Detail from the rock carvings at Alta

The Rock carvings at Alta are an archaeological site near the town of Alta in the county of Finnmark in northern Norway. Since the first carvings - or more correctly, the petroglyphs - were discovered in 1972, more than 5000 carvings have been found on several sites around Alta; the main site, located at Jiepmaluokta about 4 kilometers outside of Alta and containing around 3000 individual carvings, has been turned into an open-air museum. The site has been placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites on 3 December 1985. It is Norway's only prehistoric World Heritage Site. Download high resolution version (1152x809, 142 KB)Rock drawings at Alta, GFDL Photo taken by Ferkelparade and released under the GFDL File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (1152x809, 142 KB)Rock drawings at Alta, GFDL Photo taken by Ferkelparade and released under the GFDL File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Importance and applicability Most of human history is not described by any written records. ... The town and municipality Alta in the county of Norway, has 17,359 inhabitants as of January 1, 2003. ... Finnmark (Finnmárku in Sami) is a county in the extreme north of Norway, bordering Troms. ... Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland Petroglyph on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument Petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... A museum is typically a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence of people and their environment. ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. ... Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ... December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history including all previous history before humans which is prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ...

The earliest carvings in the area date back to around 4200 BC; the most recent carvings are generally dated around 500 BC, although some researchers believe carving went on until as late as 500 AD. The wide variety of imagery shows a culture of hunter-gatherers that was able to control herds of reindeer, was adept at boat building and fishing and practiced shamanistic rituals involving bears and other animals. Apart from the visual evidence of the carvings themselves, not much is known about the culture that produced these carvings, although it has been speculated that the carvers might have been descendants of the Komsa culture. Some researchers also hold the belief that the Sami people are descendants of the carvers. (6th millennium BC – 5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – other millennia) Events 4713 BC – The epoch (origin) of the Julian Period described by Joseph Justus Scaliger occurred on January 1, the astronomical Julian day number zero. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created... For other uses, see number 500. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Categories: Animal stubs | Animal behaviour | Social psychology ... Binomial name Rangifer tarandus The reindeer, known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic-dwelling deer (Rangifer tarandus). ... Fishing from a Pier Fishing is a term applied to any activity which aims to capture fish or shellfish for subsistence, scientific, commercial or recreational purposes. ... Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. ... A ritual is a formalised, predetermined set of symbolic actions generally performed in a particular environment at a regular, recurring interval. ... For other meanings, see Bear (disambiguation). ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... The Komsa culture was a stone age culture of hunter-gatherers that existed in northern Norway from around 6000 BC. The culture is named after the Komsa mountain in the community of Alta, Finnmark, where the first remains of the culture were discovered in 1925. ... Sami flag The Sami people (there are other names and spellings including Sámi, Saami and Lapp) are an indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, covering a total area in the Nordic countries corresponding to the size of Sweden. ...

Cultural and historical background

At the time the carvings were created, northern Norway was inhabited by a culture of hunter-gatherers that are thought to be descendants of the Komsa culture, a stone age culture that expanded along the Norwegian coast following receding glaciation during the late ice age around 8000 BC. The period of almost 5000 years over which carvings were created at the site saw many cultural changes, including the adoption of metal tools, advances in boat building and fishing techniques and the development of the cultural identity of the Sami people; therefore, the carvings show a wide variety of mundane imagery and religious symbolism. Rock carvings especially from the earliest period show great similarity with carvings from northwestern Russia, indicating contact between and maybe parallel development of cultures over a wide area of Europe's extreme North. In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... The Komsa culture was a stone age culture of hunter-gatherers that existed in northern Norway from around 6000 BC. The culture is named after the Komsa mountain in the community of Alta, Finnmark, where the first remains of the culture were discovered in 1925. ... Stone Age fishing hook. ... Glaciation, often called an ice age, is a geological phenomenon in which massive ice sheets form in the Arctic and Antarctic and advance toward the equator. ... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... (9th millennium BC – 8th millennium BC – 7th millennium BC – other millennia) Events The south area of Çatalhöyük. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions (cations) in a cloud of electrons. ... Modern hammer A tool is, among other things, a device that provides a mechanical or mental advantage in accomplishing a task. ... Sami flag The Sami people (there are other names and spellings including Sámi, Saami and Lapp) are an indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, covering a total area in the Nordic countries corresponding to the size of Sweden. ...

