Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Changing Settlements, Shores and Boats through 5000 Years: Dating and Connecting Petroglyphs to the General Archaeological Record - A Case from Northernmost Norway

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Knut Helskog [+-]
Arctic University Museum of Norway
Knut Helskog is a Professor Emeritus in Archaeology at The Arctic University Museum of Norway and Academy of Fine Arts, UIT The Arctic University of Norway. His research interest is oriented towards prehistoric hunter – fisher – gatherer populations in northernmost Europe, with a specific focus on the World Heritage rock art sites in Alta, northern Norway. His last works include, Communicating with the World of Beings. The World Heritage rock art sites in Alta, Arctic Norway. Oxbow Books (2014).

Description

Integrating rock art into local and regional archaeological records is a major problem as the evidence of direct cultural connections frequently is weak and even lacking. This paper focus on the creation of a chronological sequence based on altitudinal and temporal relationships between petroglyphs, radiocarbon dated occupation sites and the Holocene shoreline displacement within a confined coastal area in Alta, Northern Norway. The proposed shore displacement curve based on the maximum dates from different sites deviates slightly from that based on geological data and need to be challenged through multi-disciplinary research. The radiocarbon dates indicate that some localities were reoccupied multiple times. Even so, the focus of making petroglyphse. was mainly within the zone of mean tide to the above outwash area, which gradually was replaced by emerging rock surfaces due to postglacial rebound. As such, the time spans of the zones are gradually becoming younger, but one must be especially critical if “translating” minor altitudinal differences into temporal differences. A discussion of the spatial relationships of the boat figures and the shore-displacement indicate that the petroglyphs might be divided into more periods than earlier suggested.

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Citation

Helskog, Knut. Changing Settlements, Shores and Boats through 5000 Years: Dating and Connecting Petroglyphs to the General Archaeological Record - A Case from Northernmost Norway. Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 43-75 Apr 2021. ISBN 9781781795606. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=31915. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.31915. Apr 2021

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