Antti Lahelma

‘On the Back of a Blue Elk’: Recent Ethnohistorical Sources and ‘Ambiguous’ Stone Age Rock Art at Pyhänpää, Central Finland

Three groups of motifs – cervids, boats and human figures – dominate North European hunter‐gatherer rock art. The scarcity of explicit narrative scenes makes the interpretation of this art a very difficult task, but important clues can be found in a group of ‘ambiguous’ images, where the said three categories are combined in ‘unrealistic’ ways. In this paper, the prospect of an ethnographically informed approach to their interpretation is explored, using as a case study the rock painting of Pyhänpää (Central Finland) and ethnographic material drawn chiefly from Saami religion and traditional Finnish epic poetry. It is argued that the ambiguous imagery of rock art has a clear counterpart in the pre‐Christian religious tradition, where cervids and boats have a similarly ambiguous nature. The painting, which shows an elk, a boat and a human figure merged together, is interpreted as representing the shamanic flight and the sense of co‐essence between the shaman and his spirit helper beings. The making of the painting is associated with the belief that such beings lived inside specific rock cliffs and that their power could be obtained through visits to rock art sites.

Between the Worlds. Rock Art, Landscape and Shamanism in Subneolithic Finland

The Finnish rock paintings, dated to ca. 5000–1500 cal. BC, form a significant but so far relatively poorly known body of rock art in Northern Europe. The paintings are made with red ochre on steep cliffs rising at lakeshores and typically feature images of elks, men, boats, handprints and geometric designs. Traditional interpretations associate the art with shamanism. This interpretation, it is argued, finds additional support from the presence of a group of images that appear to portray experiences of metamorphosis, of falling in trance and of summoning zoomorphic spirit helper beings. Moreover, the location of the paintings can similarly be viewed in the light of a shamanistic cosmology. Ethnographic analogies are sought in aspects of Saami shamanism and the cult of the sieidi, rock formations worshipped as expressing a supernatural power.

Cultivation of Perception and the Emergence of the Neolithic World

This article develops the idea that the emergence of the Neolithic world was closely linked to discovering and becoming aware of new aspects and dimensions of reality. Practices such as pottery making and cultivation promoted attentiveness to new aspects of things and the environment, which in turn generated a new kind of lived world that was, in a sense, richer, larger and deeper than before. It is proposed that new forms of material culture and new material practices – new ways of engaging with the material world – expanded people’s horizons of perception and thinking. This cultivation of perception was an important mechanism through which new ways of life and thought associated with the Neolithic came into being.

Acoustic measurements at the sacred sites in Finland

In Finland, near the canyon lakes of Julma-Olkky, Somerjarvi and Taatsijarvi, steep rock cliffs produce distinctive acoustic spaces. On these cliffs, prehistoric rock paintings (5200—500 BC) as well as an ancient Sami offering site (cf. 1100—AD) can be found. Ethnographic sources describe that the Sami used to sing and listen to echoes while making offerings there. This paper presents the results of an archaeoacoustic project that seeks to explore the role of sound in the development and use of these archaeological sites. The applied methods include multichannel impulse response recording, angle of arrival estimation of early reflections, spectrum analysis, digital image processing, and 3D laser scanning. On the basis of the analyses, we have concluded that the cliffs that have been painted or held as sacred are efficient sound reflectors. They create discreet echoes and, accordingly, phantom sound sources. Especially at the Varikallio cliff, the sound appears to emanate directly from the painted figures....

David S. Whitley: Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit. The Origin of Creativity and Belief

There is little doubt in my mind that David S. Whitley is one of the brightest minds in contemporary archaeology. A director of a major contract archaeology firm in the United States, he may not ra...