Rock Art as Secondary Agent? Society and Agency in Bronze Age Bohuslän

Abstract

During the major part of the 20th century the rock art in Bohuslän has been seen as a manifestation of an agrarian ‘cultic’ ideology in the landscape. In this context the dominant ship image and the armed humans have been perceived as abstract religious icons, not as active symbols related to real praxis in the landscape. Moreover, some scholars claim that the rock-art medium was utilized primarily by society's elites. In this paper we intend to challenge some of these ideas and try to show that they do not correspond to the key notions about Bronze Age society that most scholars today seem to support. Thus, rock art cannot be explained and understood solely by broad ideas about how cosmology, mythology and/or religion were constituted during the Bronze Age. We will instead argue for a more active function for rock art, and the fact that some of the depictions may have worked as ‘secondary agents’ in the landscape. For this argument, the general maritime location, content and the dominant masculine representation of armed humans related to the ship images are important elements.

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