PROPOSED DATING FOR THE ROCK ART PANELS AT LA LINDOSA, COLUMBIA:

La Lindosa rock art panel, Columbia. Internet photograph, public domain.

On 2 January 2021, I reported on the reporting of extensive pictograph panels at a site in Colombia known as La Lindosa (Morcote-Ríos et al. 2020). These early reports claimed that many of the pictographs at this site were of Pleistocene megafauna and I expressed skepticism about a large percentage of these. However, it is a magnificent site, perhaps one of the most extensive rock art sites known, and certainly worth study and reporting. Now, a new report has addressed the dating of La Lindosa’s occupation.

La Lindosa rock art panel, Columbia. Internet photograph, public domain.

“The eight-mile Cerro Azul rock art mural at Serrania de la Lindosa in Colombia’s Guaviare region, on the banks of the Guayabero River, has been the subject of recent expeditions led by Jose Iriarte, and archaeologist at the University of Exeter. Now the ocher paintings have become the subject of debate, as experts attempt to definitively date them and identify the animals.” (Contributor 2022)

Radiocarbon dating was performed on charcoal and charred seeds excavated from the rock shelters at the site, and provided a range of occupation dates. It was then assumed that the painting was conducted at the same time that the rock shelters were occupied, and by the same people who did the painting.

“During three archaeological field seasons (2015, 2017 and 2018), we carried out excavations in three rock shelters (Cerro Azul, Cerro Montoya and Limoncillos), where lithic artifacts, charred seeds, animal remains, ochre fragments and charcoal were recovered in the stratigraphic deposits of these sites. These three rock shelters exhibit large concentrations of rock art paintings, though at varying degrees of preservation. The dating of these sites allowed us to establish the chronological framework for the rock art of La Lindosa, with dates ranging from the late Pleistocene approximately 12.6 ka to the European arrival approximately 1478-1642 AD.” (Iriatre et al. 2022) This gives a very broad range for the production of imagery at this location, essentially from the Holocene to Historic periods. Dating of the rock art has so far been indirect, based on dates from carbon recovered from the same strata as fragments of ochre found in excavations in rock shelters below the paintings with researchers assuming that this represents the same ochre that was used to do the paintings.

La Lindosa rock art panel, Columbia. Internet photograph, public domain.

“At Cerro Azul, two charcoal samples yielded LGM dates ~20,500 – 19,200 BP. Both dates were obtained from charcoal recovered in Stratus II, which is composed of natural sediments mixed with some chert flakes, charred seeds and charcoal. Until future excavations can provide a more securely defined context for the looser strata of the site, clearly identifying the cultural origins of the LGM dated charcoal, rather than charcoal fragments produced by natural fires, we presently only accept the Terminal Pleistocene dates of the site as firm evidence of human activity. Two radiocarbon assays made on charred palm seeds from secure cultural contexts provide Terminal Pleistocene dates between ~12,100 and ~11,800 BP. These dates mark the start of stable, repeated human activity in the region. Three dates from charred palm seeds through the Early to Middle Holocene (~9,090 - ~7,004 cal. BP) demonstrate continued activity in the region. A late Holocene date of ~3,002 – 2,849 cal BP marks the last preceramic strata. Ceramics are present by 2,929 – 2,779 cal BP, 15-20 cm b.s.”(Morcote-Ríos, Gaspar, et al. 2020:6)  So, the two oldest dates (~20,500 – 19,200 BP) are not used because it is not considered probable that this charcoal is the result of human activity without more evidence. At this time those dates are being classified as possibly the result of natural forest fires adjacent to La Lindosa.

“At Cerro Azul fragments of ochre were recovered from the lower levels, suggesting that paintings were produced from the oldest occupations as an early strategy of creating and defining the cultural landscape.” (Morcote-Ríos, Gaspar, et al. 2020:13) These lowest levels of the excavation were directly dated by radiocarbon dating. So the oldest dates prove that people were there by 20,500 to 19,200 BP, but not conclusively that they actually did the paintings. The researchers had to assume that the traces of ochre that they found in the same strata as the dated carbon had fallen or spilled during the act of creating the rock art - a reasonable assumption.

