How may Bohuslän 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 Bohuslän 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 “reading” 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 Bohuslän 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 Bohuslän.
Les mer
Towards a maritime understanding of Bronze Age rock art in northern Bohuslän, Sweden
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781782977636
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxbow Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter