Material Imagery: visual grammar in Bronze Age rock art
The main objective of the project is to study Bronze Age rock art as an active and integrated materiality in social relations. Previous research have mainly focused on representation and symbolism of the imagery and neglected aspects of materiality and agency. The project employs a novel theoretical perspective in which rock art is understood as material articulations rather than passive representations of cosmology or ideology. From such a perspective, rock art is considered a fully integrated materiality with a potential to affect the course of events.
This is explored though aspects of visual grammar. By analysing displacements in stylistic variability, alterations, re-cuts, superimpositions, and breaking against praxis, the rock art is given a time depth and a social dimension. The method also facilitates ways to study the agency of the imagery, that is, how they may incite actions. Advanced photogrammetry and three-dimensional analysis will be employed to help identify details in the ways images are produced and how panels of rock art develop over time.
The project focuses on the Bronze Age rock art at the former shoreline of the Mälaren bay in eastern central Sweden, a material not previously studied as a coherent context. By analysing the ways in which the production of, and engagement with, rock art is entangled in social relations, the project will deepen our understanding of the roles of visual culture in a central and formative period in European prehistory.
This is explored though aspects of visual grammar. By analysing displacements in stylistic variability, alterations, re-cuts, superimpositions, and breaking against praxis, the rock art is given a time depth and a social dimension. The method also facilitates ways to study the agency of the imagery, that is, how they may incite actions. Advanced photogrammetry and three-dimensional analysis will be employed to help identify details in the ways images are produced and how panels of rock art develop over time.
The project focuses on the Bronze Age rock art at the former shoreline of the Mälaren bay in eastern central Sweden, a material not previously studied as a coherent context. By analysing the ways in which the production of, and engagement with, rock art is entangled in social relations, the project will deepen our understanding of the roles of visual culture in a central and formative period in European prehistory.
Final report
The aims and development of the project
The project aims to study Bronze Age rock art in the Mälaren region in a symmetrical perspective. The main premise is that rock art motifs are material articulations with the potential to actively influence chains of events and initiate social processes.
This has been investigated through a systematic study of the distribution of the different motifs over time and space, as well as how they are organized and articulated on the rocks. In general, the spatial analysis shows that the figurative motifs are consistently found on rocks close to the shore, slightly withdrawn and turned away from open water and waterways. The spatial analysis also show differences in the frequency and distribution of the different types of figurative motifs. While boat motifs, foot soles and circular motifs are frequent and evenly distributed throughout the study area, anthropomorphs and zoomorphs make up only 7% and 5% respectively of which 90% are found in a limited area in the northern part of the region.
The local study of how different types of motifs are organized on the rocks provides important information from how they cluster and relate to other motifs, the microtopography of the rock, and water-sprinkled surfaces. In the study area, there are only very few examples of what can be perceived as planned compositions. Instead, most motifs have accumulated individually over both shorter and longer periods in rows, groups, or stacked in columns. Many identical motifs are repeated over and over in dense clusters on small portions of certain rocks. This supports the result of the general analysis that the images primarily had other purposes than to communicate meaning.
The study of how different types of motifs are articulated has focused on four types: intentionally partial motifs, reworked motifs, enlarged motifs (hyperboles), and how the motifs integrate with water and the microtopography of the rock. All four types include the potential for agency and affect through their design and articulation (Fahlander 2020a). The analyzes of motifs with varying pecking depth, for example, show how elements have been added and transformed some motifs over time. Many cup marks, for example, seem to have been elaborated into anthropomorphs and sometimes a “pair of legs” are added to circular motifs. The project can also show that the articulation of many motifs mainly is about enacting physical relationships between image, rock and water, and to a lesser extent about communicating social strategies or religious symbolism.
Originally, the focus was set on how rock art can take active part in social relations. There are some examples of individual motifs that stand out in ways that suggest that different individuals have produced images on the same rocks in a kind of "dialogue" (Fahlander 2020a). It is also possible to interpret the emergence of hyperbolic motifs during the final stage of rock art production as an effect of new groups occupying the area (Fahlander 2019c). However, these examples are few and the analyzes of the organization and articulation of the motifs rather suggest that they are made to do something rather than to be ‘read’.
These findings have resulted in a shift of focus from a social perspective to a broader ontological perspective. This resonates with one aim of the project to bridge the traditional distinction between the northern hunting tradition and the southern Bronze Age tradition of rock art. Thus, the project has taken inspiration from a broader palette of rock art traditions whereas the material and physical aspects of making rock art are emphasised as much as the representational and figurative qualities of the motifs.
