-PDF Download- Prehistoric Rock Art In Scandinavia EBOOK

Prehistoric rock art in Scandinavia

Author: Courtney Nimura

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2015-11-30

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1785701207

Scandinavia is home to prolific and varied rock art images among which the ship motif is prominent. Because of this, the rock art of Scandinavia has often been interpreted in terms of social ritual, cosmology, and religion associated with the maritime sphere. This comprehensive review is based on the creation of a Scandinavia-wide GIS database for prehistoric rock art and reexamines theoretical approaches and interpretations, in particular with regard to the significance of the ship and its relationship to a maritime landscape Discussion focuses on material agency as a means to understanding the role of rock art within society. Two main theories are developed. The first is that the sea was fundamental to the purpose and meaning of rock art, especially in the Bronze Age and, therefore, that sea-level/shoreline changes would have inspired a renegotiation of the relationship between the rock art sites and their intended purpose. The fundamental question posed is: would such changes to the landscape have affected the purpose and meaning of rock art for the communities that made and used these sites? Various theories from within and outside of archaeology are drawn on to examine environmental change and analyze the rock art, led to second theory: that the purpose of rock art might have been altered to have an effect on the disappearing sea. The general theory that rock art would have been affected by environmental change was discussed in tandem with existing interpretations of the meaning and purpose of rock art. Imbuing rock art with agency means that it could be intertwined in an active web of relations involving maritime landscapes, shoreline displacement and communities. Though created in stone and fixed in time and place, rock art images have propagated belief systems that would have changed over time as they were re-carved, abandoned and used by different groups of inhabitants. In the thousands of years rock art was created, it is likely that shoreline displacement would have inspired a renegotiation of the purpose and meaning of the imagery situated alongside the Scandinavian seas. This journey through a prehistoric Scandinavian landscape will lead us into a world of ancient beliefs and traditions revolving around this extraordinary art form.

Rock Art Through Time

Author: Peter Skoglund

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1785701673

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

As in many other areas in south Scandinavia, the region surrounding the city of Simrishamn in south-east Scania has a great many Bronze Age mounds that are still visible in the landscape, and records from the museums demonstrate that the area is rich in bronze metalwork. Nevertheless, it is the figurative rock art that makes this region stand out as distinct from surrounding areas that lack such images. The rock art constitutes a spatially well-defined tradition that covers the Bronze Age and the earliest Iron Age, c. 1700–200 BC and, although the number of sites is comparatively small, a characteristic and unusual feature is the large representation of various kinds of metal axes. Significantly these images are tightly distributed inside the core zone of metal consumption in southernmost Scandinavia. This beautifully illustrated new addition to the Swedish rock Art series presents a detailed reassessment of the Simrishamn rock art and examines the close relationship between iconography displayed on metals and that found in rock art. in so doing it raises some important questions of principle concerning the current understanding of the south Scandinavian rock art tradition.

Prehistoric Imagery and Landscapes

Author: Kalle Sognnes

Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A detailed study of the Bronze Age rock art found in the Stjordal region of central Norway. Based on fieldwork carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sognnes analyses the imagery of the art and the physical and social landscape in which it exists.

Elevated Rock Art

Author: Johan Ling

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2014-11-30

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1782977627

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

How may Bohusl_n rock art and landscape be perceived and understood? Since the Bronze Age, the landscape has been transformed by shore displacement but, largely due to misunderstanding and certain ideas about the character of Bronze Age society, rock art research in Tanum has drawn much of its inspiration from the present agrarian landscape. This perception of the landscape has not been a major issue. This volume, republished from the GOTAC Serie B (Gothenburg Archaeological thesis 49) aims to shed light on the process of shore displacement and its social and cognitive implications for the interpretation of rock art in the prehistoric landscape. The findings clearly show that in the Bronze Age, the majority of rock art sites in Bohusl_n had a very close spatial connection to the sea. Much rock art analysis focuses on the contemplative observer. The more direct activities related to rock art are seldom fully considered. Here, the basic conditions for the production of rock art, social theory and approaches to image, communication, symbolism and social action are discussed and related to palpable social forms of the ñreadingî of rock art. The general location and content of the Bronze Age remains indicate a tendency towards the maritime realm, which seems to have included both socio-ritual and socio-economic matters of production and consumption and that Bronze Age groups in Bohusl_n were highly active and mobile. The numerous configurations of ship images on the rocks could indicate a general transition or drift towards the maritime realm. Marking or manifesting such transitions in some way may have been important and it is tempting to perceive the rock art as traces of such transitions or positions in the landscape. All this points to a maritime understanding of Bronze Age rock art in northern Bohusl_n.

Picturing the Bronze Age

Author: Johan Ling

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2015-02-28

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1782978828

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Pictures from the Bronze Age are numerous, vivid and complex. There is no other prehistoric period that has produced such a wide range of images spanning from rock art to figurines to decoration on bronzes and gold. Fourteen papers, with a geographical coverage from Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula, examine a wide range of topics reflecting the many forms and expressions of Bronze Age imagery encompassing important themes including religion, materiality, mobility, interaction, power and gender. Contributors explore specific elements of rock art in some detail such as the representation of the human form; images of manslaughter; and gender identities. The relationship between rock art imagery and its location on the one hand, and metalwork and networks of trade and exchange of both materials and ideas on the other, are considered. Modern and ancient perceptions of rock art are discussed, in particular the changing perceptions that have developed during almost 150 years of documented research. Picturing the Bronze Age is based on an international workshop with the same title held in Tanum, Sweden in October 2012.

Prehistoric rock art in Scandinavia

Author: Courtney Nimura

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2015-11-30

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1785701223

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

North Meets South

Author: Peter Skoglund

Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781785708206

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Where previous examinations of rock art have emphasized disparaties between traditions in northern and southern Scandinavia, this volume emphasizes similarities in themes, formats, and repertoire and discusses new theoretical approaches to analysis which emphasize interaction and commonality.

The Magic of the Image

Author: Dietrich Evers

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 47

ISBN-13: 9783980271653

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Ancient Scandinavia

Author: Theron Douglas Price

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0190231971

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Although occupied only relatively briefly in the long span of world prehistory, Scandinavia is an extraordinary laboratory for investigating past human societies. The area was essentially unoccupied until the end of the last Ice Age when the melting of huge ice sheets left behind a fresh, barren land surface, which was eventually covered by flora and fauna. The first humans did not arrive until sometime after 13,500 BCE. The prehistoric remains of human activity in Scandinavia - much of it remarkably preserved in its bogs, lakes, and fjords - have given archaeologists a richly detailed portrait of the evolution of human society. In this book, Doug Price provides an archaeological history of Scandinavia-a land mass comprising the modern countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway-from the arrival of the first humans after the last Ice Age to the end of the Viking period, ca. AD 1050. Constructed similarly to the author's previous book, Europe before Rome, Ancient Scandinaviaprovides overviews of each prehistoric epoch followed by detailed, illustrative examples from the archaeological record. An engrossing and comprehensive picture emerges of change across the millennia, as human society evolves from small bands of hunter - gatherers to large farming communities to the complex warrior cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, which culminated in the spectacular rise of the Vikings. The material evidence of these past societies - arrowheads from reindeer hunts, megalithic tombs, rock art, beautifully wrought weaponry, Viking warships - give vivid testimony to the ancient humans who once called home this often unforgiving edge of the inhabitable world.