TRANSFORMING ROCKS AND IMAGE METAMORPHOSIS IN THE MESOLITHIC OF WESTERN NORWAY
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TRANSFORMING ROCKS AND IMAGE METAMORPHOSIS IN THE MESOLITHIC OF WESTERN NORWAY |
VINGEN PAST, VINGEN PRESENT
Vingen, with around 2,000 documented carvings, is one of the largest single rock carving localities in Scandinavia. Its location at the end of a narrow and deep fjord surrounded by towering mountains on three sides yet within sight of the Hornelen Mountain, the highest sea cliff in Europe, is certainly one of the most dramatic. Here we have the conjunction of two extremes: the towering heights of the surrounding mountains and the unfathomable depths of the fjords.
The Vingen fjord in the county of Sogn and Fjordane is situated on the west coast of Norway about 100 km north of Bergen (Figure 2.1). The Vingen fjord inlet itself is short and narrow, 1.6 km long and up to 750 m wide. The mountains surrounding it to the north, west, and east rise up to 600 m above sea level in a series of sheer cliffs and scree and boulder-strewn slopes. The fjord below is up to 96 m deep and is an eastern inlet of Frøysjøen, which is up to 460 m deep in some places a few kilometres west of Vingen. Just over 4 km to the northwest of Vingen the dramatic Hornelen Mountain, 860 m high, towers up above the fjord on Bremanger Island (Figures 2.19, 2.22). This is one of the principal landmarks, used in navigation, along the Norwegian coast. Historically, many myths and legends have been associated with Hornelen, a place where witches and trolls had their abode (Mandt 1999: 55;Viste 2003: 92).
FIGURE 2.1. The location of the Vingen fjord in western Norway and places mentioned in the text.
Today, as in the past, the easiest way to reach Vingen is by boat. Walking from anywhere to Vingen is long, arduous, and difficult. A small footpath leading up the mountain and across the boggy and boulder-strewn fell before descending again to Svelgen, only 6 km away to the south, can take four hours or more, even in favourable weather conditions.
History of Research
The presence of rock carvings at Vingen was first publicised by the lawyer Kristian Bing (1912) who documented one hundred images, having learnt of their presence from local fishermen. The site was first visited by Gustaf Hallström in 1913; he undertook the first documentation of the site during a period of ten days and revisited the site for two days in 1917. This work was not to be published until 1938, as part of Hallström’s (1938) study of all the northern Norwegian rock art localities, by which time many new carvings had been discovered. Johs Bøe from the Bergen Museum redocumented Vingen during a period of several months in 1925 and 1927 and subsequently published the site for the first time (Bøe 1932). Both Hallström and Bøe were assisted in their documentation by Olav Espevoll of the Bergen Museum, who must have had as intimate a knowledge of it as either man. Hallström (1938) discusses his documentation of Vingen at length and compares it with that of Bøe. Although Bøe documents a greater overall number of carvings, some found by Hallström were not found by Bøe. In general, there is a high level of agreement between their documentation of the same rocks. In some cases Bøe discovers more details; in other cases Hallström’s documentation appears better. Bøe documents 778 carvings in total. Partly this was because he removed areas of turf covering some rocks, such as parts of the north face of Hardbakken and the lower part of the Kålrabi stone, which Hallström did not. Neither Bøe nor Hallström produced a detailed map of the site. Bøe provides a photograph with different localities marked on it, Hallström a thumbnail sketch. As a result, the documentation of both is of little use in finding all but the major and most obvious carved rocks at Vingen. This has considerably hampered subsequent research, which has involved trying to refind the rocks they documented.
Hallström’s plates are much more organized and systematic than many of those provided by Bøe. Hallström clearly indicates which carvings are found together on the same rock or panel. This is far from clear in Bøe’s documentation of the smaller boulders and rock panels, which is not very systematically organized. Sometimes the criterion employed seems to be simply where best the illustration might be fitted onto a page. In neither publication is it possible to obtain any real sense of the spatial relationships between the individual carved rocks, because of the lack of a detailed plan. The reason why neither Bøe nor Hallström could provide such a plan is easily understood. Given limited resources and time and the enormous complexity of this rock carving site, the task was quite beyond them. Hallström’s work, viewed in retrospect, is a minor miracle given the short period of time he actually spent at Vingen.
The small number of rock carvings found to the west of Vingen at Vingelva and Fura were first documented in detail by Eva and Per Fett (Fett 1941).
From 1962 Egil Bakka started a fresh documentation of the Vingen carvings, uncovering many new carved areas concealed by turf, principally Brattebakken and Leitet and on the north face of Hardbakken. His visit to the site was stimulated by fresh finds of carvings on Hardbakken by the farmer Thorald Vingeleven (Mandt 1999: 65). Bakka only published a few of these in a number of articles (Bakka 1973; 1975; 1979) before his early death. Bakka’s discoveries increased the number of carvings known at Vingen from around 800 to about 1,500.
Since 1996 there has been an ongoing research project at Vingen, led by Gro Mandt and Trond Lødøen, involving detailed studies of the fragmentation and weathering of the carvings and how best to preserve them (see Thorseth et al. 2001), and a total redocumentation of the whole rock carving area, integrating the work of Hallström, Bøe, and Bakka with numerous finds of further carvings. This has brought the total number of known carvings to about 2,100. In addition to this work, extensive archaeological survey—including remapping of the area, accurate measurements, and excavation—has been ongoing (see discussion below). The major results of this work have yet to be published and integrated.
A comprehensive documentation of the Vingen carvings still does not exist, nor even a detailed plan of the carving area. My own study of Vingen (excluding the smaller localities to the west, mentioned above) is based on Hallström’s and Bøe’s early documentation, together with that published by Bakka, personal observation of the rock carving surfaces documented by Bakka but not published by him, and some finds of rock carving surfaces made subsequently at Vingeneset and Bak Vehammaren. It is inevitably partial as a result. A fuller and more detailed analysis must await the final publication of the site (Lødøen and Mandt in preparation).
Localities, Images
The rock at Vingen is a hard, smooth, dark grey-green Devonian sandstone. Vingen is situated very near the northern edge of the area of western Norway where this stone outcrops and conglomerate blocks occur on the Vingeneset headland (Thorseth et al. 2001: 47–50). Most of the rock carvings at Vingen are found along a narrow, boulder-strewn terrace 600 m long and up to 100 m broad along the southern side of the fjord (Figures 2.2, 2.3). They also occur on either side of a narrow gorge created by a waterfall flowing down a fault line at the far eastern end of the fjord and on the headland Vingeneset to the north of the fjord at its western end. Besides at these places, a very few carvings have been found at Hola, an inlet also at the far eastern end of the fjord; to the west of Vingen, small numbers of carvings have also been found at Vingelven, Fura, Hennøya, and Vingesetra (see Figure 2.1). Table 2.1 provisionally shows the total number of known and recorded motifs from the main Vingen rock carving area.
FIGURE 2.2. Looking down on the Vingen terrace from the top of Tussurfjellet on the north side of the Vingen fjord. Photo: Trond Lødøen.
FIGURE 2.3. The rock carving areas along the Vingen terrace to the south of the fjord, showing the positions of the Mesolithic houses and features in relation to the Mesolithic coastline.
TABLE 2.1. THE TOTAL NUMBER AND PERCENTAGES OF RECORDED MOTIFS IN THE MAIN VINGEN ROCK CARVING AREA.
| Motif | Frequency | Percent |
| Red deer | 731 | 34.40 |
| Dog | 3 | 0.14 |
| Bear | 1 | 0.04 |
| Unidentifiable animals | 168 | 8.00 |
| ‘Snakes’ | 3 | 0.14 |
| Humans | 68 | 3.20 |
| Hooks and scythes | 511 | 24.10 |
| Geometric motifs | 71 | 3.35 |
| Birds | 2 | 0.09 |
| Whales | 3 | 0.14 |
| Shoe-soles | 2 | 0.09 |
| Line fragments | 322 | 15.19 |
| Unidentifiable | 235 | 11.08 |
| Total: | 2120 | 100.00 |
Source: Modified from figures given in Viste 2003: table 8.
Quantitatively, only three identifiable iconic motifs are of any significance at all: red deer, hooks/scythes, and humans. This is a strikingly restricted image repertoire, an endless repetition of the same—deer, after deer, after deer. In the older literature Vingen has been classified as belonging to the ‘hunter’s’ rock art of northern Scandinavia, differentiated from agrarian art occurring to the south. This general distinction in this area of Norway is fraught with problems and is based solely on motif content since so-called agrarian carving sites are also found here.
The dating of the Vingen carvings has been much discussed. Bøe (1932: 39) dated Vingen to the end of the middle Neolithic on the basis of shoreline displacement, noting that none of the carvings occur below 8 or 9 m above sea level. Hallström similarly dated the carvings to the end of the Neolithic while also suggesting that some might have been made at the beginning of the Bronze Age (Hallström 1938: 457). Bakka (1973; 1975; 1979) also argues, on the basis of a falling shoreline, that the carvings at Vingen date from the beginning of the early Neolithic until the end of the middle Neolithic (around 4000 B.C.), with a possible earlier origin in the late Mesolithic. He argues that the shoreline was at least 5 m above its present-day level in the final phase of carvings at Vingen, which were produced over a long period of time. He also suggests a relative chronology for the deer motifs, distinguishing four phases named after the different carving areas at Vingen on which they occur: the Vehammaren style (earliest), Hardbakken style, Brattebakken style, and the Elva style (latest) (Figure 2.4). The Elva style is dated as latest because these deer are found lowest down the rocks, at 8.25 m above present-day sea level. The Brattebakken and Hardbakken styles are all found higher than 9.3 m above present-day sea level, and the Vehammaren style never lower than 10 m. There are a number of problems with this analysis, since it assumes that stylistically similar animals were all produced at around the same time above the waterline. However, each of Bakka’s styles could have been carved over a very long period. For example, while the lowest carvings at Elva do occur just above 8 m above present-day sea level, the highest carvings in this group are found at a height of 18 m. So, while the lowest carvings at Elva might be later in date than those on Vehammaren, those higher up the rock could be of the same date, or indeed earlier. Recently Bergsvik (2002: 302) has pointed out that archaeological investigations at Skatestraumen (only 6 km to the north of Vingen) have revealed radiocarbon-dated late Mesolithic sites excavated far below the level of the supposed contemporaneous Mesolithic coastline as indicated by the shoreline displacement curves for this area used by Bakka.
FIGURE 2.4. Bakka’s typology of the deer motifs at Vingen. The top two rows are, according to him, the oldest, the Vehammaren style. Below this are deer in his Hardbakken and Brattebakken styles, and the two rows at the bottom are in the Elva style, dated by him as latest. Source: Bakka 1973: fig. 8.
Furthermore, Bakka’s animal styles are not simply restricted to the rocks after which they are named by him, but are found elsewhere widely dispersed across the Vingen rock carving area. His Hardbakken type, in particular, has little stylistic unity, and in fact the animals he chooses as representative of this style are atypical of the majority of deer on this rock.
Lødøen (2001; 2003) has argued that the Vingen carvings are late Mesolithic in date on the basis of careful archaeological test excavations. All the archaeological material recovered from the Vingen terrace has been found to be late Mesolithic. In addition, charcoal samples from excavated cultural layers have all been radiocarbon dated to the late Mesolithic (c. 5000–4000 B.C.) (Lødøen 2003: 515; Mandt and Lødøen 2005: 145). There are no diagnostic Neolithic artefacts whatsoever, or even typical raw material categories or radiocarbon dates. Two small occupation areas with material of Neolithic date have been found on the Vingeneset headland to the north of the fjord (Lødøen 2001: 221). However, these finds, unlike those of late Mesolithic date on the Vingen terrace to the south of the fjord, are not closely related to carved rocks.
Late Mesolithic Occupation and Dwellings
Archaeological survey and test excavations at Vingen have revealed the presence of circular or oval depressions interpreted by Lødøen (2001: 216; 2003: 514) as late Mesolithic dwelling structures. There are at least nine of these, possibly more (see Figures 2.3, 2.5, 2.20). Four of these houses occur in a roughly circular cluster on the eastern edge of the Bakkane rock carving area towards the eastern end of the Vingen terrace. They can be subdivided into two pairs, houses 1 and 2, with a known midden deposit between them and houses 3 and 4. This cluster occurs immediately below a dense, tumbled boulder field and beneath a cave-like structure, known as Hellaren (see discussion below), within it. Another house only 16 m to the east (Figure 2.3: no. 5) is peculiarly concealed. It is surrounded by huge blocks and, despite its proximity to houses 1–4, is not visible from them or indeed from anywhere else on the Vingen terrace except in its immediate vicinity. Its hidden location within a dense boulder field may indicate that it had a special significance. Houses 6–9 are more scattered and occur in the approximate centre of the Vingen terrace. House 6, situated on a localised high point on the terrace, is intervisible with houses 1–4, 7, and 8. From houses 8 and 9 the summit of Hornelen is fully visible.
