scholarly journals Narrative Aspects of Images of Spear Use in Scandinavian Rock Carvings

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Peter Skoglund ◽  
Michael Ranta ◽  
Tomas Persson ◽  
Anna Cabak Rédei
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Mnemonic Devices ◽  
Action Sequences

Researchers have long discussed whether Scandinavian rock art reflects narratives. Their interpretations have frequently been based on inspections of rock art panels combined with knowledge from ethnographic and historical sources. Here, the authors adopt a more focused narratological approach that takes the concept of (visual) narrativity into consideration and draws on studies by literary analysts, cognitive psychologists, and semioticians. Images of spear use in the provinces of Bohuslän and Östergötland in Sweden, given their diversity and indexical qualities, are well-suited to such a study. They reveal different kinds of indexical relationships, i.e. how the spears direct attention to possible targets, arguably corresponding to action scripts well-known to Bronze Age communities. Many spear images may be regarded as mini-narratives and mnemonic devices intended to represent schematized action sequences. The authors suggest that concepts such as iconicity, indexical relationships, scripts, and mini-narratives could be fruitfully employed in research on Scandinavian rock art and beyond.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence, 3D Documentation, and Rock Art—Approaching and Reflecting on the Automation of Identification and Classification of Rock Art Images

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Horn ◽  
Oscar Ivarsson ◽  
Cecilia Lindhé ◽  
Rich Potter ◽  
Ashely Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Bounding Boxes

AbstractRock art carvings, which are best described as petroglyphs, were produced by removing parts of the rock surface to create a negative relief. This tradition was particularly strong during the Nordic Bronze Age (1700–550 BC) in southern Scandinavia with over 20,000 boats and thousands of humans, animals, wagons, etc. This vivid and highly engaging material provides quantitative data of high potential to understand Bronze Age social structures and ideologies. The ability to provide the technically best possible documentation and to automate identification and classification of images would help to take full advantage of the research potential of petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia and elsewhere. We, therefore, attempted to train a model that locates and classifies image objects using faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster-RCNN) based on data produced by a novel method to improve visualizing the content of 3D documentations. A newly created layer of 3D rock art documentation provides the best data currently available and has reduced inscribed bias compared to older methods. Several models were trained based on input images annotated with bounding boxes produced with different parameters to find the best solution. The data included 4305 individual images in 408 scans of rock art sites. To enhance the models and enrich the training data, we used data augmentation and transfer learning. The successful models perform exceptionally well on boats and circles, as well as with human figures and wheels. This work was an interdisciplinary undertaking which led to important reflections about archaeology, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. The reflections and the success represented by the trained models open novel avenues for future research on rock art.

Representations of oxhide ingots in Scandinavian rock art: the sketchbook of a Bronze Age traveller?

Antiquity ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (343) ◽  
pp. 191-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Ling ◽  
Zofia Stos-Gale
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Image Position

Abstract

scholarly journals Rock art and the prehistoric landscape of Galicia: the results of field survey 1992–1994

1995 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 347-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Felipe Criado Boado ◽  
Ramón Fábregas Valcarce
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Outer Edge ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
North West ◽  
Abrupt Changes ◽  
Ground Conditions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper discusses the relationship between the earlier prehistoric pattern of settlement in Atlantic Europe and the creation of rock art. It investigates the organisation of the Copper Age and Early Bronze Age landscape of north-west Spain using the evidence provided by the distribution, siting, and composition of rock carvings. It presents the results of field survey in three sample areas extending from the centre to the outer edge of their distribution. Although these drawings cannot be interpreted as illustrations of daily life, they may have helped to define rights to particular resources in an area which experienced abrupt changes of ground conditions over the course of the year.

scholarly journals Beyond Transgressive Lands and Forgotten Seas: Towards a Maritime Understanding of Rock Art in Bohuslän

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Johan Ling
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Clay Soil ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

Since the beginning of the 20th century rock art in Bohuslän has traditionally been interpreted, on the basis of its adjacent location to the clay-soil plains, as an indicator ofpermanent pastoral or agrarian settlement units. However, recent results ofthe first substantial and extensive shoreline study, covering the whole of Bohuslän, have shown that, during the entire Bronze Age, many of these lower, clay- soil plains were in fact sea bottoms in shallow bays. On the basis of these results new measurement of the rock art panels and the surrounding terrain were made. The study showed that many rock carvings had been placed on or near the contemporary shore during the Bronze Age. It therefore seemed essential to present new questions about the social and ritual behaviour, as manifested by the rock art in these particular areas. It is here suggested that the rock art in the investigated area may be a materialised reflection of seasonal maritime interactions during the Bronze Age.

scholarly journals THE OLDEST ROCK ART SITES OF THE KARATAU RANGE: PETROGLYPHS OF KARASUYIR

2022 ◽  
pp. 2-8
Author(s):  
С. С. Мургабаев ◽  
Л. Д. Малдыбекова
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

Статья посвящена новому памятнику наскального искусства хребта Каратау, открытому в урочище Карасуйир. Приводится краткое описание памятника, публикуются наиболее важные изображения. Сюжеты и стилистические особенности основной чaсти петроглифов памятника Карасуйир связаны с эпохой бронзы, остaльные рисунки отнесены к эпохе рaннего железа и, возможно, к эпохе камня. Для некоторых из них предложена предварительная интерпретация. The article is devoted to a new rock art site of the Karatau Range, discovered in the Karasuyir Area. A brief description of the site is provided, and the most important images are published. Subjects and stylistic features of the main part of Karasuyir petroglyphs are associated with the Bronze Age, and other engravings are related to the early Iron Age and, perhaps, to the Stone Age. A preliminary interpretation is proposed for some of them.

North European Rock Art

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joakim Goldhahn
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Migration Period ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Bronze Age

This chapter offers a long-term perspective on rock art in northern Europe. It first provides an overview of research on the rock art traditions of northern Europe before discussing the societies and cultures that created such traditions. It then considers examples of rock art made by hunter-gatherer societies in northern Europe, focusing on the first rock art boom related to Neolithization. It also examines the second rock art boom, which was associated with social and religious changes within farming communities that took place around 1600–1400 bc. The chapter concludes by analysing the breakdown of long-distance networks in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and its consequences for the making of rock art within the southern traditions, as well as the use of rock art sites during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, Roman Iron Age, and Migration Period.

Fantastic Beings and Where to Make Them ‒ Boats as Object-Beings in Bronze Age Rock Art

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (27) ◽  
pp. 191-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Fahlander
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
The World ◽  
Change Of Perspective ◽  
Hybrid Character ◽  
Animal Part

The boat motif in Bronze Age rock art is generally assumed to represent real or symbolic boats in some form. In this paper, however, it is argued that Bronze Age rock art motifs are independent material articulations, made to do something rather than to represent. From such a perspective, the hybrid character of the boat motif as part animal, part object is conceived as a special type of entity, an object-being that has no original elsewhere. The change of perspective, from representation to articulation, and from object to being, allows for a more coherent view of Bronze Age rock art as primarily enacted imagery integrated with rock and metal as vitalist devices, aimed to affect the world.

scholarly journals Seeing different motifs in one picture: Identifying ambiguous figures in South Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1802804
Author(s):  
Anna Cabak Rédei ◽  
Peter Skoglund ◽  
Tomas Persson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Ambiguous Figures
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