There are over 600 known rock carvings in Tanum in northern Bohuslän. New ships, animals and other Bronze Age carvings are still being discovered – or rediscovered.
Now, thanks to a 200-year-old sketch, researchers have found a larger rock carving that had been hidden under a forest road.
The discovery was made with the help of a drawing by Carl Georg Brunius (later an architect and art historian), who, during his studies in the early 19th century, drew rock carvings in his home parish of Tanum.
This rock carving was depicted earlier, but had been lost, you could say. The drawings are in an archive in Stockholm as unpublished manuscripts only, says Hans Lundenmark, who is an antiquarian at the Vitlycke Museum.
“A little spoiled”
The rediscovered rock carving consists of at least ten ships, six animals, three footprints and a number of bowl pits.
The earthy slab doesn't look like much yet, admits Hans Lundenmark. But once it has dried and been cleaned, it will be carefully examined and even scanned.
Before it is covered over again.
It will be protected and buried, and that may sound a bit boring. At the same time, we are a bit spoiled by fine rock carvings, so we will pass this one on to future generations.
Lost slab
Another of Brunius' depictions continues to elude researchers. It involves at least 200 individual carvings – but the location of that slab is shrouded in mystery, despite several attempts to find it.
"There are descriptions from the beginning of the 20th century that people have been searching for it. And now we have made some attempts in recent weeks," says Hans Lundenmark.
It's really strange because it's so big. But it's somehow disappeared from the collective memory.
Birka and Hovgården, Falun and Kopparbergslagen, the Hanseatic city of Visby, the High Coast, the Struve meridian arc, the Drottningholm Palace area, the Gammelstad church town, the Tanum rock carving area, Laponia, the agricultural landscape of Southern Öland, Engelsberg mill, Grimeton radio station, the Hälsinge farms, the Forest Cemetery, the naval city of Karlskrona.
Source: National Antiquities Board.
