Downscaling Cosmological Landscapes: from Early to Mid-Holocene Rock Art in Northern Norway

Abstract

The rock art of northern Norway is well-known, not least due to the UNESCO World Heritage sites at Alta dating back to c. 5200 cal BC. It is perhaps less well-known that northern Norway also has earlier rock art dating back to c. 9000 cal BC. While the early phase of rock art is dominated by large, natural sized animals such as elk, reindeer, bear and whale in a naturalistic style, the later period in addition to animals have many humans, boats and geometric motifs. Although varying in size, the individual motifs are typically small (10-20 cm), and although identifiable to species the style is more schematic. The rock art now includes narrative scenes and compositions which display communal activities involving groups of people interacting, e.g. hunting and ritual activities. In this paper we will explore how the panels and motifs in the early and late period respectively relate to the landscape, and argue that there is a downscaling not just in the size of the motifs but also in the perception of the landscape. This downscaling is associated with changes in settlement and mobility patterns, from an early highly mobile mode of habitation to a semi-sedentary mode with increased regionalization.