Pages: 61-68

In the rock art of Fennoscandia, the compositions that can be associated with armed violence, represent “warfare” through the prism of ancient mythology. In the rock art of hunters-fishers-gatherers of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, there are only three compositions that can be confidently identified as images of fighting. At the same time, petroglyphs left by the Bronze Age societies with producing economy do not contain any clearly identifiable scenes of fighting, despite the fact that it is difficult to find male figures without weapons. Most scenes with confrontting anthropomorphs are associated with the Neolithic elk-head axes, which are considered as magic items, or bronze axes, whose meaning in rock carvings is similar to that of the elk-head axes. The Bronze Age petroglyphs known in the southwestern part of Sweden include numerous anthropomorphs, armed with swords, axes, spears and shields, but there are only a few explicit scenes of armed fighting.

Keywords: Fennoscandia, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, petroglyphs, mythology, warfare

Information about author:

Eugen Kolpakov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]