All these structures are between 4 and 5 m in diameter and surrounded by rough boulder and gravel walls. No obvious entrances can be seen from surface survey. They are all located within the immediate vicinity of rocks with carvings. House 3 is next to the Bakke stone, which has seven anthropomorphic motifs engraved on it. House 9 abuts the major carved rock of Hardbakken to its north and is close to the pond where there are many boulders and rock outcrops with carvings. Another anthropomorphic carving occurs on the top of Hardbakken next to house 9. Houses 6–8 are a short distance to the north of the major carved rock Brattebakken, and they and houses 1–5 occur in areas with many carved boulders and blocks. Furthermore, houses 1 and 2 have carvings engraved on their boulder walls. House 5 stands out from all the others in that none are visible from here. Houses 1–4 are only intervisible with carving areas at the eastern end of Vingen, whereas houses 7–9 are, as one might expect, intervisible with carving areas at the western end of the terrace. From house 6 almost all the major carved rocks can be seen.
None of the houses have been fully excavated as yet, but on the evidence provided by test pits Lødøen suggests that the limited thickness and unstratified character of the cultural layers excavated within these structures may indicate repeated short-term occupation. By contrast, excavation of a midden within the cluster of houses 1–4 indicates it accumulated over a much longer period during the middle and final late Mesolithic, probably as an accumulation of materials cleared out of the surrounding houses (Lødøen 2003: 515).
Unless it is argued that all the late Mesolithic material and structures from Vingen predate the use of the area for rock carving, which seems very unlikely, we certainly have here a rock carving locality with associated structures, artefacts, and midden deposits of clear late Mesolithic date.
Whether or not Vingen is classified as a Mesolithic or a Neolithic site has no relevance in economic terms, because during both periods we have hunter-gatherer-fisher societies in this area of Norway. The current evidence seems to indicate that Vingen was seasonally occupied for brief periods. On the basis of the extreme microclimate here, which is very inhospitable during most of the year, the most likely season during which this occupation took place, and the carvings made, would be during the summer and early autumn months.
Interpretations
Today this area of western Norway has the highest concentration of red deer in the country and is one of the best deer-hunting areas in Norway. Undoubtedly, the deer was a major economic resource in the past. It is in the context of the hunt that Bøe, Hallström, and Bakka tried to account for the significance of the carvings and, in particular, the overwhelming dominance of deer motifs. There is a deer migration route coming down to the Vingen fjord following the course of the river and the waterfall at the far eastern end of Vingen. As late as the eighteenth century, drive hunting took place in this area of Norway, though not in Vingen (Bøe 1932:44). Bøe connects the carvings with hunting magic and considers that the earliest carvings were made at or near the place of the kill and later ones farther away. The carvings would attract the game, and the carvings themselves indicate the direction of the drive. On this basis Bøe argues that the carvings on the lowest half of the north face of Vehammaren and at Elva are the earliest (Bøe 1932: 45). Hallström effectively criticises this argument by pointing out that neither the Vehammaren nor Elva rocks are full up with carvings (Hallström 1938: 443). He also connects the deer depictions with the chase in a single sentence (ibid.: 454) but has nothing more to say about this. Bakka (1973: 156–57) also argues for a direct connection with a collective hunt and hunting magic, suggesting that the deer might have been driven down the cleft with the waterfall between the Elva and Nedste Laegda rocks at the eastern end of the Vingen fjord, where they met their death.
Lødøen (2001; 2003; Mandt and Lødøen 2005: 148) suggests that Vingen may have been a seasonally occupied ritual location. He points to a change from a more mobile to a more sedentary society during the late Mesolithic in this area of western Norway, which has been suggested on the basis of excavations besides Skatestraumen. Here on both sides of a strong tidal current between Bremangerlandet and Rugsundøy, more than 120 sites from the Stone Age have been documented. Over 40 of these date to the late Mesolithic (Bergsvik 2002). The material from them is virtually identical to that found at Vingen, suggesting contemporaneity. These occupation sites at Skatestraumen appear to have been reoccupied both more frequently and for longer periods during the late Mesolithic. Lødøen suggests that a greater permanency of occupation could have resulted in the need for special sacred or ritual sites and that Vingen was one of these, a place set apart for special ceremonies and rites (Lødøen 2001: 200; 2003: 518). More specifically, he suggests the art may have had an ‘ideological’ purpose, naturalising emerging social stratification and resolving the conflicts between individuals and groups that were occurring on account of increased sedentism. Just how this might be achieved through carving deer or scythes or hooks is left unexplained.
Mandt and Lødøen suggest a number of other interpretive possibilities for understanding Vingen. They rightly suggest that its dramatic location constituted an important part of its significance, acting as a natural frame for the carvings which were of paramount ritual and ceremonial significance (Mandt and Lødøen 2005: 152–53). More specifically, they point to the sacred significance of Hornelen Mountain, which might have been regarded as the centre of the world for the prehistoric populations (ibid.: 153). Importantly, they note that in historical times the summit was even higher than today, ending in a point or horn that collapsed during the early nineteenth century. During the summer months the Vingen carvings become magically lit up by the evening sun when it shines low in the sky over Hornelen. The entrance to the Vingen fjord could be understood as a kind of portal to another world (ibid.: 154). Vingen’s very different kinds of rock carving surfaces themselves suggest different types of activities: some on or in front of which many people could gather in communal ceremonies and others in more hidden and secret locations (ibid.: 155). In a general way they suggest the carvings might be connected with rites of passage and shamanic acts (ibid.: 156; and see Viste 2003). Some of these arguments will be taken up later.
Weather
Vingen is a wet, cold, dark, and gloomy place for most of the year. The name Vingen means ‘the windy place’ (Mandt and Lødøen 2005: 154). For five months, from 5 October until 5 March, the sun never shines at Vingen (Mandt, cited in Viste 2003: 129). Even during the summer months, the early morning rising sun never shines here because of the high mountains to the south and east. The fjord, only open to the west, is primarily associated with the setting sun which, during midsummer, sets behind Hornelen Mountain to the northwest. During the summer months the fjord is bathed in sunlight only for brief periods. The norm here is almost incessant storms, beating rain and wind, or low clouds and softer or harder degrees of drizzle. The annual rainfall is considerable: 2,200 to 2,600 mm (Thorseth et al. eds. 2001: ix). If the Eskimo have an elaborate descriptive vocabulary for types of snow, then something similar and equally complex might be developed at Vingen for cloud and rain. The wearing of midwinter clothes during midsummer is quite normal here. Everything feels permanently damp. The ground, waterlogged most of the time, is alive with frogs during the summer. Vingen’s microclimate seems quite extreme. Often in the rain and drizzle one can look out across Frøysjøen to the west and see the southern shores of Bremanger Island only a few kilometres away to the west, bathed in sunshine.
The weather at Vingen is as important an aspect of the place as the mountains or the fjord itself. It is infinitely variable, altering the character and feel of the place and the surrounding landscape. Differences in the height and density of the clouds radically affect the elemental qualities of light, water, and rock. When it rains heavily, waterfalls suddenly appear and cascade down the sheer cliffs of Tussurfjellet on the northern side of the Vingen fjord. These disappear as rapidly as they form. Heavy rain increases the force of the perennial waterfalls, whose roar is amplified. Braided flows of water may become a single torrent. The pond on the Vingen terrace expands, or shrinks, in tandem with the rain. Most of the carved rock surfaces at Vingen are relatively easy to walk up and across when it is dry. In the wet they may become slippery and treacherous, making it difficult and dangerous to climb on the steeper surfaces.
Although the weather at Vingen is predominantly wet, during dry spells the character and spirit of the place is transformed. There are days when there is no water in the pond, when most of the waterfalls dry up, times when the only apparent water is in the fjord itself. During these dry experiences of Vingen, your feet do not disappear under your body trying to walk on wet, slippery lichen, and you can walk up many of the steep and semi-steep panels quite easily. During such dry periods one can even move relatively quickly in the boulder fields, jumping from one to another and still obtaining a rather good overview of the area (Lødøen pers. comm.).
The fjord also changes its character from a glassy, mirror-like surface in calm weather to raging waves when stormy. The prevailing wind direction is from the south and west. The enclosed character of the fjord sometimes creates localised whirlwinds in which dramatic waterspouts form most frequently off the Vingeneset headland (Thorseth et al. 2001: 61–62; Lødøen pers. comm.). The water in the fjord may appear as an inky black surface, contrasting with the sometimes silvery appearance of Frøysjøen to the west and towards the open sea. Low clouds often envelop and hide the surrounding mountains completely. Sometimes the peaks of the mountains are visible and the lower slopes hidden, or vice versa. Plumes of cloud resembling smoke trails may descend into the Vingen fjord from the east or rise in that direction. Nothing remains the same for long at Vingen. It is an ever-changing place. This is a fundamental part of its mystery and power.
The narrowness of the Vingen fjord and its enclosure by high mountains on three sides have a funneling effect in relation to sound, which becomes amplified within the confines of the fjord. The waterfalls, although relatively small, produce a constant roar. Sound coming from outside the fjord itself carries an extraordinarily long distance, and during a thunderstorm, with lightning in the sky and the sound bouncing between the rocks, Vingen becomes a truly terrifying place.
IMAGES, EXPERIENCE, AND THE BODY
Following the Path of the Deer
The intention in this part of the account is to take the reader on a journey through the major rock carving areas of Vingen, following the lead presented by the most frequent images, the deer, and the dominant direction in which they face, or point, or appear to be moving. The likely path begins at the Vingeneset headland on the northern side of the fjord, leads us to the Elva carvings at the far eastern end of the Vingen rock carving area, turns to the west on the great rock of Nedste Laegda, dominated by scythe imagery, continues west along the Vingen terrace via the pond, and ends at Vehammaren at the far western end (Figures 2.1, 2.3).
Vingeneset
Vingeneset is a small, boulder-strewn headland which juts out into the Frøysjøen at the western end of the Vingen fjord on its northern side. The headland appears prominent from the main Vingen rock carving area, about 700 m distant. Above and to the east of it the barren, treeless, smooth, and boulder-free cliffs of Tussurfjellet rise up dramatically. This is an utter contrast with the boulder-strewn headland. The effect is to make Vingeneset appear as if it should not be there at all: a rocky nose stuck at the end of the mountain as an afterthought. From a distance it appears to be an accumulation of scree and boulders, fallen from the mountain and forming the headland, but actually it is a combination of outcropping rocks and fallen boulders (Figure 2.5). The headland only appears pointed and prominent from Vingen itself. From elsewhere in the landscape, whether seen from water or land, it appears insignificant. It is thus a place meant to be seen from Vingen, and from much of Vingeneset the whole of Vingen can also be seen.
FIGURE 2.5. Vingeneset seen across the Vingen fjord from the entrance to the Hellaren cave towards the eastern end of the Vingen terrace. The Bakke stone is in the centre of the picture next to the fjord. The flags mark the positions of the Mesolithic houses nos. 1–4 (see Figure 2.3).
Vingeneset is the only known area with rock carvings on the northern side of the fjord. While the sheer lower cliffs of Tussurfjellet, plunging down into the depths of the Vingen fjord to the east, might have been carved, they were left untouched. Vingeneset has fourteen recorded carving surfaces. These form a rough band about 300 m long running diagonally northwest to southeast across the headland, rather than parallel to the shoreline as seen from Vingen itself. Taken together, these rocks constitute the longest linear sequence in the Vingen rock carving area. The majority of the carved rock surfaces are separated from each other by only 10 m or less, but there are also three significant gaps between rocks where carvings along the sequence are between 50 and 100 m apart. The carvings consist almost exclusively of images of deer (about 59 images, or 90% of the total). Apart from these there is one small whale depiction, two or three human images, at least four hooks, a small ring, an oval geometric design (suggested to be a human vulva), and carved lines which are in all probability remains of further animals.
All the carved rocks are the lower exposed rock outcrops of the Tussurfjellet itself. Above and below these rocks there is a massive conglomeritic boulder field of a much rougher and broken character. None of these boulders have any carvings on them, despite the fact that they may be directly adjacent to or interspersed with carved rock surfaces. Vingeneset thus presents two main contrasts: (1) between the mountain and the headland itself; and (2) between the conglomerate boulder fields and the smooth rock exposures with carvings, which are of the same rock and have the same character as Tussurfjellet rising above them. The conglomerate boulders here constitute an alien stone in the Vingen rock carving area which are avoided and left unmarked by images.
Even though the rocks form a rough northwest-to-southeast sequence, movement from one decorated rock exposure to another is neither obvious nor predictable. Finding and encountering the carved surfaces elicits surprise as one moves between one and the next. This is partly due to the variable distances between carved surfaces. Also, the carvings occur on a variety of different rock surfaces—some concave, some convex, some inclined upwards at an angle of 45 degrees or more, others almost flat exposures. And even though straight-line distances between many of the carved panels are short, most are not intervisible. And finally, moving between the carvings requires negotiating a passage between huge conglomeritic boulders and moving up, down, and across the rock exposures and boulder fields at different heights.
