Gjerde & Arntzen/Perspectives, 7. Seasons and Landscape in North European Hunter-Gatherer Rock Art

The paper explores the relations between rock art, landscape and seasonality through examples of painted salmon at Honnhammar in central Norway. The salmon is a rather rare species in the fauna of north European rock art, but is central at two of the sites at Honnhammar as well as on a few other localities in northern Europe. It will be argued that an understanding of the species’ occurrence in the landscape throughout the different seasons of the year is essential in understanding the rock art. The salmon’s life cycle makes its appearance in the fjords and rivers highly seasonal. Ethnography from North West America give a glimpse into how the relation between humans and salmon might have affected ritual and ceremonial life as well as myth.