La Lindosa rock art panel, Columbia. Internet photograph, public domain.

In my previous column on the rock art at Serrania de la Lindosa I wrote “It is always exciting to find a record that illustrates extinct animals, and this discovery, because of its large scale, provides a wealth of new possibilities for research. While some of the illustrations of extinct creatures are easy to identify, others take a little more imagination. All in all though, this is a world class, major discovery.” (Faris 2021) With the addition of dates, even if they are not yet 100% certain, I find the rock art at Serrania de la Lindosa even more potentially valuable and exciting.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Contributor, 2022, Giant Sloths, Ancient Elephants, and Ungulates: Prehistoric Rock Art in the Amazon May Depict Extinct Ice Age Animals, a New Study Says, 9 March 2022, https://massive.news/2022/03/09/

Faris, Peter, 2021, Colombian Rock Art Claimed to Depict Extinct Megafauna, 2 January 2021, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Colombia.

Iriarte, Jose et al., 2022, Ice Age megafauna rock art in the Colombian Amazon?, 7 March 2022, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Vol. 377, issue,1849, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0496, accessed 12 March 2022.

Morcote-Ríos, Gaspar, et al., 2020, Colonisation and early peopling of the Colombian Amazon during the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene - New evidence from La Serranía La Lindosa, Quaternary International, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.04.026

ROCK ART APPRECIATION:

Horses, aurochs, and rhinoceroses, Chauvet Cave, France. Photograph worldhistory.org.

As an Art Historian, the subject of Art Appreciation is always there, part of the consideration for any creative construct. Of course, in order to appreciate art we have to have art and a great deal of nonsense is presented about how rock art is not really art. I have addressed that question numerous times and will not rehash my previous arguments. Instead, I will quote from the great anthropologist Ashley Montagu, whose 1957 book “Man: His First Million Years” addressed the question beautifully. “Those pursuits in which the imagination is chiefly engaged, in giving form and meaning to materials with which one works, are known as arts. In this sense arts are probably very old. There is no known people that is without them – drawing, painting, carving, sculpture, music, poetry, storytelling, and the dance.” (Montagu 1957: 215)

Close-up of horses, aurochs, and rhinoceroses, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

As for the motives behind the creation of the images, Montagu agreed with the prevailing theories of the day, that hunting magic of some sort would have been the primary reason the imagery was produced. “Why did these people of Aurignacian culture make the wall paintings in uninhabitable caves, and in the darkest and most inaccessible recesses of these? The most likely answer is that they made them for magical purposes and not in order to decorate the caves. The animals shown on the roofs and walls of these caves are often represented as pierced by spears and arrows. One makes as naturalistic a model as one can of the animal one hopes to kill, and then kills it in effigy; as one does to the drawing of the animal – accompanied by the proper incantations – so one will do in fact to the real animal. One has but to wish in the ritually acceptable manner and one will succeed. Hunting scenes abound in these cave drawings and paintings, and there can be very little doubt that this art, at any rate, was devoted principally to the practical purpose of securing success in the hunt. This does not mean that the artist did not obtain some esthetic pleasure from his achievement, but it does mean that love of beauty was not the principal purpose.” (Montagu 1957:217)

Ceiling of the bulls, Altamira Cave, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

“That the artist took pride in his accomplishment and was encouraged to do so is indicated by several facts. In the first place, the skill exhibited by these artists takes a certain amount of training. That such training was available from different centers is testified to by the fact that preliminary sketches on stone of certain animals have been found several hundred miles away from the caves in which the finished polychromes occur. In 1926 an engraving on limestone was found in the half-cave at Geniere in France. This was immediately recognized to be the sketch for the very individually painted polychrome of an old bison on the wall of the cave at Font-de-Gaume, in the Dordogne, some two hundred miles away.” (Montagu 1957: 217-219)