The individual carved panels are relatively small, usually quite low down on steeply inclined rock surfaces, and constitute single visual fields requiring one to move only the head to see all the images from the bottom of the rocks. One either looks down on the designs below, or they are at eye level, or just above. Viewing these carved panels thus does not require clambering up and over the rocks themselves or walking across engraved rocks between separate images. Almost all these images occur on south-facing rocks, and one looks to the north in order to see them, with one’s back to the Vingen fjord. A few of the rocks in the middle of the sequence are very low and situated on the margins of a hollow with a peat bog. It is here that the human images occur.
Hornelen is hidden from all but a few of the carved panels at the southeastern end of the sequence but is visually dominant on the skyline beyond from those at the northwest end. The Vingen rock carving area itself is out of view from the northwest end of the sequence but comes into view as one moves southeast at a point beyond which the Hornelen summit is either invisible or no longer visibly dominant from the carved panels.
The animal images on Vingeneset are all different. There are no two identical depictions. They are all highly individualised, differing markedly in size and internal body decoration. There may be as much, if not more, differentiation among the animals depicted on one panel and those on another. However, there is a strong unifying aspect that links the individual images together. All the animals, with only a couple of small and much more schematic exceptions, are depicted so as to face in the same direction: towards the east and the Vingen fjord itself. These are lively images of animals in movement, most with strongly curved backs, front legs thrust forwards, and back legs either straight or also thrust backwards (Figure 2.6). This strong sense of inland eastern movement is complemented by the solitary whale design at the far northwestern end of the carved panels, which also appears to be in vigorous movement facing east towards the Vingen fjord. This whale figure effectively marks the point at which the Vingen fjord ends and is the most westerly of all designs in the Vingen rock carving area itself.
FIGURE 2.6. Deer image on carving surface 10, Vingeneset.
The deer are depicted, as elsewhere in Vingen, in small groups of up to nine or ten individuals. On individual panels different animals are of roughly the same size, and single animals are not visually dominant. However, the largest animals, including the largest deer depiction in the entire Vingen rock carving area, occur at the southeastern end of the sequence on the largest single rock exposure and closest to Vingen itself (Figure 2.7).
FIGURE 2.7. The largest deer (2 m long) in the Vingen rock carving area on carving surface 4, Vingeneset. Chalked in. It is now covered for conservation. Source: Thorseth et al. 2001: fig. 3.1.
Elva
The rock carvings at Elva, together with those at Nedste Laegda, are at the far eastern end of the Vingen rock carving area and some 1.3 km east of those at Vingeneset. Together these are the most remote localities in the Vingen rock carving area. The Elva rock carvings are located on a steep, south-facing rock slope that is today above a waterfall and a stream (Figure 2.8). They are found in two main groups. The western group of carvings are found low down the rock face immediately above the stream that now flows below them. In the late Mesolithic, this area would have been a small cove at the far eastern end of the Vingen fjord, and seawater would have lapped near to the bottom of the rock with the carvings. An observer can look across at the images on this panel from below them. The sheer rock rising up steeply beyond blocks out any view of the surrounding landscape to the north and the top of Tussurfjellet. Sound is a very important part of the sensory experience of these carvings, with the roar of the waterfall plunging down the mountainside to the east and another waterfall behind plunging down the rock slope of Nedste Laegda to the sea.
FIGURE 2.8. Looking towards the sheer rock carving surfaces at Elva from the west.
The western group of carvings are on a panel about 11 m long and consist of eleven deer images, all facing east, apart from one at the far western end which faces west (Hallström 1938: pl. XXIV; Bøe 1932: fig. 23, nos. 647–57). These animals are stylistically very similar to those on Vingeneset. They face in the same direction and appear to be in vigorous movement—inland and up besides the waterfall to the mountaintop beyond. Again there is a high degree of individuation in these deer depictions in terms of internal body markings. Beyond these there are another twelve or so indistinct deer depictions, again facing east and shown in vigorous movement (Bøe 1932: fig. 23: nos. 658–710).
The main eastern group of carvings occur on a panel about 25 m distant, covering an area 16 m long. They run obliquely across the rock face, which is about 18 m high. The lower carvings can be reached by means of moving along a small ledge on the rock face. Others higher up are extremely difficult to reach because of the sheerness of the rock, which is smooth and unbroken apart from minor cracks and small protusions. To reach (or to have made) these carvings requires being suspended from a rope above and abseiling down the rock face above the thundering waterfall, which forms a narrow gorge along a fault line below them. The danger and difficulty of such an effort appears to be the whole point of this rock surface at Elva: a feat of courage, dexterity, and technical skill that would only be possible for the young and the fit. Farther east and higher up the mountainside by the waterfall there are perfectly good and much more accessible rock panels which were left uncarved. Above these carvings the barren mountainside rises steeply, with huge, sheer slopes free of boulders and scree, and other areas above and below with broken rock outcrops and huge boulder fields. This is an aweinspiring space dwarfing humanity.
Hallström (1938: pl. XXXVI) and Bøe (1932: fig. 24) record around 50 animals here. These run diagonally up the rock face in four diffuse groups of between ten and fifteen animals (Figure 2.9). Stylistically they are all very similar to those in the western group at Elva and the carvings on Vingeneset. All but a few of the deer face east and are displayed in vigorous movement. The flex of the back and the outward stretch of the legs are derived from a close observation of the manner in which deer move, bounding and leaping when frightened and in flight.
FIGURE 2.9. Deer on part of the eastern and higher rock carving surface at Elva. After Hallström 1938: pl. XXXVI.
To the south of the Elva deer carvings, another group of images occur which are utterly distinct, consisting almost exclusively of ‘scythe’ depictions. Hallström remarks that ‘the differing locations … are remarkable. The former [Elva] down by the river bed and on a surface sloping steeply southwards, the other [Nedste Laegda] way up on the steep ridge on a surface sloping faintly northward. Perhaps the definite difference also in the contents of these carvings may have something to do with their different locations—or the other way round’ (Hallström 1938: 437).
Approaching these rocks from the Elva carvings requires crossing over the deeply incised streambed and climbing a steep rock face to the south. The carvings are found across the top and northern slopes of a rounded ridge running east–west down towards the Vingen farm and terrace. They cover an area of about 23 m long by 12 m wide (Hallstrøm 1938: pl. XXXVII; Bøe 1932: 548–646). This is by far the highest rock exposure with carvings in the Vingen area, and from here there are extensive views to the west along the Vingen terrace, with the northern face of Hammaren visible in the far distance.
The carvings are dispersed over a large rock exposure that has deeper and larger glacial striations running across it than anywhere else at Vingen. In places these form short, shallow, hanging grooves 2–3 m long across the rock surface, open to the north, somewhat reminiscent of those found in the rocks at Norrköping (see Chapter 3) but much more weakly defined. To the east of the carved rock, a waterfall runs down the mountainside and then turns to flow west through a channel on the southern side of the rock. It then turns again and flows north, plunging down to join the stream flowing down the mountain to the north of the rock and separating it from the Elva carvings. The carving area is thus bounded by running water on three sides—to the north, south, and west—and by the steeply rising mountain slopes to the east. Standing on the carved rock you can gaze northwards across the stream and waterfall to look down and across at the western and eastern groups of carvings at Elva.
There are at least nine different groups of ‘scythe’ depictions at Nedste Laegda, with a total number of some 92 images (Figure 2.10). The rock areas with carvings are all intervisible, but in order to see the individual images one must move across and around the rock. Some of the ‘scythes’ are orientated towards the west, some to the east, others to the north and the south. In addition to the ‘scythes’, there are at least six deer. These are markedly different in form from those at Elva; all but one isolated example (which is 11 m to the east of the ‘scythes’ and not associated with them) are scooped out from the rock surface, rather than pecked in outline, in keeping with the depictions of the ‘scythes’. All these animals are again depicted in vigorous movement. All but one face west or outwards from the Vingen fjord.
FIGURE 2.10. Scythe and deer images on part of the Nedste Laegda rock carving area. After Hallström 1938: pl. XXXVII.
All the animals appear right side up when looking at them from the south. By contrast, seeing the ‘scythes’ right side up requires much more complex body movement. Entering into the image fields and looking down on the images engraved into the rock below requires either movement from west to east across the slope, or to the north downslope or to the south upslope, or circular motion around particular groups of the ‘scythe’ images. In comparison, the Elva carvings, though they require one to climb up to them or swing down from ropes to see them from above, nevertheless have a consistent and simple orientation. By contrast, the ‘scythe’ images at Nedste Laegda require a ‘placial’ dance around and across the rock. They release the body from a fixed gaze and set it in motion. This rock surface contrasts with all others at Vingen in terms of requiring such a complex series of movements and encounters, and this is primarily on account of the particular form and spatial orientation of the ‘scythe’ images. Nedste Laegda was the dancing rock of Vingen, set high above the fjord and affording views across and down the terrace below to the west and across to Vingeneset.
It is worth noting that both the Elva and the Nedste Laegda carvings occur at the far eastern end of the Vingen rock carving area. Both are spatially separated from other major carved rocks and are in a rather secretive and unexpected place where the mountain, deeply incised by fault lines and parallel waterfalls, rears up to the east. This is the way in which one can climb up through the scree slopes and over the rocks out of Vingen to the mountaintop to the east, a land route out of the fjord end. Historically, this was the arduous route over which the sheep, goats, and the cattle of the Vingen farm were led up to the mountaintop for summer grazing.
This is the darkest and gloomiest end of the Vingen fjord, where the early morning sun never shines; yet it may be bathed in the rays of the evening sun during the summer. This is also the place where sound resonates most, bouncing among the steep rocks at the fjord’s end. It is where wind from the west, the predominant direction, funnels up the mountain from the fjord, and where clouds descend from the east, trails of smoke, down into the fjord: special qualities of sound and light.
Urane
Immediately to the west of Nedste Laegda, an enormous boulder field runs across the Vingen terrace and up the slope below the sheer cliffs and scree slopes of the mountainside to the south. This is where the Vingen farm and its boathouses are situated. This mass of stones is composed of irregular stone blocks jumbled and jammed together and varying enormously in size. Smaller stones may be next to massive blocks measuring 5 m or more in length. The whole area is covered with stone and has very little surface vegetation apart from small pockets of blueberry, heather, and grass. Midway up this stone jungle there is a cave-like structure, known as Hellaren (Figure 2.11A). This is composed of an enormous block on the northeast side and a tumble of smaller blocks on the southwest side and to the back. The roof consists of a flattish inclined slab, partly resting on the northeast side and dipping down to the southwest. This forms an irregular space about 2.7 m wide and 3.5 m deep. At the highest point the roof is 1.10 m high. Besides Hellaren, there are numerous other, smaller chamber-like spaces and passages within the tumble of stones midway up the slope.
Within Hellaren itself there are a number of carvings. On the left hand wall of the cave, towards the back, there is an indistinct image that somewhat resembles an anthropomorph. A loose stone, found within the cave and now in the Bergen Museum, has other engravings on it. To the right of the cave entrance there is a narrow passage through the tumble of boulders, and through here it is possible to crawl in and out of the cave space. One of the stones is decorated with a series of pecked lines, making a geometric pattern. Although this image is very fragmentary, its boxlike form may suggest it was intended to be a deer.
The entrance to the cave faces westwards, and from here one can look down across the jumble of stones and along the Vingen terrace as far as the upper part of the Hammaren rock. Below, a cluster of four late Mesolithic house structures is visible (Figure 2.5). The situation of the cave relatively high up the slope provides a spatial awareness of the distribution of the stones below, which is not at all apparent while moving up, along, and through them.
Besides in the cave interior, there are many other decorated stones among the blocks within the Urane area. The carvings may be found on large or very small stone blocks. Some may be carved on one of the shorter sides of a stone, others on the top or upper surface, others on the broad faces. There is a complete lack of uniformity in terms of the size, shape, face or faces, or the character of the blocks that are carved. Similarly, some carved blocks are very close to each other, while others are some considerable distance away. Because of this complete lack of predictability with regard to which stones are carved and their positioning in relation to others, finding all these carvings requires an insider’s intimate knowledge of place. Moreover, the way in which one negotiates passage through this clutter of stones determines how one encounters the different carvings.
FIGURE 2.11. A: View upslope to the ‘cave’ Hellaren in the Urane rock carving area; B: Bøe’s ‘lobster people’ on rock to the left of Hellaren.
It is impossible to move in a straight line through the boulders. One’s body is constantly changing direction in the process of moving around, between, and over the stones. In addition to the larger caves, passages, and hollows between the blocks, there are numerous smaller, hidden spaces and fissures through which it is easy for a foot or a leg to slip and become trapped. This, together with the slipperiness of the stones when they are wet, makes moving through the boulder field extremely hazardous. For example, one of us, stepping backwards to look at a decorated stone, fell through a hole, one leg disappearing almost to the groin. The possibility of serious injury is ever present. Movement through the stones is therefore a necessarily slow, arduous process during which one’s eyes must be constantly trained on the ground. It may require clambering with the hands. To move a short distance takes a long time.