About the implementation of the project
The project has essentially been carried out according to plan. Fieldwork has been combined with research, text production, and conferences and workshops. A consequence of the conferences being published has caused a slight change in the project's publication strategy from one article annually to four articles early on. The fact that the project has generated twice as many articles as planned also entails that the publication of the English monograph is delayed (to be completed during spring 2021).
The most important results and conclusions of the project
An important and concrete result of the project is in the systematic analysis of the rock art in a larger area that relates the spatial and temporal relations of rock art in a larger area. This provides a deeper understanding of the function of the different types of motifs and how dense areas of rock art relates to the many single and small panels of the hinterland. Some aspects of these relations are already known while others have not previously been systematically studied. These results have, to varying degrees, general validity also in other rock image areas in southern Scandinavia.
Another important result lies in the development of a method for systematically studying rock art as material articulations and the potential significance of their physical and generative properties alongside the figurative dimension. A concrete example is the distinction of a category of hyperbolic motifs that only appear in the initial and final stage of the rock art production (Fahlander ms). Why this is the case is a question of interpretation but it is a concrete and useful distinction beyond only identifying differences in size. Another example concerns the large proportion of partial anthropomorphs (70%) which make them stand out from the other motifs. This motif-specific way of articulation and the limited spatial distribution of the anthropomorphs is a concrete indication that different motifs have different functions and purposes (Fahlander 2021, ms). Although the project focuses on Bronze Age rock art, this manner of approaching rock art as material articulations, and emphasizing ontological aspects in the design and their intricate relation to other materialities (rock and water), constitutes a formal method that may also prove viable for interpreting rock art from other periods and regions.
A third important result is about theory and perspective development. The project shows how the Mälaren rock art can be considered “petrofacts” of a “vitalistic technology” made to influence both humans and other-than-humans through their type, design and articulation. Vitalism refers here to the real processes and "liveliness" of the world, which is not the same as things and materials being animated or considered living. ‘Technology’ in turn emphasizes that this practice is not a simple symbolic system separate from the real world, but that figurative motifs can have different aims and effects depending on the medium, material, articulation and placement etc. One example concerns the production of certain boat motifs as magical devices to influence and control water (Fahlander ms, 2019b). The partial and anonymized anthropomorphs are also discussed in terms of "traps" to lock and limit the agency of the forces controlling mainly water-related processes (Fahlander 2021).
New research questions
An question that is interesting to pursue further is the importance of the mineral composition of the rocks and how different motifs relate to different areas of the rocks. Especially the potential role of cup marks in the process of choosing appropriate rocks for figurative motifs is interesting to study systematically.
Collaboration and dissemination of the results
Various aspects of the project have been presented at five international conferences: the 14th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium (2017), the EAA annual conference (2017), Rock Art Worldings. Chronologies, materialities and ontologies (2017), Archaeological Imagery as Works of Art (2017), as well as the 15th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium (2019). Various parts of the project have also been presented on three occasions at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University.
The six articles present various aspects of the project and are all published as open access, available on the respective publisher's homepages as well as on academia.edu. It is too early to comment on the project's impact and significance, but according to Google Scholar, several of the project's publications have already been referenced several times, even though they have only been available for little than a year.
The project aims to study Bronze Age rock art in the Mälaren region in a symmetrical perspective. The main premise is that rock art motifs are material articulations with the potential to actively influence chains of events and initiate social processes.
This has been investigated through a systematic study of the distribution of the different motifs over time and space, as well as how they are organized and articulated on the rocks. In general, the spatial analysis shows that the figurative motifs are consistently found on rocks close to the shore, slightly withdrawn and turned away from open water and waterways. The spatial analysis also show differences in the frequency and distribution of the different types of figurative motifs. While boat motifs, foot soles and circular motifs are frequent and evenly distributed throughout the study area, anthropomorphs and zoomorphs make up only 7% and 5% respectively of which 90% are found in a limited area in the northern part of the region.
The local study of how different types of motifs are organized on the rocks provides important information from how they cluster and relate to other motifs, the microtopography of the rock, and water-sprinkled surfaces. In the study area, there are only very few examples of what can be perceived as planned compositions. Instead, most motifs have accumulated individually over both shorter and longer periods in rows, groups, or stacked in columns. Many identical motifs are repeated over and over in dense clusters on small portions of certain rocks. This supports the result of the general analysis that the images primarily had other purposes than to communicate meaning.
