The paper discusses three newly found panels with rock carvings in Alta, Northern Norway. They were discovered at Doarrás (Kongsvika), an area with no previously known rock art. The new site is ...located outside well-established UNESCO World Heritage rock art areas, which are considered to be of national and international value. The Alta rock art has been researched extensively, and the new site at Doarrás complements and enrich the already established knowledge. The rocks and the figures are discussed and related to previously suggested dating and their relation to the shoreline. Further, the motifs stylistic similarities are compared to figures at the already known sites in Alta. The paper also addresses the importance of rock art surveying for both research and heritage management.
Summary
The rock art of Alta, comprising more than 7000 rock carvings, is dated by shoreline chronology. It is unparalleled in Europe. The well‐dated rock carvings make the material suitable for a ...temporal study of the rock art and the frequency of rock art production over c.5500 years. Based on new detailed elevation measurements performed by Alta Museum of the 92 panels with rock art and individual measurements of a total of 442 individual figures it is possible to discuss the temporal and spatial distribution of the rock art in Alta in detail. This up‐to‐date study shows that the rock art in Alta was made between c.5300 BC and AD 100 (6300–1900 BP). This raises the question whether the rock art record represents an even production of figures, accumulated gradually over more than five millennia, or whether there were more intensive phases of activity in the Alta area. Further, were all main areas used throughout the five millennia or did activities shift in the landscape? Based on the current record, the frequency of the rock art argues for a clear division of the material into four chronological phases. The material record shows an intense production in the earliest period from c.5300–4000 BC, with about 60% of the rock art being made then. The results from this study indicate that the rock carvings in Alta support a framework for the Alta rock art into four phases.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Strains of Vibrio alginolyticus were regularly isolated from mussels, fish, bottom sediment and seawater from April to October. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was isolated occasionally in samples from ...mussels and bottom sediment in July and August. None of the species were detected in the cold season.
Isolated strains were characterized by growth requirement, morphological characteristics and biochemical tests. In addition the cellular fatty acid composition was determined and compared with standard strains from the family Vibrionaceae.
With the exception of some biochemical reactions which distinguish Vibrio alginolyticus from Vibrio parahaemolyticus, growth requirement, morphological characteristics and biochemical reactions are similar for these strains.
The close relation between Vibrio alginolyticus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus was also revealed by cluster analyses of fatty acid patterns which combined these two species into one cluster which, however, was clearly separated from the standard strains of Vibrio anguillarum.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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The oldest boat depictions in rock art from northern Europe have previously been dated to about 5500–5000 BC. A recent discovery of rock art boat depictions at Valle in Nordland County, ...northern Norway, made in the ground technique, pre‐dates the earlier known boat depictions by more than 3000 years. The rock art at Valle is dated by shoreline dating to be between 10,000 and 11,000 years old. The find has implications for the rock art material record, is likely to alter current views and have an impact on the research history of rock art in northern Norway. The boat is depicted in outline, life size, measuring more than 4 m in length. The closest parallels are the Arctic skin boats found in the ethnographic record. The settlement record from northernmost Europe during the Early Mesolithic supports a maritime and highly mobile strategy that would require boats and an advanced maritime technology. It would not be possible to settle the numerous islands along the coast without seaworthy boats. The boat find has implications for the appreciation of the maritime colonization of seascapes in northern Norway during the Early Mesolithic, being part of the pioneer settling of northernmost Europe after the Ice Age.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Alta rock art area in northern Norway has more than 6000 carvings made between about 5200-1BC. The focus for this paper is the Bergbukten 4B panel in Alta. With more than 200 figures this is one ...of the largest panels with Stone Age rock art in northern Europe. The panel holds several scenes, compositions and narratives. Studying relations between the figures and the interaction with the natural features of the rock canvas show some of the rock art refers to activities and places of activities mirroring real places. Moreover, the figures are also placed in relation to a three-tiered cosmological framework. This intertwined 'world as we know it' can be interpreted as a cosmographical knowledge of the hunter-fisher-gatherers making the rock art in the Stone Age about 6000-7000 years ago where real and imaginary landscapes were part of a cosmographical representation visualizing their 'memoryscapes' stored in the rocks.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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Scandinavian petroglyphs have given rise to vivid interpretations, often related to Old Norse religion and Indo‐European mythology. However, we still do not know if, how or to what extent ...these images are really telling stories. In this paper, we shall analyse the ways in which Scandinavian northern and southern traditions (in Alta, Northern Norway and in Norrköping, Middle Sweden, respectively) depict hunting narratives. While the northern tradition may render several phases and procedural aspects of the hunt, the southern one tends to be more focused on the killing itself, or the confrontational aspects of the hunt.
A preliminary observation is that the scenes differ in ways that reflect not only different hunting traditions, but also imply different foci of interest. Put in another way, they emphasize different aspects of the hunting activity itself, of what is relevant, worth telling, or ‘tellable’.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Scandinavian petroglyphs have given rise to vivid interpretations, often related to Old Norse religion and Indo‐European mythology. However, we still do not know if, how or to what extent these ...images are really telling stories. In this paper, we shall analyse the ways in which Scandinavian northern and southern traditions (in Alta, Northern Norway and in Norrköping, Middle Sweden, respectively) depict hunting narratives. While the northern tradition may render several phases and procedural aspects of the hunt, the southern one tends to be more focused on the killing itself, or the confrontational aspects of the hunt.A preliminary observation is that the scenes differ in ways that reflect not only different hunting traditions, but also imply different foci of interest. Put in another way, they emphasize different aspects of the hunting activity itself, of what is relevant, worth telling, or ‘tellable’.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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The idea to create pictorial narratives seems to have occurred long after humans learned to produce iconic images, that is, depictions based on visual similarity to external objects. In ...Scandinavia, e.g. in Gärde, Sweden or Stykket and Bøla, Norway, early Mesolithic images (e.g. rock carvings from before c.5000 BCE) often feature animals that are solitary or without suggestion of causal or narrative relations to other figures, although they sometimes are grouped by proximity or are superimposed on each other. Notable is also the almost complete absence of human figures. However, in subsequent Neolithic configurations (after c.5000 BCE), there are renderings of human agents involved in various forms of interaction with each other or with animals, often within distinguishable ‘scenes’ or compositions.
In this paper we outline the emergence of pictorial narratives in Scandinavian rock carvings. In particular, we focus on some of the first depictions of human agency as displayed in Nämforsen, Sweden (c.5000–1800 BCE). Further, we present an analysis of occurring human‐animal relationships, interpretable as early attempts to create narrativizing images.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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