The images on these stones are often fragmentary lines, perhaps unfinished or badly eroded designs. Apart from these, the majority of the images are of deer. These are usually depicted individually, occasionally in pairs. Stylistically they resemble the deer at Vingeneset and Elva, animals with curving backs and outstretched legs and infilled bodies, apparently in movement. The majority have their heads to the right or the west. Only a few face east or in another direction. A smaller number of stones have ‘scythe’ or hook designs. Clearly identifiable depictions of deer do not occur on the same stones as those with scythes or hooks. This separation of these two primary motifs replicates that encountered on the Elva and Nedste Laegda rocks.
Apart from the deer and scythe/hook images, a couple of stones depict people. Seven meters to the northeast of the Hellaren cave entrance there is a fractured slab 2.5 m long, 2 m wide, and 1.5 m high on which there are a series of five human depictions. Bøe suggests that these are ‘lobster people’ (Figure 2.11B). As Hallström points out (1938: 433), the animals at Vingen are exclusively shown in profile whereas human depictions are shown face on. We can perhaps best understand these images as human beings depicted in the form of X-ray images (see the discussion below). This stone is surrounded, on all but the western side, by huge tumbled boulders that effectively enclose the slab.
Bakkane
Bakkane forms part of the Vingen terrace immediately to the west of Urane and is basically a continuation of the latter. Here, however, the area is not so densely covered with boulders. Those that occur are generally smaller and not jumbled up against one another, and there are some large clear and stone-free areas in between. In part this is due to stone clearing undertaken in the recent historical past to create small ‘fields’. The carvings in this area occur on larger blocks and smaller stones, some loose. The carved designs consist, for the most part, of fragmentary deer and a few hooks, usually depicted singly either on the top or the side faces of the stones. A few stones have more than one depiction although on different faces. Two stones in this group are of particular importance.
The Bakke stone is in the northeast of the area, very close to house 3. On the southwest face of this stone, which is 2 m wide, 4.8 m long, and 2m high, there are two human figures at the top and three at the bottom. At least two appear to be phallic. All are executed in a very different style from the lobster humans discussed above, with stick-line bodies and bent or wavy legs and arms (see Figure 2.12A).
FIGURE 2.12. A: Human figures on the Bakke stone. Source: Bøe 1932:nos. 491–93. B:The Kålrabi stone seen from the north. C: Documentation of the bottom part of the stone. After Bøe 1932: Taf. 18.
The Kålrabi stone, or turnip stone, is 10.5 m long, 5 m wide, and 3 m high. The lower part of this stone was covered with soil by the last farmer at Vingen and used to grow turnips—hence its name. Bøe, during his documentation of Vingen, had the lower part uncovered, revealing a series of important carvings. The stone is inclined from the southeast to the northwest, and the majority of the carvings occur on the lower northwest face (Figure 2.12B). This is a rock outcrop, as opposed to a fallen block, and it is surrounded by tumbled blocks on the south, west, and east sides which have tumbled down from a sheer rock face above it. A rough band of other stones with carvings runs up through the Bakkane area to this stone on the northeast side.
On the top part of the stone there are remains of some badly damaged carvings of at least four deer. Below, on the lower part of the stone, there are depictions of at least fourteen deer and five or six human figures. The latter are clustered on the western side of the panel and merge with some of the deer (Figure 2.12C). The deer are of markedly different sizes and have complex internal body decorations. All are depicted facing west. They appear to be more static than the Vingeneset and Elva carvings, and many of those on the blocks in the Urane area do not have the curving backs, although most have their front legs thrust forward. A couple of the human figures here appear more like skeletons than fleshed bodies, and they are depicted in an obviously different style from the carvings in Urane or on the Bakke stone to the south. As usual at Vingen, these human figures are shown facing front rather than in profile. These human depictions are peculiarly static, almost ghost-like in appearance. Standing beneath the stone one can see all these images at once by simply moving the head from left to right or vice versa.
Brattebakken
About 50 m west of the Kålrabi stone there is a major carved panel, Brattebakken. This is in the approximate centre of the Vingen rock carving area, and from it the summit of Hornelen is fully visible. This is the first major carved rock, moving westwards from which the Hornelen summit can be seen. Brattebakken and the Hellaren cave are out of sight from the Kålrabi stone and other carved rocks to the east. The full extent of the stone exposure is almost 30 m long and 11 m broad. The picture field occupies a much smaller part of the central and western part of the stone and extends across an area of 14 m by 8 m. To the south of Brattebakken the land rises up steeply at approximately the same angle as the rock outcrop itself. This area upslope is covered by a huge spread of tumbled boulders, and beyond this the mountain rises steeply in a series of cliff faces. To the north of the stone there is a small gully across the terrace in an area covered with smaller and larger boulders and blocks, now partially cleared to make open areas for grazing.
The images begin at the very bottom of the rock face, which is at an angle of about 45 degrees and has east–west glacial striations and slight grooves running across it, allowing easy movement up and down and across the rock, which is also crossed by a series of minor diagonal cracks. Water flows intermittently across the central part of the carving area, in precisely the area where the largest and most complex images occur, enlivening them.
The principal carvings here (about 120 in total) consist of zigzag and curvilinear lines, geometric arrangements of lines, large numbers of deer, a hook figure, and at least six human figures. Almost all the deer, with only nine exceptions, are depicted with their heads to the west. The deer facing east are all small and, with only a couple of exceptions, are carved in outline and without complex internal body decoration. The largest, most visually dominant and most complex animals all face west.
Three areas with carvings can be distinguished in the central area of the rock (Figure 2.13A–C). At the far western end, about 11 m distant from these, is another panel consisting of a group of at least ten deer all facing west. The principal motif in area A, which is 2.3 m up the slope from the bottom of the rock, is deer, three facing east, the rest to the west. Somewhat isolated from these animals is a striking human figure with bent legs and arms which appears to be a hermaphrodite (Figure 2.14). To the west of this, but extending slightly farther down the rock face, is area B, which contains the largest, most complex, and striking and visually dominant animals. These are all facing west. Two of the deer have human riders facing to the front. These, together with a more ambiguous human figure above, are similar in form to the depictions of humans on the Kålrabi stone (Figure 2.15). The deer depicted here are markedly different in style from those at Vingeneset and Elva. The backs are either straight or only slightly curved, the internal body decoration is much more differentiated and complex, and the necks are more highly elaborated. The front legs are thrust forwards as if in motion, but the back legs are much more static.
FIGURE 2.13. Carvings on the central area of Brattebakken. Source: Bakka, unpublished documentation. Letters refer to different groups of carvings discussed in the text.
FIGURE 2.14. Hermaphrodite human figure in area A (see Figure 2.13A) of Brattebakken.
FIGURE 2.15. Deer riders in area B (see Figure 2.13) of Brattebakken. Source: Bakka 1973: fig. 4.
Below this panel, area C has at least two human figures, one of which is very similar to the human in area A, the other a partial stick-line representation. The deer images are much simpler than those that occur above, and they appear to be peculiarly static compared with those associated with the deer riders above. These occur together with zigzag lines with offsets at right angles and geometric designs.
Standing in front of Brattebakken below area C, most of the images here are visible, along with the group of ten deer at the western end of the rock. To view the images one looks down or straight ahead, except for those farthest up the rock which require an upward movement of the head to see them. However, to see the images in detail one must move up the rock surface and, following the dominant directionality of the animals, move from east to west along the rock. This therefore requires entering into and becoming part of the image fields.
Considering the rock as a whole, small and generally peripheral animals move east, but the dominant directionality is west. At the eastern end of the rock, deer and humans are differentiated. In the centre deer riders are associated with the most complex and striking animals, the largest and most complex of which lead the herd forwards. At the western end humans are absent and the animals are simpler in form. All the deer on this panel are individualised. No two are exactly alike. This is also the case with the human figures. There is a changing progression of humans as one moves up the rock face and from the west to the east. The two lowest humans are stick figures, the uppermost with frog-like legs. The deer riders have internal body differentiation but, unlike the deer, resemble skeletal forms.
The highest human to the east, also with frog legs, appears to be ambiguously sexually marked as hermaphrodite and is spatially separated from the deer. While the deer are depicted in what appear to be close-knit kin groups—with larger and smaller and perhaps older and younger animals, male and female—the human figures are relatively isolated from one another. The two figures most closely related are those riding the deer, one towards the front of the group, the other towards the back.
Leitet
Leitet is a small area with rock outcrops about 40 m west of Brattebakken and, like the latter, is situated immediately below an extensive boulder and scree slope. Here a series of twelve engraved rock outcrops and stones have been documented, with a total of 339 motifs (Lødøen and Mandt in preparation). These fall into two main groups. A group of four north-facing panels occur in the western part of the area. These are all small and constitute single visual fields seen from below and looking across the rocks. These are separated by distances of between 1.5 and 12 m. On the largest engraved panel (Leitet 10), covering an area of about 2 by 2 m, about 26 images occur. Deer dominate, all facing west, except for the lowest animal which faces east. Their complex internal body ornamentation is very similar to that encountered on Brattebakken. In the centre of the panel is one large and striking headless human depiction with curved, frog-like legs and arms which appears to be dancing amidst the deer. This figure is located at the centre of the group of deer, all of which have a striking degree of individuation (Figure 2.16). To the west, 3.5 m away, another panel depicts a human figure of very different form and posture, together with three hooks of similar size. Twelve meters to the east of Leitet 10, another panel depicts another human figure with a strikingly large head, like that of a baby in proportion to the body size, and associated with deer.
FIGURE 2.16. Leitet 10: ‘Frog human’ in the centre of deer images. Source: Mandt and Lødøen 2005.
The eastern group of panels are dominated by hook images; at least 123 images are depicted on eight panels. Only two of these panels depict deer (four and nineteen animals, respectively). These animals are smaller and have much less elaborate internal body decoration than those on Leitet 10, and the majority face to the east. There is a striking degree of superimposition of the hook and the deer motifs. The hooks in groups and rows are depicted in a wide variety of different orientations, encouraging complex patterns of movement in and around the image fields (now unfortunately—from the point of view of this analysis—covered with turf for conservation purposes). Of the eight panels, three also depict human figures. All occur highest up the slope to the south on the margins of the boulders and scree. One human occurs on the southwest face of a loose stone (on which a hook is also depicted); the figure has tentacles rather than a head, short curved legs, and long hanging arms. Leitet 6 depicts a stick-line human in close association with three hooks at the top of the panel, separated from superimposed hook and deer motifs below and a skeletal torso also associated with hooks. Panel 8 has three human images, a stick-line figure, and two striking skeletons. All are closely associated with hooks, and one of the skeletons merges with an upside-down deer motif and is superimposed with hooks (see Figure 2.17).
FIGURE 2.17. Human images and hooks from different areas of Leitet 8. (Above): Skeletal human and stick-line human with ‘frog’ legs. (Below): Skeletal human with superimposed deer and hooks. Source: Lødøen and Mandt n.d.
The pond is located towards the western end of the Vingen terrace, roughly equidistant between the major carved rocks Vehammaren and Hardbakken. The pond is roughly circular in form and about 20 m in diameter (Figure 2.18). It is fed by a waterfall that plunges over the top of the mountain to the south and then cascades over a series of sheer cliffs before disappearing into a dense scree slope to the south and then entering the pond and flowing out into the fjord. The presence of this freshwater pond is a magical part of the experience of place at Vingen. Standing on the southern side of the pond, the peak of Hornelen is mirrored in it (Figure 2.19). If the pond were been slightly farther to the east, this would not occur. It is possible to touch the peak of Hornelen mirrored in the still waters of the pond. From the northern side of the pond, the towering mountainside above the Vingen terrace is mirrored across its surface. From the southwest Tussurfjellet appears. This is the place where the three mountains meet, touch one another, and merge in one place, where the inverted mountain peaks meet the land below, otherwise separate and remote. The Vingen fjord waters, when they occasionally become smooth and glassy, also have such mirroring effects, giving visual substance to the form of the mountains in relation to the fjord’s depth. As the mountain cliffs of Tussurfjellet and Hornelen plunge down into the water, their forms effectively become visible, plunging farther downwards as reflection. The substance of water here becomes rock.
However, the pond is the place where one may touch the mountains from the land. The circular form of the pond allows movement around its perimeter, and the sight of the mountain world within it becomes transformed and brought closer. The pond, in effect, fuses together the three most striking and significant elements of Vingen as a place: the enclosing towering mountains to the north and to the south, and the sacred peak of Hornelen. The pond, unlike the fjord, provides a permanent mirror of the mountains when the weather is clear, allowing contact with the peak of Hornelen mirrored in its surface.