Although Montagu does not mention it, this practicing quite possibly implies instruction in the art form. One does not start with a Masterpiece, there is a learning process, usually through previous practice, or possibly a period of training such as apprenticeship. I have argued in the past that evidence for apprenticeship can be found in rock art images found in high locations that display perspective anamorphosis (elongation to make the image look correct when viewed from an angle – see “anamorphosis” in the RockArtBlog index at the bottom of the column). I do not believe that one goes to these lengths of practice and training to not seek the approval, indeed appreciation, of their results from their reference group, tribe or clan. This anamorphosis may be either the result of someone (the apprentice) up on a scaffold taking directions from someone (the master) down below who is looking up at some extreme angle, or a purposeful design feature meant to make the proportions look correct from the viewpoint of an audience down below and looking up (I do admit the possibility that the proportion of the image could be done that way purposefully without anamorphosis being the aim). But the key concept here is that there was an audience – appreciating the art.

Megaloceros giganteus, Lascaux Cave. France. Internet photograph, public domain.

“Obviously artists who could paint as well as Aurignacian and Magdalenian cave artists must have taken great esthetic pleasure in accomplishing their work, whether inside or outside a cave. It is therefore unnecessary, as some have done, to argue that the first drawings and paintings were made only for magical purposes, only for a practical purpose, and not from the sheer pleasure derived from doing something for its own sake – and doing it as well as possible.” (Montagu 1957:219-220) Indeed, the personal satisfaction of creating something is very compelling, but as I said above, I believe that the creators were also seeking the approval of their peers. This is, by definition, Art Appreciation. Now I certainly do not believe that the images were produced as “art for art’s sake,” just to entertain others. But I do believe that appreciating the images was a part of the experience that accompanied the primary motive for their creation whether “hunting magic” or something else.

Boar, Altamira Cave, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

Coincidentally, while I was writing this my May/June 2022 issue of Current World Archaeology magazine arrived with an op/ed by Neil Faulkner (who I am sorry to say is deceased) on “Interpreting Art.” In this, Faulkner, was expressing concern with the use of terms from Art History or Art Appreciation in describing objects instead of using phraseology that he seemingly believes have “real” meaning (archaeological terminology no doubt).

“Art can be hugely important in offering insight into the thought worlds of past people. So we have to take interpretation seriously. And that requires us to try to situate the art in the context of contemporary belief and ritual. So this – an example taken at random – will not do: ‘Cave painting is considered one of the first expressions of the human animal’s appreciation of beauty and a representation of a mystic or sacred side to life.’ I have no idea what is meant by an ‘appreciation of beauty.’ It is one of those trite phrases you find repeated a million times in art books. As for a ‘representation of a mystic or sacred side to life,’ does this not beg the question: what is this side of life, and why bother to represent it at all? Cave art can attract nonsense – nonsense which dissolves as soon as one thinks about it critically. One example is the claim that paintings of animals were teaching aids for apprentice hunters. The best way to learn practical skills – as we all know – is to practice on the real thing. You learn how to hunt – probably from a very early age – by joining older family members on a real hunt. It used to be said that when archaeologists cannot explain something, they claim ‘ritual use.’ So perhaps it has become too tame and unimaginative to say that a prehistoric painting of a bison, or a Greek sculpture of a goddess, or a medieval religious fresco were for ritual use. But they were.” (Faulkner 2022:65)

Bison, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

And again:“Archaeologists should beware of lazy and pretentious interpretations of art derived from modern and highly misleading concept of ‘fine art.’” (Faulkner 2022:65) For the record I have never said that rock art represented “fine art” in Faulkner’s use of the term.

