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A Canadian expatriate living and exploring first France now Germany, then BACK to FRANCE (!!!) with her family; former fashion designer, turned unexpected UNLIKELY NOMAD, raising two children, writing, photographing, painting, playing piano (who knew!!) and blogging - and now... full time student at ART SCHOOL!! (I MUST be crazy!!)

Monday, July 16, 2007

More rock art

These are some more examples of the rock art we found at various Bronze and Iron age sites on the South West coast of Sweden. Imagine over 3ooo years ago...we were so captivated by them, and found them to be so beautiful.

Several ships...

A deer or elk surrounded by dogs and sleds...

Some scholars suggest that the figure of a boat being carried by a single figure is symbolic of the spiritual journey of the soul to the after life. Riel was fascinated. WE had the site entirely to ourselves and since the art is so prolific, it is not covered and as you can see from the photo very accessible.

This one was a little more confusing and difficult to decipher but still so interesting...the carvings themselves were typically not coloured but have been painted for clarity and ease of viewing. In their original form they may have been coloured though usually are found in a watershed or sheet of runoff, and facing the sun, at the level of the sea at that time.



The round holes called Faery holes or cup holes were filled with fat as offerings early on to the gods and later on, up until early this century to the faeries of the woods...
My personal favorite... 7 children ; 4 boys (if you look closely...) and 3 girls playing ball with a "big"person...
Wow.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow is right! That's so interesting. I would love to see them in person.
Hmmm, does Unilever have a facility in Sweeden?

k said...

those look like they were made yesterday- that's amazing!

Anonymous said...

Heather - I'm having a ton of fun catching up on all your travels and news. GREAT blog, love all the pics. The rock art is beautifully depicted here. I look forward to reading more of your nomadic adventures.

DD said...

I'm surprised they let people get on them and touch them. Very interesting and great photos!

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