How may Bohuslän rock art and landscape be perceived and understood? Since the Bronze Age, the landscape has been transformed by shore displacement but, largely due to misunderstanding and certain ideas about the character of Bronze Age society, rock art research in Tanum has drawn much of its inspiration from the present agrarian landscape. This perception of the landscape has not been a major issue. This volume, republished from the GOTAC Serie B (Gothenburg Archaeological thesis 49) aims to shed light on the process of shore displacement and its social and cognitive implications for the interpretation of rock art in the prehistoric landscape. The findings clearly show that in the Bronze Age, the majority of rock art sites in Bohuslän had a very close spatial connection to the sea.
Much rock art analysis focuses on the contemplative observer. The more direct activities related to rock art are seldom fully considered. Here, the basic conditions for the production of rock art, social theory and approaches to image, communication, symbolism and social action are discussed and related to palpable social forms of the“reading” of rock art. The general location and content of the Bronze Age remains indicate a tendency towards the maritime realm, which seems to have included both socio-ritual and socio-economic matters of production and consumption and that Bronze Age groups in Bohuslän were highly active and mobile. The numerous configurations of ship images on the rocks could indicate a general transition or drift towards the maritime realm. Marking or manifesting such transitions in some way may have been important and it is tempting to perceive the rock art as traces of such transitions or positions in the landscape. All this points to a maritime understanding of Bronze Age rock art in northern Bohuslän.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Abstract
• Preface
• Part I: Launching
  • Chapter 1: Introduction – the rock art phenomenon in northern Bohuslän
    • Introduction
    • “Finding the lost sea”
    • Aims
    • Temporal and spatial limitations
  • Chapter 2: A general picture of the Bronze Age in Bohuslän
    • Bronze Age conditions in Bohuslän
    • Investigations at rock art sites
    • Households and metallurgic activity
    • Graves
    • Bronze items and flint daggers
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 3: Social landscapes
    • Introduction
    • Conclusion
• Part II: Embarking
  • Chapter 4: The terrestrial paradigm: history of reseach
    • Introduction
    • Theory
    • Paradigm and thought style
    • Conditions and questions
    • A history of landscape and rock art research
    • The perception of geology and landscape among 19th century antiquarians
    • The landscape via the rock art image
    • The shore-connected rock art
    • Land uplift and the landscape
    • The image via the landscape
    • Modification of the terrestrial paradigm
    • The sea is advancing
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 5: Rock art and seascapes in South Scandinavia
    • Introduction
    • West Norwegian rock art
    • Högsbyn in Dalsland
    • The Simris area in Scania
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 6: Shore displacement, tides and altitudes
    • Introduction
    • The shore displacement phenomenon
    • Dating and estimating shore displacement
    • Shore displacement in Bohuslän
    • Aims and outcome of the new shore displacement studies in the Tanum and Kville areas
    • Altitudes and tides
  • Chapter 7: Rock art chronology and seascape in Bohuslän
    • Introduction
    • Rock art chronologies: traditions and concepts
    • Chronological standpoint
    • The analysis
    • The general setting of the rock art in relation to shore displacement
    • The specific chronological setting of ship features in the landscape
    • The Kungälv area (Solberga 50)
    • The Uddevalla area, Utby (Herrestad 58:1–5)
    • Maritime rock art at the Stångenäset isthmus (Bro 622, 636, Brastad 123)
    • The Sotenäset area (Tossene 107)
    • The Svarteborg area (Svarteborg 13)
    • The Kville area (Kville 172, 114)
    • The Tanum area, “Runohäll,” at Ryk (Tanum 311)
    • The vertical cliff at Tyft (Tanum 234)
    • A low-lying panel in the Kalleby area (Tanum 425)
    • The “Wismar and Kivik” panel in Kalleby (Tanum 427)
    • Rock art sites in the Orrekläpp area (Tanum 241, 369)
    • A tentative ship chronology of the landscape
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 8: Modeling landscapes and seascapes in the Tanum area
    • Introduction
    • Aims
    • The landscape and Bronze Age in Tanum
    • Maritime models of the Vitlycke area (Tanum 1, 833)
    • The Aspeberget area – a maritime aggregation site? (Tanum 17, 19, 120)
    • Terrestrial landscapes and images at Tanum 33
    • Sea shores and rock art in the Tegneby area, Bostället (Tanum, 48, 61–64, 105:3, 345, 346 and 490)
    • Ships and seascapes at Skatteklåvan in the Tegneby area (Tanum 65–67)
    • Embarking and disembarking by Bro Utmark (Tanum 192)
    • Reconstructing Tanum 311– a maritime approach
    • Maritime positions in the Kyrkoryk and Ryk area (Tanum 213, 216, 217, 219, 321, 325, 335, 336)
    • Revisiting the vertical cliff at Tyft (Tanum 236)
    • Landscapes and seascapes in the Kalleby area (Tanum 425, 427, 419, 944, 420, 421, 418, 417)
    • Concluding remarks
• Part III: Social and Maritime praxis
  • Chapter 9: Social practice and rock art
    • Introduction
    • Background
    • Ships in rock art, in graves and on bronze items
    • The production of rock art
    • Social practice, analogies and fictions
    • Ideology and social theory
    • Material and spiritual production
    • Palaeolithic rock art and Marxism
    • Later Marxist approaches
    • Rock art between practice and structure
    • Images, symbols and social action
    • Image, speech, social praxis and social communication
    • The symbological project
    • The social dimension of rock art images
    • Depictions of social environments and actions
    • Depictions of social positions and social rhetorics
    • Depictions of “iconic” features or elements
    • Concluding remarks
  • Chapter 10: From terrestrial ships to war canoes
    • Introduction
    • Background
    • General features of the rock art ships
    • General outcome of the proportional study; codes of dimension
    • The Early Bronze Age ship images
    • The Late Bronze Age ship images
    • The Pre Roman Iron Age ship images
    • Depictions of social realities
    • Helmsmen and steering rods
    • Depictions of social and ritual positions
    • Warriors, acrobats, adorants, and lure blowers
    • Spatial and social aspects of the ship
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 11: Rock art and society
    • Introduction
    • The concept of chiefdom and the Bronze Age
    • “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians”
    • Ideas of social transformation during the Early Bronze Age
    • Chiefdoms during the Late Bronze Age
    • Rock images of chiefs, aggrandizers, commoners or girots?
    • Material and ecological conditions of Bohuslän Bronze Age social formations
    • Praxis, production and ideology
    • Fishing
    • Maritime trade, barter, communication
    • Maritime warfare
    • Maritime rituals and ceremonies
    • Boat-building
    • Discussion
    • Dual social praxis, positions and transitions in Bronze Age Bohuslän
    • Conclusions
  • Chapter 12: Maritime transitions
    • Introduction
    • Rock art in a maritime zone
    • Maritime transitions and rituals by the sea
    • Rock art and maritime mobility
    • Rock art as a traveler’s picture
    • The sea in the rock and the rock in the sea
    • The ships on the rocks
    • Maritime performances
    • Coda
• Part IV: Disembarking
  • Chapter 13: Summary
    • Towards a maritime understanding of rock art in northern Bohuslän
  • Chapter 14: References
    • A–Ö
    • Personal communications
  • Chapter 15: Appendix
    • Appendix 1: Measured rock art sites from Bohuslän