Connections between the carvers' culture and the Komsa and Sami are somewhat conjectural; in the case of the Komsa, it is interesting to note that according to archaeological evidence, the Komsa economy was almost exclusively based on seal hunting while no known carvings of seals exist in the Alta area. However, since both cultures coexisted in virtually the same geographical area for almost two thousand years, some form of contact between the cultures is highly probable. Connections to Sami culture are easier to establish since it is generally assumed that the cultural identity of the Sami developed in modern-day Finnmark in the timeframe of the most recent Alta carvings and many traditional decorative elements on Sami tools and musical instruments bear a striking resemblance to some of the Alta carvings. In the absence of either DNA records or linguistic evidence, all conjectures about possible relationships between the cultures must remain speculative. subfamilies Otariidae Phocidae Odobenidae Pinnipeds are large marine mammals belonging to the Pinnipedia, a family (sometimes a suborder or superfamily, depending on the classification scheme) of the order Carnivora. ... Hunting is, in its most general sense, the pursuit of a target. ... Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and many viruses). ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ...

Alta's rock carvings were created using quartzite chisels that were probably driven by hammers made from some harder rocks; probable examples of chisels have been found throughout the area and are on display in Alta's museum. The technique of using rock chisels seems to have been continued even after metal tools came into use in the area. Quartzite Quartzite is a hard, metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. ... Steel woodworking chisel. ... A hammer has a primary meaning of a really hot chick. ... In materials science, hardness is the characteristic of a solid material expressing its resistance to permanent deformation. ...

Due to the effects of post-glacial rebound, the whole of Scandinavia started to rise at a considerable rate out of the ocean after the end of the last ice age. While this effect is still noticeable today (at a speed of about 1 cm per year), it is thought to have been much more rapid and probably even noticeable during the lifetime of individual humans during the time Alta's rock drawings were created. It is thought that most carvings were originally located directly on the shoreline and were gradually lifted to their present-day positions several dozen meters inland. Post-glacial rebound (sometimes called continental rebound, isostatic rebound or isostatic adjustment) is the rise of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last ice age, through a process known as isostatic depression. ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ...

Discovery and restoration

The first carvings were discovered in autumn 1972 in the area of Jiepmaluokta (a Sami name meaning "bay of seals"), about 4 kilometers from the town center of Alta. During the 1970s, many more carvings were discovered all around Alta, with a noticeably higher density around Jiepmaluokta (of around 5000 known carvings in the area, more than 3000 are located there). A system of wooden gangways totalling about 3 kilometers was constructed in the Jiepmaluokta area during the second half of the 1980s, and Alta's museum was moved from its previous location in the town center to the site of the rock carvings in 1991. Although several other sites around Alta are known and new carvings are constantly discovered, Jiepmaluokta remains the only publicly accessible site. 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Most rocks around Alta are overgrown with a thick growth of moss and lichen; once carvings have been discovered, these plants are carefully removed and the rock is cleaned to expose the full extent of the carvings. The carvings are then photographed and entered into a filing system; on most sites, no special precautions are taken to keep carvings visible once they have been properly documented (other than protecting the area from construction work, special care for preserving carvings is not necessary since they are generally rather deeply carved into a hard rock surface). Only in areas accessible to the public are the carvings filled with a special red-ochre paint that helps recognize the carvings and is thought to be similar to the original appearance of the carvings. Subclasses Andreaeidae Sphagnidae Tetraphidae Polytrichidae Buxbaumiidae Bryidae Archidiidae Moss is a type of simple or non-vascular plant, of the class Musci, in the division Bryophyta, that have rhizoids instead of true roots. ... Crustose and foliose lichens on a wall Foliose lichen on basalt Usnea australis, a fruticose form, growing on a tree branch Lichen on rock Lichens are symbiotic organisms made up by the association of microscopic green algae or cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi. ... Lens and mounting of a large format camera Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. ... File has several meanings: Computer file File (tool) file (Unix), a program used to determine file types. ...

Alta's museum today features a display of objects found in the area thought to be related to the culture that created the carvings, a photographic documentation of the carvings, and several other displays on Sami culture, the phenomenon of Aurora Borealis and the area's history during World War II. The museum received the European Museum of the year award in 1993. Aurora borealis Polar aurorae are optical phenomena characterized by colorful displays of light in the night sky. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Imagery and interpretations

A herd of moose, with two pregnant females in the foreground.

Since no written records exist from the period the carvings were created, there is no way to know what purposes they were meant to serve and what spurred their creation. Possible explanations include use in shamanistic rituals, totemistic symbols that denoted tribal unity or marked a tribe's territory, a kind of historical record of important events, or even simple artistic pleasure. Since individual carvings show such a wide array of different images and the carvings were created over an extremely long period of time, it seems plausible that individual carvings might have served any of the purposes listed above. Some of the more common types of images are listed below: Detail from the Rock carvings at Alta: a herd of moose, with two pregnant cows in the foreground. ... Detail from the Rock carvings at Alta: a herd of moose, with two pregnant cows in the foreground. ... Writing is a process which may refer to two activities: the inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other lingual constructs that represent language and record information, or the creation of information to be conveyed through written language. ... Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. ... A totem is any natural or supernatural object, being or animal which has personal symbolic meaning to an individual and to whose phenomena and energy one feels closely associated with during ones life. ... ǎ This article is on the social structure. ... Great Museums in the World (Louvre, Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, Picasso …) CGFA: A Virtual Art Museum Very large website with good reproduction quality scans of thousands of paintings Goetia Fine Art - Surrealism Art History With biographies and Works of the Surrealist Masters Art-Atlas. ... This article is about an emotion. ...