If I correctly interpret the intent of Faulkner’s editorial, it is to express the feeling that art historians sometimes try to hide a lack of real knowledge with the use of grand phraseology. On February 22, 2020, I wrote an editorial on RockArtBlog titled “A Case of Hypervocabulitis – Using Big Words to Sound Impressive.” In this I described the recent experience of reading a book by an archaeologist which was crammed full of exactly this type of terminology, and I coined the phrase hypervocabulitis to describe it. The examples I gave from that volume off of a handful of pages included “Androcentrism, Commodification, Decontextualization, Emic/Etic, Hegemonic masculinity, Indeterminancy, Intersectionality, Polysemy and Semiotic.” Now, admittedly, these words do have meanings, but there are much easier and clearer ways to phrase those meanings, and I, as an Art Historian, pointed that out in the context of a book written by an Archaeologist. So back at you Faulkner!

In the words of the great Mark Twain referring to commentators on research into the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America, “The researches of many commentators have already thrown much darkness on this subject, and it is probable that, if they continue, we shall soon know nothing at all about it.” (www.jimpoz.com) I believe we know exactly what he was talking about.

So to sum up, yes there was Art Appreciation in the history of rock art, from Cave Painting right on down to historic times. I have admired certain rock art panels, you have too. Whenever someone said, or even thought, that the creator of an image did a good job on it, that was by definition Art Appreciation. And I will bet that they managed to do it without the hypervocabulitis that too many modern commentators, including archaeologists, employ to impress their audiences. Montagu did not, my favorite writers do not, and I don’t either.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2020, A Case of Hypervocabulitis – Using Big Words to Sound Impressive, 22 February 2020, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/

Faulkner, Neil, 2022, Culture Thinking Aloud: On Interpreting Art, Current World Archaeology, Issue 112, April/May 2022, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 65

Jim’s Favorite Famous Quote, Quip, Axiom and Maxim Repository, https://www.jimpoz.com/quotes/Speaker:Mark_Twain, accessioned 20 February 2020.

Montagu, Ashley, 1957, Man: His First Million Years, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York.

CAVEAT EMPTOR IN ANCIENT MESOPETAMIA – A RECORD OF A CUSTOMER COMPLAINT:

 

Complaint tablet, cuneiform, Ur, Mesopotamia. Photograph British Museum.

For as long as people have been exchanging things there have been instances of customer dissatisfaction. The first-known record of a customer complaint is found in cuneiform writing on a clay tablet in the collection of the British Museum in London. Once again I am straying a little from the subject of rock art to an inscribed clay tablet, but I cannot help it, it is just so fascinating.

Side-view of the complaint tablet, cuneiform, Ur, Mesopotamia. Photograph British Museum.

When deciphered, the tablet was found to contain “a complaint from a man named Nanni to a businessman named Ea-nasir that’s written in the Akkadian language in cuneiform script, one of the oldest forms of writing. Nanni complained to Ea-Nasir the wrong grade of copper ore had been delivered to him, and about misdirection and delay of a separate shipment.” (Deron 2019) This tablet, and thus the complaint, are dated to 3,800 years ago and come from the Mesopotamian city of Ur, now known as Tell el-Muqayyar in modern Iraq (Martin 2022).

It sounds just like a situation that would be familiar to everyone today, a shopper disappointed upon receipt of something that had been ordered. “Ea-nasir was a member of the Alik Tilmun, a guild of merchants based in Dilmun. Archaeologists discovered that he was a prominent copper trader. As it turns out, Ea-nasir was a pretty bad businessman and received multiple complaints from angry customers.” (Deron 2019)

Pillow-shaped copper ingot in a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, ca. 3,600 years of age. Photograph Hakan Oniz.

The tablet from Nanni was translated by A. Leo Oppenheim, an Assyrologist at the British Museum, as follows:

“Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message: When you came you said to me as follows: ‘I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.’ You left then but you did not do what you promised me. Youu put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: ‘If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!’

What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alond treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas.

How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.

Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper ingots from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shell exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt." (Oppenheim 1967:82-3)

Illustration of the interior of an old Babylonian house found in the ruins of Ur, which may have been the residence of Ea-nasir, from Wikipedia.

“The product he received was unlike the product he was shown and promised. In other words his expectations were not met. Ea-nasir oversold his copper. Nanni sought resolution to his problem several times. Had Ea-nasir Fine Copper Inc. set things right the first time the British Museum wouldn’t have this interesting artifact to display. The relationship between this buyer and seller would have been quickly restored. ” (Hyken 2015)

“The letter ends with Nanni saying that from this point forward he would carefully inspect every copper ingot he received and ship back any that didn’t meet his approval. It is clear that their relationship has been poisoned. Trust and confidence have deteriorated to the point that Nanni will certainly have his eyes open for a new supplier.” (Hyken 2015) You know, I think I have written that letter a few times in my life as well.

Iraq, Ur, view from the top of the zuggurat, 1932. Library of Congress photograph. 

And not only Nanni: “a man named Arbituram sent a note to Ea-nasir complaining about why he hadn’t received the copper that he paid for. ‘Why have you not given me the copper? If you do not give it, I will recall your pledges. Good copper, give again and again. Send me a man,’ reads a rough translation of the tabled.” (Deron 2019) It sounds like Ea-nasir was rapidly muddying the customer pool.

Ziggurat of Ur, partially reconstructed. Wikipedia.

Everyone who has ever ordered something advertised in a magazine, or online, and been somewhat disappointed with the final result should understand and sympathize. One example I can give is an ad common in popular magazines showing a necklace with a gold pendant about 3” across in the illustration, set with an emerald, which turns out to be about 5/8” when received (no, it was not my purchase – it happened to an disappointed friend), or like when we were kids and rapidly tore open the cereal box to find the prize inside which turned out to be a cheesy piece of plastic something-or-other.

It is stories just like this that make the study of history so fascinating, and fun. Next week – back to rock art.

NOTE 1: Adolph Leo Oppenheim’s 1967 book Letters From Mesopotamia: Official, Business, and Private Letters on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia is now out of print.

NOTE 2: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the articles listed below.

REFERENCE:

Deron, Bernadette, 2019, This 3,800-Year-Old Tablet Contains The World’s First Customer Service Complaint, 10 September 2018, updated 6 March 2019, https://allthatsinteresting.com/first-customer-service-complaint-ea-nasir, accessioned 18 May 2022.

Hyken, Shep, 2015, Oldest Customer Service Complaint Discovered: A Lesson from Ancient Babylon, 23 April, 2015, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2015/04/23/oldest-customer-service-complaint-discovered-a-lesson-from-ancient-babylon/?sh=247b6b7466f1

Martin, Andrew, 2022, The First Known Customer Compaint In History Came From Ancient Mesopotamia, 16 May 2022, https://historianandrew.medium.com, accessioned 22 May 2022.

Oppenheim, A. Leo, 1967, Letters from Mesopotamia: Official, Business, and Private Letters on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia, Translated and with an Introduction by A. Leo Oppenheim, University of Chicago Press.

 

THE KNEELING SWEDE – THE KNEELING WOMAN OF TANUM, SWEDEN:

Vitlyke Rock Art Panel, near Tanum, Sweden. The kneeling figure is in the lower right. Illustration from european-traveler.com.

The Scandinavian countries have a great deal of rock art and, as we would expect in cultures historically focused on seafaring, much of it includes ships and other maritime themes. “The west coast of Sweden - has the largest concentration of Bronze Age rock carvings in Scandinavia; and Scandinavia has the largest number of Bronze Age rock carvings in Europe. The west coast of Sweden is home to around 1,500 recorded rock engraving sites, with more being discovered every year. – By far, the most dominant theme is human figures and ships, especially ships – 10,000 of which have (been) recorded. Rock carvings in the late Bronze Age, and even the early Iron Age, often depict conflict, power, and mobility.” (Wikipedia)

“The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 1750-500 BC.” (Wikipedia)

Another view of the Vitlyke Rock Art Panel, near Tanum, Sweden. The kneeling figure is just right of center. Illustration from Wikipedia.

