Changing perceptions of rock art: storying prehistoric worlds

Temporality and changeability are here considered vital characteristics of rock art, expressed through shifting light and moving bodies. Demonstrating deliberate use of non-quantifiable elements such as light is challenging. Nevertheless, there are rock art sites where its importance is apparent. For example, the results of a 3D scan of the site Hammer IX in Central Norway show how the same lines make out both an elk head and a whale. Whereas in Vingen in Western Norway, 77 panels positioned across a scree slope, non-corporeal elements appear to be as important as the motifs. Approaching rock art in a non-representational framework, we consider the involvement of intangible elements as part of the constant knowledge production and shaping of realities at sites. This is the point of departure for our discussion of the making and use of rock art as a meaning-making and storytelling practice in Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Norway.publishedVersio

A multiproxy approach to understanding the impact of the Storegga tsunami upon Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers across different regions of western Norway

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Mot normalt - nye gjenstander i gamle tradisjoner - et neolittisk samfunn i endring

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Petrified Life or Living Stone? The Problems of Categorisation. Exemplified by Fossils Found at Stone Age Sites in Rogaland, Norway

During archaeological excavations, artefacts are collected, tagged and stored. Based on these, archaeologists interpret peoples’ social identity, relations and even world view. However, a narrow range of ‘natural objects’ are also collected, often if perceived as essentially different from the surrounding gravel or debris; that is, if odd or beautiful enough to the excavator. Fossilised Sea-urchins (Echinoidea) are such objects and have been recovered from hunter-gatherer-fisher coastal sites dated to Mesolithic and Neolithic. They are predominantly found in refuse layers and floor contexts. In this brief article, based on finds of fossils at recent excavations in Rogaland county, Norway, the fossils are considered as illustrative of the fluidity and transformability of life in a Mesolithic ontology that avoids the separation of nature and culture. Hence, life is stone, and stone is life. Contrasting this is the archaeological practice of separating ‘cultural’ from ‘natural’. Does this limit our understanding of life in the Stone Age?publishedVersio

Evidence of the Storegga tsunami 8200 BP? An archaeological review of impact after a large-scale marine event in Mesolithic Northern Europe

Around 8,200 years ago, the Storegga tsunami hit the coasts of the Norwegian and North Seas. This event is well known from wide ranging geological and palaeobotanical work undertaken over the last 30 years. Outside of attempts at palaeodemographic models, however, exploration of the social impact of the wave on Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies living on the coasts of west Norway, the north and east British Isles, and around the southern North Sea basin have been less common. It has been widely assumed that the tsunami was a disaster–but what constituted a disaster for the Mesolithic peoples who lived through this event? What can we learn about life after natural hazards by considering the archaeological material from regions with distinct Mesolithic histories? This paper presents a review of evidence of the Storegga tsunami at Mesolithic sites from western Norway, the Northeast UK, and elsewhere around the southern North Sea basin. We consider the ways in which the social impact of the Storegga tsunami has been studied up till now and suggest an alternative way forward