Animals

A wide array of animals are depicted on carved scenes; among them, reindeer are clearly predominant and are often shown in large herds that are alternatively nurtured and hunted. Depictions of reindeer behind fences and images that might be explained as a sort of caravan seem to indicate that a certain control over these animals existed from a very early age. Other animals that appear frequently are moose, various bird species and different kinds of fish. Pregnant animals are often depicted with a young one visible inside of its mother. Binomial name Rangifer tarandus The reindeer, known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic-dwelling deer (Rangifer tarandus). ... Fence with barbed wire on top A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. ... Binomial name Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758) The animal Alces alces, called the moose in North America and the elk in Europe (see also elk for other animals called elk) is the largest of all the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from other members of Cervidae by the form of the antlers... Orders Many - see section below. ... Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, the most abundant fish species in the world. ... A pregnant woman Human pregnancy refers to the process by which a human female carries a live offspring from conception until childbirth. ...

It seems curious that according to archaeological evidence, 30 to 95 percent of the carvers' food came from the sea but fish and fishing scenes only appear in about 1 percent of known carvings; possible explanations for this fact are that fishing in coastal waters is a far less difficult and dangerous undertaking than hunting large animals and therefore rituals ensuring success are not seen as necessary by fishermen, or that land animals played a larger role in cults and were therefore depicted more frequently for their religious significance (of course, both explanations can be interrelated). In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people (often a new religious movement) devoted to beliefs and goals which may be contradictory to those held by the majority of society. ...

Bears

Bears seem to have played a special role in the carvers' culture: they feature prominently in many carvings and frequently appear not only as animals to be hunted but are also often depicted in positions that seem to indicate that bears were worshipped in some form of cult (which seems very plausible since bear cults are known in many old cultures of northwestern Russia as well as in Sami culture). Of special interest are the tracks left by bears: while all other animals and humans are frequently depicted with tracks trailing horizontally behind them (thus creating a sort of plane or world on which the action takes place), bears seem to be the only animals depicted that are occasionally shown with tracks leading vertically through the carved image and crossing the horizontal tracks of other animals. This has led some researchers to speculate that bears might have been in some way connected with a cult of the afterlife (or death in general) since the vertical tracks seem to indicate an ability of bears to pass between different layers of the world. The depiction of bears seems to have ceased around 1700 BC; this might indicate a change in religious beliefs around that time. For other meanings, see Bear (disambiguation). ... Worship usually refers to specific acts of religious praise, honour, or devotion, typically directed to a supernatural being such as a god or goddess. ... Afterlife (also known as life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual and experiential, beyond this world, or after death. ... Death is either the cessation of life in a living organism or the state of the organism after that event. ... (Redirected from 1700 BC) (18th century BC - 17th century BC - 16th century BC - other centuries) (1690s BC - 1680s BC - 1670s BC - 1660s BC - 1650s BC - 1640s BC - 1630s BC - 1620s BC - 1610s BC - 1600s BC - 1590s BC - other decades) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 1700...

Hunting and Fishing scenes

A man using some sort of tool on a moose. This scene has alternatively been interpreted as a hunter fighting with the moose or a shaman communicating in some way with the animal.

By far the most scenes depicting humans show hunters stalking their prey; these scenes have traditionally been explained as being connected to hunting rituals, although current researchers seem to favor more complicated explanations that see depictions of different hunting and fishing actions as symbols for individual tribes and the interrelations of different hunting and fishing carvings as symbolic representations of existing or wished-for inter-tribal relations. The use of throwing spears and of bows and arrows is evident from the earliest period, indicating that the use of these tools was known to the carvers' culture from a very early time. Similarly, fishermen are almost exclusively shown using fishing-lines, indicating that a method of creating hooks and using bait was known to the carvers. Download high resolution version (1024x713, 154 KB)Detail from the Rock carvings at Alta, showing a man using some sort of tool on a moose. ... Download high resolution version (1024x713, 154 KB)Detail from the Rock carvings at Alta, showing a man using some sort of tool on a moose. ... A spear is an ancient weapon, used for hunting and war. ... A bow is a weapon that shoots arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow and/or the string. ...

