Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning
Since its discovery in the 1970s, the rich rock art assemblage of Alta, Northern Norway, has been increasingly examined and interpreted. Central to the interpretations are topics such as ritual, circumpolar cosmology, landscapes and communication. The interpretative frame of reference has grown stea...
Published in: | Norwegian Archaeological Review |
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Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis
2022
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28307 https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/28307 2023-05-15T17:43:26+02:00 Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning Tansem, Karin 2022-11-21 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28307 https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 eng eng Taylor & Francis Norwegian Archaeological Review Tansem. Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning. Norwegian Archaeological Review. 2022:1-27 FRIDAID 2089472 doi:10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 0029-3652 1502-7678 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28307 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2022 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 2023-01-26T00:03:27Z Since its discovery in the 1970s, the rich rock art assemblage of Alta, Northern Norway, has been increasingly examined and interpreted. Central to the interpretations are topics such as ritual, circumpolar cosmology, landscapes and communication. The interpretative frame of reference has grown steadily, while discussions and disagreements have been surprisingly few. This paper argues that the outcome of this is a broad but still closely related set of understandings that define the kind of interpretations that qualify as likely or eligible. The paper offers a critical view on how ethnographic sources as well as concepts such as circumpolarity, rituals, and shamanism are mobilized in this interpretative formation. It also questions the increasingly more profound and intricate understandings of the rock art as a world-shaping and mediating tool. The interpretative imperative of finding a ‘deeper meaning’ is discussed and alternative approaches to rock art suggested. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Norway University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Alta Norway Norwegian Archaeological Review 55 2 159 185 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
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ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
description |
Since its discovery in the 1970s, the rich rock art assemblage of Alta, Northern Norway, has been increasingly examined and interpreted. Central to the interpretations are topics such as ritual, circumpolar cosmology, landscapes and communication. The interpretative frame of reference has grown steadily, while discussions and disagreements have been surprisingly few. This paper argues that the outcome of this is a broad but still closely related set of understandings that define the kind of interpretations that qualify as likely or eligible. The paper offers a critical view on how ethnographic sources as well as concepts such as circumpolarity, rituals, and shamanism are mobilized in this interpretative formation. It also questions the increasingly more profound and intricate understandings of the rock art as a world-shaping and mediating tool. The interpretative imperative of finding a ‘deeper meaning’ is discussed and alternative approaches to rock art suggested. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tansem, Karin |
spellingShingle |
Tansem, Karin Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
author_facet |
Tansem, Karin |
author_sort |
Tansem, Karin |
title |
Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
title_short |
Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
title_full |
Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
title_fullStr |
Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning |
title_sort |
always ritual, symbolic and religious? an essay on the alta rock art and the archaeological quest for meaning |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28307 https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 |
geographic |
Alta Norway |
geographic_facet |
Alta Norway |
genre |
Northern Norway |
genre_facet |
Northern Norway |
op_relation |
Norwegian Archaeological Review Tansem. Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning. Norwegian Archaeological Review. 2022:1-27 FRIDAID 2089472 doi:10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 0029-3652 1502-7678 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28307 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2022.2101938 |
container_title |
Norwegian Archaeological Review |
container_volume |
55 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
159 |
op_container_end_page |
185 |
_version_ |
1766145497676906496 |