Hunting stories in Scandinavian rock art : Aspects of 'tellability' in the north versus the south

Michael Ranta, Peter Skoglund, Tomas Persson, Jan Magne Gjerde

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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 Norrkoping, 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'.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)228-246
Number of pages19
JournalOxford Journal of Archaeology
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Archaeology
  • Arkeologi

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