Rock Art Research

In central and northern Norway fifteen sites with large-scale zoomorphic petroglyphs are found, some of which were made by grinding or polishing the lines onto the rocks. These sites are found at exceptionally high altitudes and due to Holocene land uplift are claimed to represent the earliest rock art in Scandinavia, having been made shortly after the end of the last Ice Age. The claim that the real dates are identical with these maximum ages is questioned. It is argued for the use of a broader spectrum of methods in the study of this art, among them other possible locational factors such as landscape biography, the shape and quality of the rocks and weathering.