One interesting scene can be found at the Vitlycke Rock Art Site located at Tanum, Sweden. What appears to be the figure of a kneeling woman by the head of an elongated prone man with one leg intersecting the hull of a ship. We interpret the kneeling figure as a woman because of what appears to be long hair behind and the lack of a phallus in a panel where many male figures are portrayed and always with a prominent phallus.

Enlargement from the Vitlyke Rock Art Panel, near Tanum, Sweden. The kneeling figure is in the lower right. Illustration from european-traveler.com.

In 2021, Salmivuori wrote “We see a woman kneeling at the head of a lying man. Perhaps he is dead, and she is mourning him, or he is wounded, and she is tending to him. That is a straightforward interpretation, but there are disturbing circumstances. Why has he no arms and an empty sheath? If she were mourning her warrior husband, these attributes would have been there. If she is tending to a wounded man, why is she above his head where he cannot see her? Her arms and tense bodyline indicate that she is doing something. And what are the two objects at her hips?” (Salmivuore 2021:1-2) This last question is very problematical as many of the online photographs of the scene do not show two objects at her hip. Instead they show it as a single inverted “U-shaped” object.

“We cannot exclude females participating in trade or war ventures, either as active agents or in more supporting roles. That may very well have been the case, but rock art gives us no indication in that direction. If we stick to rock art, we can see that women had essential roles in one sector, that of rituals. We have pictures of women seen as overseers of rites, actors, dancers, bringers of offerings, and the like. In later periods, women had these essential roles as seeresses overseeing magic rituals, so it is safe to assume that something similar is happening here. In a warrior society, where violence is never far away, there might be a need for magical powers and rituals as a release. That may very well have been a sector in which women played vital roles. It is not hard to imagine a nightly scene down on the shore by a rock panel with a seeress leading a ritual, with a torch in her hand, making the figures on the rock dance, and telling the young and nervous warriors-to-be stories of the past and what life has in store for them.” (Salmivuore 2021:2-3) I think this is taking it a little far. Not that everything he states here could not be true, it very well is. I just do not think that this applies to the figures we are discussing here. If a rite or ritual is involved in this composition I believe it would be a healing or grieving rite.

“Women may or may not have participated in violent actions abroad themselves, but there is a distinct possibility that they had such ritual tasks at home. There is a possible third interpretation: The lying man could be a prisoner from the defeated ship, indicated by the lack of arms and weapons, and the woman is torturing him, possibly crushing his head with the stones she has at her hips. Similar behavior is not unknown from other warriors societies. The purpose of the act and its record on the rock art panel could be to teach the young warriors a lesson, never surrender or give up, or this would be the fate that awaited them.” (Salmivuore 2021:3) Salmivuore here interprets the two objects that he sees at her hip as stones which I would imaging would have been portrayed as round or oblong objects. As we have seen most online photos show a single inverted “U-shaped” object by her hip so I think we can disregard this interpretation.

Guernica, 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. Photograph from Wikipedia.

This leaves us with three more possible interpretations; the enactment of some ritual or rite, tending a wounded man (and the ritual or rite may have been seen as essential to the tending this wounded man), or grieving a dying or dead man. The way the kneeling figures arms are outstretched is disturbingly reminiscent of Picasso’s Guernica and we should be careful not to let that affect our analysis.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Salmivuori, Seppo, 2021, Female agency in Bronze Age Scandinavia as represented in rock art – rethinking the mourning woman in Vitlycke, Tanum, Academia Letters, Article 1161, https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1161.3

Wikipedia, Nordic Bronze Age, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Bronze_Age, accessioned on 17 May 2022.