In brief dry spells during the summer, when the pond is no longer being filled from the cascading waterfall above, it may almost dry out. Below the water there is a mass of rounded stones and boulders. The pond and its stones have never been excavated or more than superficially examined. If there is a place at Vingen where we might expect to find votive offerings, this is surely it. Nearly everywhere around and in the pond, carvings have been found on loose stones. Some have undoubtedly been brought there in recent historical times in order to clear the land for pasture. Others may originally have been carved in situ. Rock outcrops to the west of the pond and to its north are also decorated. Some of these rocks too are mirrored in the pond’s surface, but none are large or complex panels. The images carved on these loose boulders and irregular rock outcrops around the pond include hook or stave designs, usually single but sometimes in pairs or small groups, and deer, again usually single but sometimes in small groups. Almost all are orientated to the east. All the deer depictions are small in size, about 10–20 cm long. For the most part they are rather schematic in form and lack complex internal body decoration. The hook/stave designs and the animals are almost always carved on different stones. They are only occasionally directly associated with each other on the same carved panel. The deer are depicted in a variety of different forms. Some are carved in outline without any internal body decoration. Others have simple straight, diagonal, or crisscross lines. A few are entirely pecked out of the rock. The majority with straight front and back legs appear peculiarly static. Only a few appear to be in motion. As in the great boulder fields of the Urane area to the east, there is an unpredictability here in terms of the sizes and types of stones or rock outcrops on which carvings occur and which sides or faces of the stones were chosen.
FIGURE 2.18. The pond seen from Vehammaren to the southwest looking across the Vingen terrace.
FIGURE 2.19. Hornelen reflected in the Vingen pond.
Hardbakken North
The great rock, Hardbakken, is situated about 20 m north of the pond. It is about 50 m long, its long axis orientated west–east. The northern face of this rock is huge, slopes down at an angle of about 45 degrees for about 8.5 m, and appears most impressive from the Vingen fjord (Figure 2.20). In the late Mesolithic the fjord waters would have lapped around its western end. The rock face has a series of glacial striations running along it from east to west, forming in place a series of parallel, shallow grooves up to 10 cm in width, along which it is possible to move horizontally along the rock face, or to climb up it. The rock face is also subdivided at irregular intervals by a series of minor and larger cracks, which run diagonally down it from the south–southwest to the north–northeast. The 128 carved images are dispersed along the northern rock face for a distance of about 35 m from the eastern end. The western end of the rock is very shattered and broken, and no carvings have been found here. Apart from deer, which make up the overwhelming majority of the carvings, five humans, one oval, and eight hook/scythes have been recorded. All but one of the humans are in peripheral positions, low down on the rock, four at the western end. All the hooks are closely associated with deer and overlap or merge with them. There are a few minor deer images low down near the bottom of the rock, but the majority form two east–west dispersed bands: a lower band visible standing at the base of the rock, and an upper one to which one must climb. Viewing these images necessitates both vertical movement up the rock face and east–west movement along it.
FIGURE 2.20. The north face of Hardbakken seen from the east, looking along the Vingen fjord. The north face of Vehammaren is beyond, and house 7 is marked by the flag in the foreground.
The deer occur in a wide variety of different styles and postures. They are usually depicted either on their own or in groups of two to four animals. The majority face towards the west or right, but a few face east. There are two larger groups of deer. One is in the middle of the rock towards the western end of the carved area. This is the largest and most elaborate group of animals with the most complex internal body decoration, similar in style to the largest animals on Brattebakken. These are associated with hook designs pointing both west and east (Figure 2.21). One of the deer overlaps with a phallic human ‘frog’ figure with bent arms and legs. Next to it is another partial human figure. The second large group of deer is found near the far eastern end of the rock face towards the top. This consists of at least nine fragmentary animals with their heads to the east.
FIGURE 2.21. Deer and hook images towards the western end of the carved area of Hardbakken.
Apart from the images already mentioned, another two frog-like humans occur low down the rock surface at the far western end, associated with two deer whose heads face west. About 8.5 m from the western end, three hooks facing west and one hook facing east are associated with a central west-facing deer.
One of the surprising features of Hardbakken North is the relative paucity of carvings and their scattered dispersion across the rock surface, with large areas left uncarved. Another is the close association of hook/scythe and animal carvings on some areas of the rock surface, motifs that are usually separated.
Hardbakken South
The grassy land surface below Hardbakken dips down to the west, and the back or south face of Hardbakken is exposed over a distance of 18 m, providing increasingly large panels on which images are carved. To the east of this area, only the very top of the stone is exposed, and Hardbakken lacks a back surface. The stone is laterally divided by cracks forming a series of distinct image fields which are all meant to be viewed standing in front of the stone on the southern side. Hornelen is visible along the whole of Hardbakken, but while one must stand with one’s back to the mountain to view the images on the northern face, one faces the mountain on the southern side.
The sequence of 34 images—all of which are of deer, except for a couple of small and faint hook/scythe designs and a spiral (documented by Bakka but not seen by us)—starts at the far western end with a striking panel depicting around eleven deer, many of which are fragmentary and all but one of which face east. Here the second largest deer depicted at Vingen occurs; about 1.3 m long, it is deeply incised and has complex internal body and neck ornamentation (Figure 2.22). It contrasts with the other animals on this rock, which lack internal body decoration and are smaller and much more fragmentary. This panel employs a range of scales and styles. The large central deer has bent legs but is not depicted in vigorous motion (Figure 2.22). Immediately above this panel and to the east, another small animal faces west. Another small deer is depicted on a rectangular panel facing west, 5 m from the western end of the rock. Above this a few more small and fragmentary animals face east. Beyond there are fragmentary lines and remains of another animal moving east. At 13 m from the western end, the ground surface has risen alongside the rock. This allows an observer to look down over the top of the rock and see the fjord beyond. At this point there are a group of at least six animals facing east. At 16 m from the western end, the ground surface has almost risen to the same level as the top of the stone, allowing the viewer to look down onto the top of the stone upon which is a complex scene of at least eleven deer, all facing east. These images are defined in outline for the most part; only some have vertical internal body decoration. Just over the crest of the top of the stone are two further deer images, facing west, but these are part of the north-facing slope and as such are upside down and meant to be seen from the northern side. These two groups of animals in close proximity but inverted in terms of their positioning on the rock announce the switch in viewing directionality. It is at this point that the south side of Hardbakken expires and the massive extent of the northern face first becomes evident. Moving farther east along the top of the rock exposure, a series of images can be seen below, all upside down. On the very top of the rock and situated above the large group of deer images at the western end of the northern face of Hardbakken, there is an isolated and arresting skeletal human image, head to the east (Figure 2.23). Another very similar human image occurs on the south side of an isolated stone block situated 3.5 m to the south of the far western end of Hardbakken.
FIGURE 2.22. Large deer image at the western end of Hardbakken South. Vingeneset and Hornelen are visible across the Vingen fjord.
FIGURE 2.23. Chalked skeletal human image on the top of Hardbakken.
Beyond the point at which Hardbakken loses its southern face, there are a series of three roughly parallel lines of rocks which outcrop to the south of it and to the north of the pond. Those with animal and scythe/hook images in the immediate vicinity of the pond have already been discussed. There is another carved rock here of particular importance, located immediately to the south of the approximate centre of the north face of Hardbakken. This is a massive rock outcrop on top of which one can stand and look down on the pond. The southern, higher side of this rock is reflected in the pond when one stands on its edge on the western side. Along a smooth north-facing panel of this rock 4.5 m long and 1.3 m high at the highest point, there is a striking series of images: four animals and at least 22 hook designs (Figure 2.24). The largest animal at the eastern end of this panel faces west, its body entirely pecked out. Two more schematic animals at the western end face west too, and another near the top and middle of the panel faces east. Almost all the hooks are orientated to point towards the east. This panel constitutes a single visual field. Nowhere else is there such a massing of hook designs in the entire Vingen carving area, making this panel quite exceptional. It is noteworthy that all these images occur on a small northern face of the stone facing the fjord and that they point east. None occur on the top of this rock outcrop or on its southern, higher face mirrored in the pond.
FIGURE 2.24. Deer and hook images on the stone surface of Teigen 1 immediately to the south of Hardbakken. Source: Bøe 1932: nos. 405–35.
Moving farther to the east there are a series of 22 carved rocks and stones. The design fields are all small, covering areas of outcropping rocks or stones 1 m or less in size. Some of these panels depict both hooks and animals, which may face either east or west; others show only a few animals or hooks in groups. Six humans are also depicted, three in skeletal form; and as at Leitet, most are closely associated with hooks (see discussion below). As is the case in the area around the pond and in the Bakkane and Urane areas of Vingen, it is quite unpredictable which faces of which stones will have carvings on them. An insider’s knowledge is required to find and move between them.
Vehammaren North Face
Vehammaren is an impressive rock exposure about 100 m in length, its long axis orientated east–west, jutting out into the Vingen fjord at its western end. The highest point, on the western part, is about 20 m above sea level. The northern face of the rock slopes down at an angle of 45 degrees and is exposed above present-day ground level for about 16 m at the western end and 12 m at the eastern end. This rock towers over and dwarfs a person standing at its base and is a highly visible landmark when seen from Hornelen and Frøysjoen to the northwest. It is in effect a larger and more dramatic version of Hardbakken (Figure 2.25). The western end of this ridge is divided horizontally by a grass-covered ledge, and above this ledge the rock face is covered with carvings. These run across the rock face from east to west, the outermost figure being only 4 m from the extreme western end of the ridge. The total length of the carvings is about 35 m, and their width up and across the sloping rock surface is about 14 m. Hallström (1938) and Bøe (1932) document around 135 different carvings on the western end of the rock.
FIGURE 2.25. Wayne Bennett on the north face of Vehammaren.
The carvings across the rock face are, for the most part, in clearly defined groups subdivided by vertical or diagonal cracks. Running west–east horizontally across this face are strong glacial striation lines, breaking up the surface somewhat and allowing one to climb up the rock surface more easily. Thus this rock, like so many others at Vingen, has an in-built directionality not only in terms of its overall east–west orientation but also in terms of the micro-topography of its surface in relation to which the carvings conform.
The carvings occur in two main east–west bands running along the rock face. In order to see the lower band of carvings one must move east to west along the terrace and look across and up at the images. The upper band of carvings is almost invisible from below. This is because the rock is inclined at an angle of 45 degrees, and so it slopes back and away from an observer below; to see them requires moving up and across the rock surface from east to west or west to east below them (Figure 2.26). There is an asymmetry here in that the lower band continues along the rock face farther to the west, while the upper band continues farther to the east. In addition, the upper band, for the most part, is relatively narrow, with most of the deer covering only a 1-m wide band of the rock, whereas the animals in the lower band are much more widely dispersed, covering an area up to 3.5 m. The two bands are separated by an uncarved area about 4 m wide.
FIGURE 2.26. Looking along the north face of Vehammaren towards the west.
Effectively, the carvings in the lower band are relatively easy to see and approach from the terrace below, compared with the upper band, which is less accessible. From the top, the rock falls away precipitously. The carvings in the upper band are, with only a few exceptions, situated well below the very top of the rock face, about 5 m down. Movement down the rock face from the top to see these images is very difficult compared with upward movement. The horizontal glacial striations forming a series of closely set ledges and gentle protuberances can be used very effectively as a kind of fragmented ladder for moving up the rock face and along it. Due to the angle of the slope, these ‘steps’ cannot be so readily seen or grasped with either the hands or the feet. Approached from the top, all the images appear upside down, and one cannot view them right side up until one has moved over the image field and turned around (if moving forward down the rock). The most likely way to approach these images may therefore have been from below.
The images in the upper band consist entirely of deer images, all but four of which face to the west. The lower band also consists entirely of deer (all but two of which, at the far western end, face west), except for a bird (?) figure and a human figure at the eastern end. The majority of the deer are small, about 20–30 cm long, and relatively unelaborated in terms of internal body decoration. The only larger animals occur in the lower band. All these deer, compared with those depicted elsewhere at Vingen, appear strikingly static, with straight front and back legs. Only a few with curving front legs might be described as in motion, but even in these cases it is interesting to note that the legs curve backwards. They are not thrust forwards in the style of the depictions at Vingeneset, Elva, Brattebakken, and elsewhere. On this, the most westerly carved rock in the main Vingen rock carving area, the motion of the deer appears as arrested (Figure 2.27). As elsewhere, the deer are depicted in groups of variable size, between two to ten animals in the upper band of carvings. In a few cases, larger and more elaborate animals are depicted in the front of the groups.
FIGURE 2.27. Part of the upper group of deer images running along the upper part of the north face of Vehammaren. After Hallström 1938:pl. XLI.
Farther to the east there are other groups of carvings on the north, or front, face of Hammaren. These occur much lower down the rock surface and again run in clearly defined east–west bands across it. All the 31 identifiable images here are of deer facing west, except in two cases. They can be seen from the bottom of the rock but require east–west movement along it in order to follow the succession. As with the animals farther to the west, these are small and mostly static depictions.
It is possible to walk along the very top of most of the northern face of Vehammaren. Here there are two further isolated panels with carvings, separated from those previously discussed. One is a richly decorated panel 3 m wide and 1.5 m high. The images contrast markedly with those lower down on the main rock exposure. They consist of five deer in motion, with curved backs and front legs thrust forwards and all facing west. The other depicts a series of eight hooks orientated to face east. These occur on a small depression on the very top of the ridge, clearly separated from the deer images below on the northern face. Their hidden presence above the deer images, together with the difference in directional orientation, constitutes a significant contrast.
