-long ship, as well as carvings of people, chariots, carts, and horses. Their meaning remains unknown. Sometimes petroglyphs were used to mark out territory, though researchers believe the repeated motifs carved into rocks outside the town of Kville may suggest they were used to tell a narrative.
“Lennart Larsson, on whose farm the rock carvings were found, was pleased by the discovery. ‘I haven’t actively been looking for petroglyphs, but it’s a lot of fun,’ he told SVT, the country’s national broadcaster in interview. ‘I can sit at home on the balcony and watch the stick figures and the ships outside.’ ” More at Artnet, here.
Also, at Live Science, Martin Östholm, a project manager with the foundation, noted that he petroglyphs include depictions of ships, people and animal figures, “including four-legged creatures that may be horses. … It’s not certain why people created the carvings, he said, but they may have served to mark ownership. …
“James Dodd, a researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark and the Tanums Hällristningsmuseum’s Rock Art Research Centre Underslös in Sweden [said that] some of the motifs — including chariots, carts and animal figures — were depicted multiple times. … ‘On the basis of the repetition of the motifs, it is possible that this collection of figures forms a narrative,’ Dodd told Live Science in an email. Studies of other petroglyphs in the region have suggested that, in some cases, they may have been used in this way, but the exact meaning in this case is uncertain, he added.”
Artnet and Live Science have good pictures — and no firewalls.
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