Abstract
AbstractResearch suggests that the World Heritage rock engravings in Alta, Northern Norway, were made along the seashore over a period of 5000 years. The postglacial rebound and consequent land uplift have caused a continuous displacement of the shoreline, now situating the earliest rock art panels up to 26 m above sea level. By examining the rock surfaces at Hjemmeluft and other sites, using field observations and geological analyses, we found that the pronounced red bedrock surfaces in the current seashore zone are composed of inorganic iron films related to a high content of magnetite in the native sandstone. Coupled with an interpretation of regional environmental history, we also found that it is highly likely that the rock art was originally carved on rocks with red iron films, rocks that are now generally gray. Due to the land uplift and subsequent covering of the rock art with lichen, moss, and turf, the red color has waned at the rock art sites. This knowledge may renew interpretation and understanding of the location of rock art in Alta and may have implications for conservation and management.
Highlights
Prehistoric Scandinavian rock engravings are often painted red to make them more visible to the public, and it is a widespread misconception that this was how they looked like when they were made
For the rock art dealt with in this paper, at the UNESCO World Heritage site Hjemmeluft in Alta, Northern Norway, we propose that it was the other way around; bright and clearly visible rock engravings were made on rocks that in prehistoric times were strikingly red‐colored, rocks that later have turned gray
We introduce an esthetic element, previously not explored in Alta, and which we believe to be important for understanding the earliest rock art here: the color red
Summary
Prehistoric Scandinavian rock engravings are often painted red to make them more visible to the public, and it is a widespread misconception that this was how they looked like when they were made. Many factors are yet uncertain, from the above discussion on climate, vegetation, salinity, pH, and resilient organisms along the seashore, we postulate that the seashore environment in Alta has not altered over the last 7000–8000 years in ways that have changed living conditions fundamentally in the barren belt between terrestrial and marine life This implies that we regard life along the present seashore as a valid key to the past, that is, to when the rock art was created. Whereas the gray sandstone at Hjemmeluft develops a reddish surface color in the intertidal zone, the rock art at the Kåfjord site is located on a rock that is natively reddish (Figure 10).
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