Bak Vehammaren
In contrast to the almost continuous sequence of deer depictions on the north face of Vehammaren overlooking the Vingen fjord, the depictions on the back of this rock occur on broken and separated rock outcrops, facing both to the south and the north. These occur in three or four parallel but discontinuous and rough east–west bands behind the ridgetop on more or less flat ground and running down a slope to terminate towards the west and by the sea. Immediately to the south of these carvings there is a broad band of tumbled boulders which is sandwiched between braided waterfalls to the west and the east, both of which run through dense scree slopes and fans below the sheer cliffs of the mountain. All these carvings, with the exception of a few minor images such as an isolated oval design, do not occur on the tumbled blocks derived from the mountainside to the south, but are along the southern tilted strata of the Vehammaren rock itself. These dip away at angles of up to 45 degrees but are only exposed for about 1–3 m above ground level. Clearly it was inappropriate to decorate the tumbled boulders in this area, given the enormous symbolic significance of the Vehammaren ridge itself. The tumbled blocks from the mountainside were almost entirely avoided, duplicating the situation on Vingeneset.
Here there are about 150 images in total, only slightly fewer than on the broad northern faces of Vehammaren. These occur on 35 different panels or individual rocks. The vast majority of the images are of deer: about 120 images together with sixteen hooks, five humans, one depiction of a whale, a possible single whale, and dog images, together with indistinct pecked lines. The deer face both to the west and to the east. This, together with the greater variety of kinds of images, clearly differentiates the northern and southern sides of the rock. The front face of Vehammaren presents a relatively coherent and public, certainly monumental visual display. The images on the back of the rock are both discontinuous and varied, and this is reflected in their manner and substance.
While the carvings on the north face of Vehammaren dictate a particular and rather structured pattern of bodily movement from east to west and up and along the rock face, the carved rocks along the back of Vehammaren, by contrast, allow considerable freedom in the sequence in which they are encountered and in bodily movement and posture. On the back or southern side, therefore, there is the possibility of a greater degree of polysemy in terms of the meanings attributed to any particular sequential structure of the images encountered.
The eastern end of this group is marked by a north-facing rock outcrop upon which there are a few carved hooks and lines. To the east of these, the waterfall flowing down to the Vingen pond cuts through the scree. These are, in effect, an outlier of the main sequence of designs on the front face of Hammaren. In order to reach these carvings one must climb up from the Vingen terrace below, up a fissured, sloping, and irregular rock face. From these images one moves west, climbing up a slope between fallen blocks and entering into the space of the boulder field on the south side of Vehammaren (Figure 2.28). The next image occurs on a fallen block 1.9 m high and 1.3 m wide, leaning at an angle of 45 degrees on the back of the Vehammaren outcrop. Here there is an image of a small animal facing west. Moving westwards for 48 m, twisting and turning through large fallen blocks, all undecorated, one arrives at the first major sequence of carved rocks (rocks 14–20) (Figure 2.29). Rock 20 is decorated with three images of hooks, all orientated to the east. One looks down on these images. From this point, a series of other rock faces with images are visible. Moving onwards from here one must start making choices regarding routes between the rocks themselves and the individual north- or south-facing carved panels on them. For example, walking farther west for 5 m one encounters rocks 17 and 18 to the left and right, respectively. Both these rocks have faces to the north and south on which there are carvings.
FIGURE 2.28. Looking east along the higher eastern end of Bak Vehammaren.
FIGURE 2.29. Sketch diagram of the carved panels on Bak Vehammaren and possibilities for movement between panels 20 and 14.
Particular patterns of bodily movement here between the carved panels are determined by improvised decisions to look at designs on particular rocks in sequences that are not self-evident but require subjective choices. The body-subject must decide, for instance, whether to see both faces of the same rock before moving to view another rock, which requires moving forward and turning around, or alternatively, seeing panels facing in the same direction on different rocks. Figure 2.29 shows one way to move between these panels. Here there is an obvious dialectic between, on the one hand, a degree of individual choice and, on the other, the physical positioning of the carvings dictating how it is possible to encounter them. The images on these rocks are of deer pointing either west or east, depicted together with a hook on one of the faces of rock 18.
Rock 14, with 40 figures on its surface, is the largest and most elaborately decorated panel. The rock is 12 m long with a 4-m-wide north-facing surface, 1 m high on the southern side. The northern face of the rock, across the whole of which the images occur, is broken and irregular. At the eastern end images also occur lower down on a broken part of the face. To see the designs requires east–west movement along the base of the rock to the north and between this panel and the front (northern) face of Vehammaren which, despite its close proximity, is invisible. The deer depicted here face both to the west and the east, and a small whale is depicted low down on the rock pointing west. The separate panel measuring 1.2 by 0.9 m on the eastern end of the rock can only be seen up close by standing on the rock itself and leaning backwards against the inclined mass of the main rock itself. Here there are depicted deer which at the western and eastern ends are pointing in different directions. Two humans are depicted centrally in between them. Rocks 9–12 represent a final arrangement of carved panels at the western and highest end of the back of Vehammaren. These are all north-facing panels decorated with deer facing both east and west, and rock 12 has two small stick-line human figures. The remainder of the carved rocks in the sequence are all on south-facing rocks which occur along the sides of a steep gully on the southern and far western end of Vehammaren. Here there are images of deer facing west and east; and on from rock 1, farthest to the west, there are also six hooks/scythes, all but one orientated to the east (Hallström 1938: pl. VI:97). Most of the animals on these rocks are rather small and fragmentary. There are a wide variety of different styles of depiction. Some animals are similar to those on the front face of Vehammaren: rather static and lifeless. Others, with arched backs and front legs thrust forwards, appear in vigorous motion.
Apart from the images on these rock outcrops, there is a huge tumbled block, fallen here from the mountain above and resting on the dipping bedrock of Vehammaren. It is 3.3 m high and 1.5 to 2.6 m wide (Figure 2.30). When pushed hard, the rock tilts slightly. On the western side the block is slightly raised above the underlying bedrock. Remarkably, there are pecked designs concealed underneath this block: two animals and a simple human figure.
FIGURE 2.30. The rocking stone on Bak Vehammaren with concealed carvings beneath it.
Body Kinaesthetics and the Carving Surfaces
It is striking just how different the rocks carved at Vingen are from one another. If, for example, we compare the front (northern) face of Vehammaren and Elva, at the far western and eastern ends of the rock carving area, we find that these are effectively structural inversions of each other both in terms of the choice of rock, the manner in which the images are encountered, and the character of the depictions (virtually all deer in both cases):
| VEHAMMAREN | ELVA |
| North-facing rock | South-facing rock |
| Horizontal imagery | Diagonal/vertical imagery |
| Seawater below | Freshwater below |
| On ridge | Above gorge |
| Deer highest to west | Deer highest to east |
| Deer face west | Deer face east |
| Deer static | Deer in motion |
| Sea at end of carvings | Sea at beginning |
| Moving along the rock | Climbing up the rock |
By contrast, the character of the rocks Vehammaren and Hardbakken, with their front and back faces and the way both are bodily encountered, is almost identical. Here there is repetition in terms of both the character of the rocks and the manner in which movement occurs in relation to the front and back faces: structured with limited choice on the front face, and much more latitude and freedom for moving in different ways along the back. What differs on these rocks is primarily the form and character of the carvings. On Vehammaren there is only a single human figure; five occur on Hardbakken, where a series of hook designs occur, absent from the front (north) face of Vehammaren.
We have seen that the rock carving surfaces at Vingen are constantly changing in character throughout the rock carving area. The main distinctions that can be drawn are the following:
1. Huge rock exposures versus small boulders.
2. Continuous rock faces versus discontinuous panels.
3. High rock faces versus low rock faces.
4. Carvings on outcropping bedrock versus carvings on tumbled boulders.
5. Easily accessible and visible carvings versus carvings hidden in caves and crevices and under boulders.
6. Carvings on north-facing versus south-facing rocks.
7. Carvings associated with the fjord and saltwater versus carvings associated with waterfalls and the pond and freshwater.
Viewing the images on these rocks requires radically different kinds of bodily motion or stasis, as discussed above.
DESIGN FORM
Deer Imagery
We have seen that the depictions of deer at Vingen are stylistically very different from one area to another throughout the rock carving area. Deer images are not only dominant quantitatively throughout the Vingen rock carving area, but include by far the largest, most elaborate, diverse, and complex of the individual images. On one analytical level we can refer to distinctive carving styles in terms of depictions that appear generically similar to each other. These are named after the rock carving areas on which they dominate. Overall, three main different styles of deer imagery can be defined:
The Elva/Vingeneset style (Figures 2.4, 2.6, 2.9).These animals have a strongly arched back and stomach, and a long neck. The back and neckline are continuous. The front legs are thrust forwards, while the back legs are either straight or strongly curved forwards. The entire body is usually internally decorated with straight, curving, or hatched lines, but these are not usually dense. The necks are usually undecorated. Most have two long ears or horns. These animals are the sole type at Elva and are common on the Vingeneset rock panels and in the Urane boulder field below the Hellaren cave. A variant occurs on Nedste Laegda, where entire bodies are pecked out rather than internally decorated.
The Brattebakken/Hardbakken style (Figures 2.4, 2.12C, 2.13B, 2.15, 2.21, 2.22). These animals have a straight or only slightly curved back and stomach and dense and extremely complex internal body ornamentation which may also extend over the entire neck. Parallel, curved, and hatched lines are used to differentiate different parts of the body and the neck. They have two pairs of front and back leg lines. The back legs are straight, and the front legs point forwards. Most possess two long ears or tines. These animals dominate on Brattebakken, Hardbakken, the Kålrabi stone, and Leitet. Some occur on Vingeneset, including the largest deer in the entire Vingen rock carving area (Figure 2.7).
The Vehammaren style (Figure 2.27). These animals have straight or only slightly curved front and back legs. The body is usually either rectangular or only slightly curved. Many have only a single front and back leg line, others have pairs. Some have no internal body decoration. Others have a very simple series of straight, diagonal, curved, or hatched lines. The neck is usually not decorated. The internal body decoration is never intense in the manner of the Brattebakken/Hardbakken style. The back and front parts of the body are sometimes clearly differentiated by the presence/absence of decoration or different types of infill. A very few are pecked out entirely. Some clearly possess antlers. As well as on the front and back of Vehammaren, animals of this style occur on both the front and back faces of Hardbakken, on Brattebakken, in the area around the pond, in the Bakkane area, and on blocks in the Urane boulder field.
Defining such broad style groups at Vingen is an exercise fraught with problems. Some animals cannot be easily classified in terms of any of these groups. Others might be regarded as transitional between one and another. Bøe attempted to define eight different groups (Bøe 1932: 28–31), whereas Hallström (1938: 451–52) has six and Bakka (1975) four (see discussion above). All three men were interested in these questions of style solely in terms of chronology rather than of what such styles, however defined, might mean and what effects they had—which are the very different questions I am interested in addressing. The notion that chronology explains anything, that the manner in which the deer are represented is simply a matter of changing styles over time, is first of all just a presupposition. Second, it tells us precious little about the Vingen rock carvings, their relationship to the very different rocks on which they are carved, or their bodily effects, or their iconographic significance to the people who made, used, and understood them. It is, in fact, a way of avoiding having to address these questions—which is, no doubt, the reason why it has appealed to so many.
It is important to recognize that notwithstanding these very general stylistic similarities and differences outlined above, the individual images of particular animals differ significantly from one another. I have been unable to find any two absolutely identical animals in the Vingen rock carving area. On each rock panel, carved rock face, or carving area, the deer are individuated in a number of different ways. Furthermore, how these animals are individuated is related to the particular style in which they are carved. The primary ways in which they are individuated are as follows:
In terms of size: from about 15 cm to 2 m.
In terms of body posture: angle and degree of curvature of body, neck, and legs.
In terms of numbers of legs.
In terms of sex and/or seasonal indicators: the presence or absence of antlers and ears or tines.
Whether they appear to be in movement or static.
In terms of directionality: which direction they face.
In terms of types and intensity and complexity of internal body decoration.
In terms of whether they occur alone or in groups of different sizes.
The deer are both the same and different: a class of animals (the same) stylistically differentiated across Vingen but nevertheless retaining their individual differences. Although it is unlikely that deer were more important than a seasonal subsistence resource, they nevertheless provided an ideal metaphor for expressing similarities and differences between individuals in relation to social groups and social groups in relation to one another: we are all the same yet we are also different. We have our individual characteristics yet we belong to groups that share commonalities which differ from one another. The spatial positioning of the deer on individual panels (in terms of high/low; front/back; left/right; west/east; centre/periphery) may be more complex expressions of social relationships in terms of social hierarchies, gender, and seasonal movement and migration. At both Brattebakken and Hardbakken the most important and complex of the deer images occupy visually dominant central positions on the rocks. There is a clear hierarchy of images on these rocks. The most important images are precisely those that excite and attract the eye and exert their own visual power. These are the images that take the longest to look at, reflect on, and understand.
