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Country: |
Sweden |
Locality: |
Lökeberg |
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Region: |
Bohuslän |
Area: |
Foss |
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Environment & Surface |
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Altitude:
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35 m
Open-air
Shelter
Cave
Portable
Megalithic
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Geography: |
Six panels, situated on sloping rock at the edge of enclosed pastureland. |
Proximity: |
500 m NW of road to Gĺrvik, 320 m NW of Ödegĺrden´s barn. Can only be reached by foot. |
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Geology: |
Gneiss. |
Surface: |
Wide, irregular and wavy surface, cracks and striation. Microflora. |
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Art |
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Description: |
Engravings
Paintings
Painted engravings
High or low-relief
Sculpture
Lökeberg, Foss parish. There are six panels with a total number of c. 425 rock carving figures. There are 169 ship figures, of which the majority are single-lined with crew strokes and some with circular designs with cup marks in the middle, attached to the crew-strokes. There are double-lined ship figures with no crew-strokes, and some with crew-strokes. There are c. 32 human figures, of which c. 10 with no arms forming a procession. There is one very large phallic human figure (65 cm) with sword with ferrule and enlarged calves. One of the most spectacular figures is the tree-like figure, perhaps a spruce carved above a ship figure with 2 circles with cup marks on the deck. On a panel down to the right there are a number of single-lined ship figures with crew-strokes, and about 5 snakes carved above the ships. There are about 400 figures at the largest panel, and the largest number of foot prints in Bohuslän are found here, of which the majority are totally carved out. The carvings are very uniform and extremely deeply carved out, and has probably been created during a relatively short period of time.
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Figures: |
total number 425
169 ship figures
32 human figures
55 foot prints
8 animal figures ( 5? Snakes, 5 ? Birds)
1 tree figure
2 circles
3 wheel-crosses
151 cup marks
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Chronology: |
Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic
Neolithic
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Roman
Middle Age
Modern
Unknown
The rock carvings of Southern Scandinavia are generally dated to the middle and later part of the Bronze Age, c. 1500-500 BC. Occasionally, more absolute dating of single panels or figures can be made, based on typological or stylistic features of the image, and by comparisons with identifiable objects.
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Notes: |
The rock carvings at Lökeberget are extremely deeply carved, and some of the figures are very unusual in the South Scandinavian rock carving tradition in general. Above all the tree figure, a spruce or Christmas-tree, which has been interpreted as a symbol of life, light and the victory over death, as a link between the underworld and the sky (Malmer 1989:19; Hygen & Bengtsson 1999:161). |
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Bibliography |
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Conservation |
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Status: |
Public
Private
Park
Classified site
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Risk: |
The major risk for rock carvings are chemical weathering, which makes the hard quartzite losen up and fall out, leaving white dots on the darker rock surface. Also natural weathering (mechanical weathering) during winter/spring, when water freeze in cracks and openings in the rock, creates major damage to rock faces with carvings. The biological weathering is also a danger to the rock carvings, and even to intense cleaning of the rock surface during documentation can make the rock fragile and expose the carvings to wind, water and air-born pollution. |
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Conservation: |
Good
Quite good
Mediocre
Bad
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Intervention: |
Problems concerning conservation and preservation, registration and documentation of rock carvings in Scandinavia are discussed by several departments, i.e. Riksantikvaren in Norway, Riksantikvarieämbetet in Sweden, several universities and research departments. Different methods are tested, for example covering of carved surfaces, measuring of temperature and different contents in water and air and also the composition in the granite. Hollows and cracks in the rock surface can be repaired and carefully filled in. An easy method of taking care of the rock surface is by ordinary sweeping. |
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By |
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| Record n. 761 / 807 |
No commercial use is allowed. Specific © is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution |
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EuroPreArt, European Prehistoric Art, is a web-based archaeological project funded by the European Union which aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art.
It is proposed by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT, Portugal),
CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Italy - Europe),
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España),
Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón (España),
Université de Liège (Belgique),
Gotland University College (Sverige),
University College Dublin (Eire),
Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Italia),
Study Centre and Museum of Prehistoric Art of
Pinerolo (Italia),
The European Centre for Prehistoric Research in the Alto Ribatejo (Portugal),
ArqueoJovem - a youth NGO (Portugal).
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