The study of how different types of motifs are articulated has focused on four types: intentionally partial motifs, reworked motifs, enlarged motifs (hyperboles), and how the motifs integrate with water and the microtopography of the rock. All four types include the potential for agency and affect through their design and articulation (Fahlander 2020a). The analyzes of motifs with varying pecking depth, for example, show how elements have been added and transformed some motifs over time. Many cup marks, for example, seem to have been elaborated into anthropomorphs and sometimes a “pair of legs” are added to circular motifs. The project can also show that the articulation of many motifs mainly is about enacting physical relationships between image, rock and water, and to a lesser extent about communicating social strategies or religious symbolism.
Originally, the focus was set on how rock art can take active part in social relations. There are some examples of individual motifs that stand out in ways that suggest that different individuals have produced images on the same rocks in a kind of "dialogue" (Fahlander 2020a). It is also possible to interpret the emergence of hyperbolic motifs during the final stage of rock art production as an effect of new groups occupying the area (Fahlander 2019c). However, these examples are few and the analyzes of the organization and articulation of the motifs rather suggest that they are made to do something rather than to be ‘read’.
These findings have resulted in a shift of focus from a social perspective to a broader ontological perspective. This resonates with one aim of the project to bridge the traditional distinction between the northern hunting tradition and the southern Bronze Age tradition of rock art. Thus, the project has taken inspiration from a broader palette of rock art traditions whereas the material and physical aspects of making rock art are emphasised as much as the representational and figurative qualities of the motifs.
About the implementation of the project
The project has essentially been carried out according to plan. Fieldwork has been combined with research, text production, and conferences and workshops. A consequence of the conferences being published has caused a slight change in the project's publication strategy from one article annually to four articles early on. The fact that the project has generated twice as many articles as planned also entails that the publication of the English monograph is delayed (to be completed during spring 2021).
The most important results and conclusions of the project
An important and concrete result of the project is in the systematic analysis of the rock art in a larger area that relates the spatial and temporal relations of rock art in a larger area. This provides a deeper understanding of the function of the different types of motifs and how dense areas of rock art relates to the many single and small panels of the hinterland. Some aspects of these relations are already known while others have not previously been systematically studied. These results have, to varying degrees, general validity also in other rock image areas in southern Scandinavia.
Another important result lies in the development of a method for systematically studying rock art as material articulations and the potential significance of their physical and generative properties alongside the figurative dimension. A concrete example is the distinction of a category of hyperbolic motifs that only appear in the initial and final stage of the rock art production (Fahlander ms). Why this is the case is a question of interpretation but it is a concrete and useful distinction beyond only identifying differences in size. Another example concerns the large proportion of partial anthropomorphs (70%) which make them stand out from the other motifs. This motif-specific way of articulation and the limited spatial distribution of the anthropomorphs is a concrete indication that different motifs have different functions and purposes (Fahlander 2021, ms). Although the project focuses on Bronze Age rock art, this manner of approaching rock art as material articulations, and emphasizing ontological aspects in the design and their intricate relation to other materialities (rock and water), constitutes a formal method that may also prove viable for interpreting rock art from other periods and regions.
A third important result is about theory and perspective development. The project shows how the Mälaren rock art can be considered “petrofacts” of a “vitalistic technology” made to influence both humans and other-than-humans through their type, design and articulation. Vitalism refers here to the real processes and "liveliness" of the world, which is not the same as things and materials being animated or considered living. ‘Technology’ in turn emphasizes that this practice is not a simple symbolic system separate from the real world, but that figurative motifs can have different aims and effects depending on the medium, material, articulation and placement etc. One example concerns the production of certain boat motifs as magical devices to influence and control water (Fahlander ms, 2019b). The partial and anonymized anthropomorphs are also discussed in terms of "traps" to lock and limit the agency of the forces controlling mainly water-related processes (Fahlander 2021).
New research questions
An question that is interesting to pursue further is the importance of the mineral composition of the rocks and how different motifs relate to different areas of the rocks. Especially the potential role of cup marks in the process of choosing appropriate rocks for figurative motifs is interesting to study systematically.
Collaboration and dissemination of the results
Various aspects of the project have been presented at five international conferences: the 14th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium (2017), the EAA annual conference (2017), Rock Art Worldings. Chronologies, materialities and ontologies (2017), Archaeological Imagery as Works of Art (2017), as well as the 15th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium (2019). Various parts of the project have also been presented on three occasions at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University.
The six articles present various aspects of the project and are all published as open access, available on the respective publisher's homepages as well as on academia.edu. It is too early to comment on the project's impact and significance, but according to Google Scholar, several of the project's publications have already been referenced several times, even though they have only been available for little than a year.