It is noteworthy how few of the deer depictions at Vingen show elaborate antlers or tines, and in only a very few cases can it be suggested that both ears and antlers are represented. For example, on the front (north) face of Hardbakken there is only a single animal with a full set of antlers. Unlike the others, it has a bent head and appears to be grazing (Figure 2.4, third row down, farthest to right). Mézec (1989: 15) argues that this suggests the deer are either young or are stags shown after the spring, when the antlers have just been shed but have not yet grown tines. Another simpler, more plausible alternative is that these are depictions of hinds (Mandt 1998; 2001). It is overwhelmingly female deer and their young being represented—more abstractly, a female principle. If we follow such logic from a structuralist line of reasoning, we might then claim that the hooks and scythes at Vingen are complementary male signifiers: deer is to hook as female is to male (see Tilley 1991 for an analysis of this kind in relation to elks and boats at Nämforsen in northern Sweden). Since stags are clearly represented at Vingen, albeit in small numbers, this is not an argument I think it fruitful to pursue. I want to suggest instead that the hooks and scythes have a completely different range of referents as local and regional landscape signifiers (see below).
Many of the deer images are clearly based on close observations of the behavioural repertoire of deer and inspired by them. Red deer are typically gregarious animals living in herds. These typically range in number from four or five, the minimal social unit, to 30 animals. They often move in single file, with the stags at the rear and the biggest stag last of all (Burton 1969: 53). Calves, usually single, are born in June after an eight-month gestation period. The young calf has a dappled coat, but after a few months it acquires the ruddy brown winter coat of the adults, so thick that it provides protection from the worst of storms. Calves usually remain with the hinds for the first couple of years. For much of the year the stags live apart from the hinds and their young. The most notable feature of the stag is his antlers, which begin to grow when the male calf is one year old, from single horns to branching antlers of up to six points in stags over six years old. These are shed in the spring but regrow fully at a prodigious rate by the rutting season in the autumn, when the stags roar loudly and compete for dominance over groups of hinds. Red deer hinds themselves live in groups that are hierarchical in structure, with dominant hinds heavier than subordinate hinds and their offspring more likely to survive the first year. The stags typically leave the hinds and the young while shedding and regrowing their antlers, returning during the rut when they wallow in a mixture of mud and strong scented urine, dressing themselves for the occasion (Prior 1987; Chapman 1991; Clutton-Brock et al. 1982; Buczacki ed. 2002).
There are no scenes of stag fighting, rutting, or copulation at Vingen. What, above all, is being emphasized is the sociability of these animals. While it was obviously only possible to carve one or a few animals on the smaller boulders and panels, the deer are characteristically depicted in small groups everywhere on the larger rock panels and surfaces too. For example, on the higher eastern end of Elva there are four main groups of six to ten or so animals. On Brattebakken there are similarly four main groups or clusters of eight to twelve animals. On the north face of Hardbakken there are two main groups of similar size at the western and eastern ends of the rock. On the front (north) face of Vehammaren there are six groups along the upper part of the rock, each consisting of three to eleven animals. These are clearly separated from each other on the rock both by areas without carvings and by cracks running vertically or diagonally down the rock face. Most of the images below similarly consist of groups of animals of the same size. These all fall perfectly within the normal range of deer group size discussed above. The animals are typically depicted in one or several rows, one behind the other and facing in the same direction. Furthermore, on Vehammaren dominant stags with large branching antlers are sometimes depicted following behind groups of hinds and younger males (Figure 2.27). A similar scene occurs at the eastern end of Brattebakken (Figure 2.13: area A). We know this to be typical of the way deer move.
The sociability of deer, group size, male and female differentiation, dominance structure, the growing and shedding of the stags’ antlers, the blatantly sexual performances and fighting of males at the rut, the wearing of cosmetics—perfume and ‘paint’ by the males—and the fact that most hinds give birth to only a single calf, all provide a strikingly rich analogical domain of metaphorical possibilities to explore and explain the relationship between human individuals and social groups. It is not surprising that there is such a rich body of folklore associated with this animal, both in Britain and Scandinavia.
Mézec has cogently argued that the deer images at Vingen might simultaneously signify (1) deer as individual animals; (2) the herd; and (3) metaphorically the principle of the clan or the social group. The images may all ultimately have to do with the relationship between the individual and the social group (Mézec 1989: 21). The internal body decorations are both stylized and extremely variable. They cannot be readily understood as X-ray images depicting either internal body organs or skeletal parts in the manner of some of the elk carvings from northern Scandinavia (Hagen 1976: 134 ff.). The internal body decoration at Vingen has the primary purpose of differentiating between individual deer and groups of deer, and may thus have a primary totemic, or classificatory, significance as signifiers of different social groups and as statements of individual and group identity. These decorations also enliven or invigorate the animals, clearly differentiating various parts of the animal such as the rear and front quarters, the neck, and the head.
Following the path of the deer images through the Vingen rock carving area suggests an overall narrative theme. At the beginning of the journey, on Vingeneset, and then through Elva, the animals are lively and in full flight. Stylistically the deer are similar from Vingeneset to the depictions encountered in the Urane boulder field. Farther along the Vingen terrace, from east to west, their motion slows. On Brattebakken, in the very middle of the Vingen terrace, the style changes, and the images, while more highly internally decorated and intense, are becoming slower. Human figures riding the deer here indicate their mythic or symbolic taming. The animals on the front of Hardbakken are similar, both in style and in terms of their slowed motion. On Vehammaren the deer mostly appear as static and motionless. Along the top of this rock this arrested motion is further indicated by the fact that the animals here only possess single back and front legs. The narrative is about control and transformation. At the beginning of the journey the east-moving deer are wild and moving freely; by the end of the journey the deer have been symbolically domesticated.
Hook and ‘Scythe’ Images
After deer, hook and ‘scythe’ images are by far the most common motifs at Vingen (Figures 2.10, 2.17, 2.21, 2.24). There are 511 in total, or 32 percent of the total number of identifiable motifs. Bøe describes the hook, or stave, motifs as being like the upper part of a walking stick with the curve at the top. The scythe motifs differ considerably in that the ‘blade’ is considerably wider and longer, while the ‘handle’ may be fairly similar in form. At Vingen, scythes uniquely predominate at Nedste Laegda and occur only sporadically westwards to the pond, where hooks predominate. In some representations, however, the difference between a ‘hook’ and a ‘scythe’ is thoroughly ambiguous: one can see either or both. These ambiguous forms all occur on tumbled blocks and boulders between Urane and the pond. No scythes occur to the west of the pond on the north face of Vehammaren or on Vingeneset.
These hook and scythe-like images are almost completely unique in the entire distribution of Norwegian prehistoric rock art, apart from the presence of a possible single motif of similar form at the Ausevik rock carving locality also on the west coast of Norway, 30 km south ofVingen (Figure 2.1; Hagen 1969: locality VI: no. 224, p. 39). Other than this single image from Ausevik, somewhat similar scythe or hook-like designs are documented elsewhere at the large Nämforsen rock carving locality in northern Sweden, but here fewer than 40 examples are known (Hallström 1938: 454; 1960; Hagen 1976: 99).
These are the only images at Vingen that might be interpreted as representing artefacts. Bøe (1932: 36) regarded these motifs as representations of tools or weapons used during hunting, suggesting a general resemblance between these designs and the form of hafted picks or axes. What possible practical use they might actually have had in the context of the hunt remains obscure. Hallström, by contrast, suggests they may have had a ceremonial function. He notes that the blades of the scythes are similar in shape to the bodies of animals on Nedste Laegda and that a few of them appear to have ear-like protrusions. It is also noteworthy that hooks and scythes are depicted overlapping or merging with deer—for instance, on the north face of Hardbakken. They are never held by humans, and there are only rare cases of overlap or superimposition with human figures, such as at Leitet (Figure 2.17). On the basis of analogies with images of elk heads on poles found at Nämforsen, he interprets them as stylized animal heads on poles (Hallström 1938: 454).
It appears most likely that these hooks and scythes represent ceremonial staffs of different kinds. These are likely to have been made of organic materials that have left no trace in archaeological contexts in western Norway’s very acidic soils. Hallström’s argument that they represent stylized animal heads on poles requires our accepting the presence of extremely stylized motifs in the context of a rock carving locality where otherwise iconic or representational images, many very naturalistic in style, completely dominate.
There may be another, somewhat more compelling, interpretation of these motifs. The rock where the scythe images completely dominate, to the virtual exclusion of all others, Nedste Laegda, is the highest rock carving area at Vingen. It affords a fantastic view down the fjord to the west. When the fjord waters are calm, scythe blade and hook-like forms appear as darker and stiller patches of water within the Vingen fjord as a result of the confluence of currents and the shape of the fjord itself (Figure 2.31). These must have been observed in the past, as they can be today. Not only is this the case, but just west of Hornelen on Bremanger Island there are two fjords—Berlepollen, almost 6 km long, and Dalevatnet, 4.5 km long—which are almost perfectly shaped in the form of scythe blades (see Figure 2.1). Their scythe-like forms are readily apparent when seen from the mountains above them. Such scythe-shaped fjords occur nowhere else in the vicinity of Vingen and indeed are most unusual elsewhere in this area of western Norway. This, together with the fact that both are found on Bremanger Island only a short distance away from the sacred mountain and from Vingen itself, gives them added significance. The ‘blades’ of these fjords are orientated in quite different directions. Dalevatnet points towards the east, whereas Berlepollen swings round and points north. This great difference in the orientation of the fjord ‘scythes’ finds its counterpart at Vingen in the images at Nedste Laegda, where the scythe blades are also orientated in opposing directions (see Figure 2.10).
FIGURE 2.31. Scythe image appearing in the waters of the Vingen fjord.
We can suggest, therefore, that these motifs were powerful metaphors of place and identity. Vingen was occupied by people who not only lived in the shadow of the sacred mountain, Hornelen, but they also identified themselves and their relationship to place and landscape in relation to the scythe-shaped fjords sharing the same island as Hornelen. This perhaps suggests that Bremanger Island itself was considered a sacred island to the local populations of hunter-fisher-gatherers, containing as it does both Hornelen and the scythe-shaped fjords. There is little doubt that the populations at Vingen would have had an intimate knowledge of the forms of the fjords in the surrounding area and would have traveled along them and seen them from the mountains above. What more powerful way could one express one’s relationship to place than to carve these images that could also be observed, in a magical way, appearing in the waters of the Vingen fjord itself?
If the scythes are material metaphors for Dalevatnet and Berlepollen, what of the simpler hook forms at Vingen? One possible explanation might be to suggest that they are stylized representations of the same thing; but to attempt such an explanation would be to ignore the specificity of their form in precisely the same manner as Hallström’s argument that they might represent stylized animal heads. Again, another possibility, closer to home, can be suggested. Approached from the north, the journey to the Vingen fjord takes on a hook-shaped form. The end of the hook is the Vingen fjord pointing east, with its ‘handle’ running up through the waters east of Marøya Island towards Skatestraumen (see Figure 2.1). Most of the hooks carved on the rocks at Vingen are similarly orientated to point east. For example, all the eight hooks hidden away on the very top of the north face of Vehammaren point east. All but two of the 22 hooks depicted together on the single rock behind Hardbakken and near to the pond face east (see Figure 2.24 and the discussion above), as do the majority on the other rock outcrops and tumbled boulders between the pond and Urane.
The argument being put forward is that both the hook and the scythes are metaphors for journeying, social identity, place, and landscape—for Vingen as a special place in the context of a wider landscape of fjords and mountains, and for Bremanger Island in particular. These images may have multiple meanings, such as:
Representations of actual ceremonial staffs.
Landscape signifiers: scythe- and hook-shaped fjords.
Expressions of sea journeys through the landscape to Vingen in the shape of the scythe and the hook. People approaching Vingen from the shores of Skatestraumen would have a hook-like journey to this place as opposed to the scythe-like journey down the extraordinary Berlepollen and Dalevatnet fjords. Another less likely possibility is that the collapsed part of the Hornelen summit may originally have had a rock overhang giving it originally the form of a hook.
Human Images at Vingen
Human images are the third most common type of motif at Vingen. Viste (2003) registers 68 certain or possible human depictions. Discounting the more uncertain examples, there are around 60. Humans are never depicted in profile, and none at Vingen hold tools or weapons of any kind. While the animals, all shown in profile, have a strong sense of directionality, facing or moving in a particular direction, this feature is strikingly absent in the human figures. What appears to be important about them is that they face towards an observer, thus establishing a more intimate relation. The deer, by contrast, never look towards human beings. Rather, they are being observed. The human figures are, in many cases, very closely associated with deer but not with the scythe and hook images. Some of these human images are strikingly different from one part of the rock carving area to another. They are absent from the major carved rocks farthest to the east, Elva and Nedste Laegda, but occur in variable frequencies throughout the rest of Vingen. Four main types of human representations occur at Vingen:
Simple stick-line images carved with a single line. These occur on Vehammaren, Bak Vehammaren, Hardbakken North, Brattebakken, and on panels in the Leitet and Teigen areas; only one might be described as having a phallus. Those on Hardbakken and Teigen lack heads and sometimes arms. These images appear strikingly static. They occur either on their own or are depicted in close association with deer and hooks, with little or no merging or superimposition. They never occur in groups or pairs (see Figure 2.17).