Of special interest is the depiction of boats: while small fishing boats appear from the earliest drawings onward, later drawings show larger and larger boats, some carrying up to 30 people and being equipped with elaborate, animal-shaped decorations on bow and stern that are sometimes reminiscent of those found on viking longboats. This, along with the fact that similar carvings of large boats have been found in coastal regions in southern Norway, seems to indicate that a considerable mastery of boatsmanship and shipbuilding has been reached in northern Norway as early as 2000 BC and the carvers were able to cover great distances on the ocean. The name Viking is a loan from the native Scandinavian term for the Norse seafaring warriors who raided the coasts of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century, the period of European history referred to as the Viking Age. ... A longboat is a large boat powered by multiple oars and carried on a ship (especially sailed merchant ships). ... Men from Francisco de Orellanas expedition building a small brigantine, the San Pedro, to be used in the search for food Shipbuilding is the construction of ships. ... (Redirected from 2000 BC) (21st century BC - 20th century BC - 19th century BC - other centuries) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 2064 - 1986 BC -- Twin Dynasty wars in Egypt 2000 BC -- Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya. ...

Scenes of mundane life and scenes of rituals

It is especially difficult to judge the meaning of scenes showing interactions between humans; scenes apparently showing a dance, the preparation of food or sexual interactions might also display the performance of rituals. Additionally, even if these carvings in fact do show episodes from mundane life, it remains mysterious why these specific scenes were carved into rock. Depictions of sexuality might be connected to fertility rituals, scenes that show people cooking and preparing food might have been meant to ensure an abundance of food. Some scenes clearly show different societal positions of the humans depicted, indicated by peculiar headgear and by more prominent positions of wearers of special headgear among their fellow humans; these have alternatively been explained as priests or shamans or as rulers of a tribe. If the interpretation of prominent persons as rulers is correct, these scenes might also display events of historical significance, such as the ascension of a ruler, royal marriages or diplomatic relations between tribes. A contemporary dancer rehearsing in a dance studio Dance (from Old French dance, further history unknown) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression (see also body language) or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. ... Human sexuality is the expression of sexual feelings. ... Fertility is the ability of people or animals to produce healthy offspring in abundance. ... Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. ... A society is a group of human beings distinguishable from other groups by mutual interests, characteristic relationships, shared institutions and a common culture. ... Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... The Ascension is one of the great feasts in the Christian liturgical calendar, and commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven forty days after his resurrection from the dead. ... Marriage is a relationship and bond, most commonly between a man and a woman, that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... This page is about negotiations; for the board game, see Diplomacy (game). ...

Geometric symbols

Among the most mysterious of the carvings are a set of geometric symbols, found predominantly among the oldest carvings of the area. Some of these are circular objects, some of which are surrounded by fringes, others show intricate patterns of horizontal and vertical lines. While some of these objects have been explained as tools or similar objects (the line patterns, for example, are sometimes explained as fishing nets), most of these symbols remain unexplainable. Geometry (from the Greek words Ge = earth and metro = measure) is the branch of mathematics first introduced by Thales (circa 624-547 BC) dealing with spatial relationships. ... Categories: Stub ...

See also

• Pre-historic art
• Petroglyph
• History of Norway
• List of World Heritage Sites in Europe
• Rock carvings in Central Norway

Pre-historic art of Europe Palaeolithic Venus of Willendorf The earliest known European art is from the upper palaeolithic period and includes both cave painting, such as the famous paintings at Lascaux, and portable art, such as animal carvings and so-called Venus figurines like the Venus of Willendorf. ... Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland Petroglyph on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Petroglyph Point Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument Petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). ... According to Icelandic sagas, the Nor in Norway is from king Nor Thorrasson, who after he found his sister, went home to his territory. ... This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. ... Central Norway is a region in Norway, comprising the two Trøndelag-counties, Nord- and Sør-Trøndelag as well as parts of the Nordland and Møre og Romsdal counties. ...

References

• Arvid Sveen, Helleristninger. Hjemmeluft, Alta. Vadsø 1996 (ISBN 82-993932-2-1)
• Øivind Stenersen/Ivar Libæk, The History of Norway. Lysaker 2003 (ISBN 82-8071-041-8)

External links

• Alta Museum's website (http://www.alta.museum.no/index.asp)
• Norway State of Environment webpage about the carvings (http://www.environment.no/templates/PageWithRightListing____2419.aspx)
• RANE online (http://www.rane-online.org/) - Rock Art in Northern Europe, an EU-sponsored project to document rock carvings throughout Scandinavia.
• Norway before the Vikings (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/E-31.pdf) - Research paper detailing Norway's early history.