The Padjelanta rock art site ( sv, Padjelanta hällkonstplats) is a set of

Sámi The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are a Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Murmansk Oblast, Rus ...

Rock Art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

carvings in

Padjelanta National Park Padjelanta ( sv, Padjelanta nationalpark) is a national park in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Established in 1963, it is the largest national park in Sweden with an area of , and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Laponia establis ...

in northern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

History of rock art at Padjelanta

The rock carvings are carved into

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...

mountainside. The early carvings feature harnessed

Reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

, an animal of great importance to the Sámi well as anthropomorphs which may be early representations of the Finno-Uralic female deity Máttaráhkká. In the pre-Viking,

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

asbestos-ceramic period, the site was used for soapstone and asbestos mining.{{Cite journal , last=Mulk , first=Inga-Maria , date=2007 , title=Liminality, Rock Art and the Sami Sacred Landscape , url=https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:442972/FULLTEXT01.pdf , journal=Journal of Northern Studies , volume=1 , issue=2 , pages=105 , via=DiVA Portal It may have also had spiritual significance to the Reindeer-herding Sámi. There is more recent graffiti at the site, including carvings of the dates '1673 VI' and the modern date '1990'. The site seems to have only been used by the Sámi, not by Nordic populations for both carvings and mining.

Depictions of boats

Among the rock carvings there are depictions of six boats, four of which have sails and rigging. Some of the boats feature oars and one boat tows a smaller

dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

behind it. Some boats may represent Sámi or Nordic fishing boats and some of the larger examples may depict Sámi-made Nordic trading vessels from around the Lofoten-Vesterålen coast, like the Nordland Boat. This suggests that the boat carvings were carved during or after the Viking age, from around 800–1300 CE.

References

Archaeological sites in Sweden