Details
The rock art found in the World Cultural Heritage site of the Alta area, Norway, comprises thousands of images including vast panels depicting many animals including reindeer and elk as well as fish, birds, boats, humans and geometric patterns. Their discovery, study and interpretation has led to renewed interest in Sami prehistory. They provide much information about the people who lived in this northern area from about 5000 BC up until the birth of Christ; about their social organisation, hunting and trapping, beliefs, rituals, stories, legends, myths and culture, changes, continuity and history.
Communicating with the world of beings addresses an understanding of the rock art in terms of communication with other people and with the "other-than-human beings ". The figures were seen and experienced by people other than those who created them, as symbols in rituals or as expressions of identity, position, power and rights, as depictions of real event and perhaps for use in storytelling. Through rock art, its creators were also able to communication with ‘other-than-human beings’ who determined events in the environment – in order to petition favours for themselves or others. These ‘other-than-human beings’ may have been spirits; of the underworld; the dead or souls; which also included the animals depicted, or even embodied, in the stone.
This communication may have been based on a belief that both living beings and inert objects and natural phenomena had souls, a belief that may have existed ever since the earliest settlement. Such an animistic belief means that everything was seen as having a consciousness and identity of its own, independent and imbued with a will. Therefore, it was essential that the different participants communicated with one another as equal partners.
In this beautifully illustrated book Knut Helskog provides a lyrical and personal interpretation of the chronology, patterning and possible meanings behind this extraordinary landscape of prehistoric rock art.
Communicating with the world of beings addresses an understanding of the rock art in terms of communication with other people and with the "other-than-human beings ". The figures were seen and experienced by people other than those who created them, as symbols in rituals or as expressions of identity, position, power and rights, as depictions of real event and perhaps for use in storytelling. Through rock art, its creators were also able to communication with ‘other-than-human beings’ who determined events in the environment – in order to petition favours for themselves or others. These ‘other-than-human beings’ may have been spirits; of the underworld; the dead or souls; which also included the animals depicted, or even embodied, in the stone.
This communication may have been based on a belief that both living beings and inert objects and natural phenomena had souls, a belief that may have existed ever since the earliest settlement. Such an animistic belief means that everything was seen as having a consciousness and identity of its own, independent and imbued with a will. Therefore, it was essential that the different participants communicated with one another as equal partners.
In this beautifully illustrated book Knut Helskog provides a lyrical and personal interpretation of the chronology, patterning and possible meanings behind this extraordinary landscape of prehistoric rock art.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
THE WORLD OF BEINGS
THE NATURAL SURROUNDINGS
AGE
MAKING ROCK ART
PERIOD I
PERIOD II
Human Figures
Reindeer
Elk
Bear
Other land animals and birds
Fish and sea mammals
Boats
Equipment
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD III
Human Figures
Reindeer
Elk
Bear
Birds
Fish and sea mammals
Boats
Equipment
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD IV
Human Figures
Reindeer
Other members of the deer family
Bear
Other animals and fish
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD V
Human Figures
Reindeer and Elk
Other animals
Boats
Summary
PERIOD VI
PAINTINGS
A NORTHERN FENNOSCANDIAN PERSPECTIVE
FINAL PHASE OF ROCK ART
WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE IN ALTA
References
INTRODUCTION
THE WORLD OF BEINGS
THE NATURAL SURROUNDINGS
AGE
MAKING ROCK ART
PERIOD I
PERIOD II
Human Figures
Reindeer
Elk
Bear
Other land animals and birds
Fish and sea mammals
Boats
Equipment
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD III
Human Figures
Reindeer
Elk
Bear
Birds
Fish and sea mammals
Boats
Equipment
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD IV
Human Figures
Reindeer
Other members of the deer family
Bear
Other animals and fish
Abstract Figures
Summary
PERIOD V
Human Figures
Reindeer and Elk
Other animals
Boats
Summary
PERIOD VI
PAINTINGS
A NORTHERN FENNOSCANDIAN PERSPECTIVE
FINAL PHASE OF ROCK ART
WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE IN ALTA
References