A Touch Of Red Archaeological And Ethnographic Approaches To Interpreting Finnish Rock Paintings Antti Lahelma by Antti Lahelma 9789519057675, 9519057676 instant download after payment.

This thesis is formed by an introductory essay and five peer-reviewed papers. In the introduction, the papers are referred to according to their Roman numerals.
Approximately 125 prehistoric rock paintings have been found in the modern territory of Finland. The paintings were done with red ochre and are almost without exception located on steep lakeshore cliffs associated with ancient water routes. Most of the sites are found in the central and eastern parts of the country, especially on the shores of Lakes Päijänne and Saimaa. Using shore displacement chronology, the art has been dated to ca. 5000–1500 BC. It was thus created mainly during the Stone Age and can be associated with the so-called 'Comb Ware' cultures of the Subneolithic period.
The range of motifs is rather limited, consisting mainly of schematic depictions of stick-figure humans, elks, boats, handprints and geometric signs. Few paintings include any evidence of narrative scenes, making their interpretation a rather difficult task. In Finnish archaeological literature, the paintings have traditionally been associated with 'sympathetic' hunting magic, or the belief that the ritual shooting of the painted animals would increase hunting luck. Some writers have also suggested totemistic and shamanistic readings of the art.
This dissertation is a critical review of the interpretations offered of Finnish rock art and an exploration of the potentials of archaeological and ethnographic research in increasing our knowledge of its meaning. Methods used include 'formal' approaches such as archaeological excavation, landscape analysis and the application of neuropsychological research to the study of rock art, as well as ethnographically 'informed' approaches that make use of Saami and Baltic Finnish ethnohistorical sources in interpretation.