Images with bent or curving frog-like legs and curved hanging arms or long, bent, and wavy outstretched arms. These may be carved either with single or double lines. They are the most common type of design occurring on Bak Vehammaren, Brattebakken, Hardbakken North, Leitet, Teigen, Urane, and Bakkane. Some are clearly phallic, and at least one at the eastern end of Brattebakken may be hermaphrodite (see Figures 2.13, 2.14, 2.16). Some have relatively large rounded heads, while others lack heads altogether. These humans occur either as single depictions or in pairs, while five are depicted together on the Bakke stone (Figure 2.12A). Most are closely associated with deer. On Hardbakken North two humans of this form merge or are superimposed with deer. On Leitet 10 one striking figure is surrounded by deer (Figure 2.16).
Skeletalised representations of humans. These occur on the top of Hardbakken and on panels in Storåkern, Teigen, and Leitet (Figures 2.17, 2.23). The ribs are emphasized on some, together with the vertebrae on others. Two of these images at Leitet are particularly naturalistic in form. All except the two images on Hardbakken and Storåkern are closely associated with hooks that merge with, or are superimposed on, the skeletal forms. There is only one case (Leitet 8) where such a skeletalised figure merges with a deer. These images occur singly or in pairs. On Leitet 8 one is closely positioned near a stick-line human (see Figure 2.17).
Human representations with enlarged torsos. These occur on Vingeneset, Urane, Brattebakken, and on the Kålrabi stone in the Bakkane area and are carved in a wide variety of forms (see Figures 2.11B, 2.12C, 2.15). Some appear to represent fleshed bodies with the bones revealed beneath in an X-ray style. In other cases the internal body patterning is somewhat analogous to the manner in which some of the more elaborately decorated deer are depicted. They occur in groups of up to five and are closely associated with deer rather than hooks; they are superimposed in relation to the deer on the Kålrabi stone, and as deer riders on Brattebakken, where they also occur on the same panel but are spatially separated from stick-line and frog-leg human depictions, some with enlarged torsos with internal divisions. A few of these appear like fish skeletons; others resemble human skeletons. The torso, with internal body divisions representing ribs, is represented in at least fifteen cases. Bøe (1932: 38) identifies some of the human figures at Vingen, those on the Kålrabi stone, as being female and other oval-shaped geometric depictions elsewhere as suggesting a vulva. Bakka (1973: 137) similarly identifies the figures on the Kålrabi stone as female and finds further ‘vulvas’ depicted on Brattebakken and elsewhere (ibid.: 139). He also suggests that on Brattebakken a sexual union between a human and a deer is depicted. Mandt suggests that possibly some places at Vingen were reserved for women and their activities (Mandt 1995: 283). However, only a small minority of any of these figures can be identified as either male or female, while a few might be understood as hermaphrodite (Mandt 2001: 303). States of human transformation rather than gender relations appear to be the dominant theme.
The juxtaposition or superimposition of these human figures with deer shows an intimate association between the two, both in life and in death. Some of these human figures with torsos can be understood as X-ray depictions in which we see the bones (vertebrae and ribs) beneath the flesh. Others are clearly skeletal, with the flesh removed and only the bones remaining. So, while all the deer can be understood as being fleshy, living beings, the human depictions portray various states of bodily transformation between life and death. Almost all these skeletal images occur in what might be termed the ‘back spaces’ of Vingen. They do not occur on the front faces of the great Vehammaren and Hardbakken rocks closest to the fjord. Here the humans with frog legs are represented. The skeletal representations occur among the huge tumbled rocks in the Urane boulder field, on the top and behind Hardbakken near to the pond, and on the important carved stones situated to the far south and on the margins of the Vingen terrace, on the Kålrabi stone, Brattebakken, and Leitet, or away across the fjord on Vingeneset. We might understand these representations and their location as suggesting that Vingen was not only an important arena for rites and ceremonies for the living, but that more specifically, it was a place connected with death rites, perhaps involving the defleshing of bodies and the deposition of the bones in Hellaren and the other chambers and crevices found in the Urane boulder field. We see the human beings in various metamorphosed states from life to death and the common link between the living and the dead with the deer who fed both the living and the souls of the dead. The association of hooks with the skeletal images without enlarged torsos is of special interest in terms of a metaphorical theme of journeying from life to death.
The notion of metamorphosis from one state to another can be suggested to link the skeletal depictions with the human figures with bent frog-like legs. There are frogs everywhere on the Vingen terrace, and they must breed in the freshwater pond between Hardbakken and Vehammaren. In other words, the frogs breed in Hornelen’s mirror. This may suggest that frogs were considered sacred creatures at Vingen—hence their anthropomorphised form, providing powerful metaphors for myths of human origins in a watery existence and their current lifestyle on the land. Frogs were likely living in this area of Norway during the late Mesolithic, and the presence of frog bones might be expected in future excavations. In their life-cycle, these amphibians metamorphose from tadpoles that cannot survive on land to frogs that must breathe the air and cannot survive under the water. Beginning as strictly watery, fish-like beings, they grow into a totally different form and must then live both on the land and in the water. Tadpoles grow limbs while maintaining their embryonic heads. The depiction of human beings with frog-like legs and arms articulated in a particular way, together with a bulbous rounded head, suggests a possible conceptual linkage between a closely observed phenomenon and the lives of humans. The hunter-fisher-gatherers of Vingen similarly depended for their survival on the resources of the land and the water and were people intimately associated with both. The frog thus provides an ideal metaphor for human origins, movement, and transformation between the two domains.
CONCLUSIONS
Why Vingen?
Every place is unique, and so is Vingen. There is no single characteristic that makes Vingen stand out as a location that might be chosen over others for rock carvings in this area of western Norway. Equally suitable rocks exist elsewhere. Hornelen is visible from many other places in the surroundings, a similarly wet microclimate at the end of a fjord enclosed on three sides by steep mountains exists at Svelgen and elsewhere, and so on. It is rather the combination of these elements, together with others, that makes Vingen so special. These are:
The impressive 45-degree sloping ridges of Vehammaren and Hardbakken, both jutting out into the fjord at their western ends: ideal rocks for monumental displays of imagery.
The enclosed character of the Vingen fjord in which most of the surrounding world is shut out.
The view to Hornelen to the northwest in relation to the setting of the midsummer sun.
The particular sound effects of the winds and the waterfalls.
The presence of the pond with its inverted image of Hornelen.
The extreme microclimate.
The existence of the long terrace on the southern side of the fjord.
Vingen is special because of these combined factors. They made it a good place to carve rocks. But what makes Vingen absolutely unique is the particular juxtaposition of vertical and sloping rock exposures and tumbled blocks and boulders with caves and chambers. There is no comparable single rock carving area in Scandinavia in which carvings are found in such a small area and in such a staggeringly diverse range of material contexts. Concomitantly, the bodily postures, movements, and actions required to experience these carvings are more diverse than anywhere else.
Society, Identity, Place
The populations at Skatestraumen and others on Bremanger Island lived and moved directly under Hornelen’s shadow, exploiting the rich fish and fowl resources of the fjords and the deer of the land. Vingen was their ceremonial arena. Here rites took place for the living and the dead, and the carvings were made, used, and seen in connection with these rites. I have argued that these had primarily to do with marking changes of status of individuals within individual clans or social groups. The deer was material metaphor for both the social group and the individual within that group. Society was conceived and displayed through deer imagery. The hooks and scythes were metaphors of social identity in relation to place and landscape, and journeying through that landscape: the scythe-shaped fjords sharing the same island as the sacred mountain, and the Vingen fjord itself. So we have both social signifiers and landscape signifiers.
Public and Private
We can distinguish between two principal types of carving areas at Vingen in terms of front and public spaces and hidden, back, private spaces. The two primary public carving spaces at Vingen are the two great rocks of Hardbakken and Vehammaren. Both are dramatic and monumental in size and situated next to the fjord and remarkably similar to each other in form. Both can be seen from out to sea and from the Hornelen summit. In late Mesolithic times one could literally step ashore from the fjord onto their northern faces. A drama of theatrical deer imagery is being played out on their front or northern faces. Here bodily kinaesthetics are both limited and structured by the positioning and the flow of the images across the broad rock faces. Hidden behind each rock, away from the fjord on the southern side of both, the form, content, and disposition of the images are very different and much more varied. Similarly, possibilities for bodily movement between the carved rocks and panels are much more varied and differentiated. It is no longer obvious where to go or what imagery will be encountered. Situated midway between these two great rocks is the pond, with its powerful inverted image of Hornelen, surrounded with small carvings on smaller and larger boulders and rock outcrops whose locations are unpredictable and would be known only to someone with an intimate insider’s knowledge of the Vingen landscape.
The other major carved rocks along the Vingen terrace to the east—Brattebakken, those at Leitet, and the Kålrabi stone—are all positioned on the far southern side or rear of the terrace. These rocks only have a northern front face or public side but are much smaller and less monumental than Hardbakken and Vehammaren. These might be described as semi-public places. The carvings in the Bakkane area and in the Urane boulder fields are, for the most part, in hidden and fugitive places. The extreme easterly location of the Elva and Nedste Laegda carving areas and those across the fjord at Vingeneset suggests that these were special hidden and reserved locations. None of these are obvious areas in which one might expect to encounter visual imagery. An outsider visiting or being taken to Vingen would no doubt be brought to Hardbakken and Vehammaren to see the public displays of imagery. They might perhaps be taken to see Brattebakken, Leitet, and the Kålrabi stone, but the sheer extent and diversity of the Vingen carvings and the narratives told through them would remain concealed.
The Collective and the Individual
The distinction made above between public and private places for rock carvings at Vingen may further relate to a distinction between the individual and the collective. The great public rocks must have been collectively carved by many different individuals. It seems fairly obvious that the singular or small groups of carvings found on small boulders and rock surfaces around the pond and in the Bakkane and Urane areas must have been the work of individual carvers. People could be identified and distinguished in relation to the stones they carved. These stones were part and parcel of their identity and relationship to place.
While Elva and Nedste Laegda were possibly reserved and special areas at Vingen, these were nevertheless collectively carved and used in ceremonies and rites. We can thus distinguish between public and private carving areas at Vingen, crosscut between a distinction between collective and individual carved rocks. In the most general sense it can be claimed that the major public and collectively carved rocks at Vingen are expressions of social values and beliefs, with people coming together and cooperating to create the images. The carvings on the smaller and larger stones and boulders are the expressions of individuals. This might be regarded as part of a wider narrative about social fusion and fragmentation and about the relationship of the individual to the social group.
Fame and the Powers of Carving
The sheer dexterity and skill with which many of the Vingen carvings, particularly the deer images, were pecked out with a series of blows to create the final image has been noted many times. These are masterpieces of prehistoric art. The act of making them would necessitate great balance on the more precipitous rock faces but would be comparatively easy elsewhere. The old and frail, women who were pregnant, and the very young could never have carved the upper rock surfaces at Elva or at Vehammaren. These must have been the work of younger individuals and represented their prowess. It may be the case that carving such images formed part of initiation rites associated with transformations of social status. The beauty of the finished image, and the sheer achievement in being able to create it at all, brought fame and prestige to the carver who was able to execute it in such a challenging location. The act of creating certain images was a means of attaining status within the social group, in the same manner as prowess might be acquired through hunting.
Field investigations at Vingen have revealed one of the pecking tools, found in an eroding cultural layer next to a rivulet, probably used to create the carvings. This is an elongated stone with a pointed end. The diameter of the point is exactly the same as most of the pecking marks on the Vingen images (Lødøen 2003: 516). The raw material is diabase and comes from the Stakaneset quarry, which was in use during both the Mesolithic and Neolithic (Olsen and Alasker 1984), involving a 50-km-long boat journey to the south (see Figures 2.1 and 5.2). In a symbolic sense, the origin of these images, pecked with such a stone, was exotic. The act of carving them connected Vingen with the outside world, another symbolically charged place, and a wider community of people. There can be little doubt that the carvings at Ausevik, only about 12 km away by boat, were also made using the same stone. That both of these were special places can be in little doubt, given the use of specially quarried stone tools for their manufacture, a theme further explored in the next chapter.
Metamorphosis
The images at Vingen are far more than material metaphors for clans and social relationships, identity, place, and landscape. They are about metamorphosis and transformation in a place, Vingen, which was itself always changing and infinitely variable. The weather, the water, even the rock itself at Vingen change as one moves from one area to another. The bodily kinaesthetics required to view the images radically alter as one moves from one area to another, from linear outcrops that can be viewed beside them to sheer cliffs one is required to climb, to sloping platforms one must move across, to huge boulder fields one must negotiate, to huge rock faces one must move along. In tandem, the deer change from those in violent motion to those that are static and from those with simple body decoration to those that are intensely decorated. Then there is the ‘movement’ (differing orientations) of the hooks and the scythes. The human depictions similarly transform from those with fleshy bodies to skeletal depictions. It is the dead humans, the ancestors, who ride and domesticate the deer, symbolically exerting control and arresting their movement. The sacred frog, the most cogent and powerful symbol of the process of metamorphosis one could hope to find, breeding in Hornelen’s mirror, become anthropomorphised as human. Vingen is place and image in transformative process.
