The rock art found in the World Heritage sites in the Alta area,
Arctic Norway, comprise thousands of images including reindeer and elk
as well as fish, birds, boats, humans and geometric patterns. They
contain information about peoples who lived in this northern area from
about 5000 BC up until the birth of Christ; such as possible social
organizations, hunting and trapping, beliefs, rituals,stories,
legends, myths, cultural changes and continuities. Communicating with
the world of beings addresses an understanding of the rock art in
terms of communication with other people and other than-human beings.
The figures could have been seen and experienced as symbols in rituals
or as expressions of identity, position, power and rights, as
depictions of real events and perhaps for use in storytelling. Through
rock art, people might also have been able to communicate with
other-than-human beings who ruled parts of the environment – in
order to petition favors for themselves or others. These
other-than-human beings may have been perceived as good and evil
powers and spirits of the different worlds of the universe; the dead
or souls; which also included the animals depicted or were 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
settlements. 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.
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The World Heritage rock art sites in Alta, Arctic Norway
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781782974123
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxbow Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter