Rock Carvings in Tanum

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Rock Carvings in Tanum
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List

Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, iv
Reference	557
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)

The Rock Carvings in Tanum (Swedish: Hällristningsområdet i Tanum), near Tanumshede, Bohuslän, Sweden, has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of the high concentration of petroglyphs.

The Vitlycke flat rock

One of the larger rocks of Nordic Bronze Age petroglyphs in Scandinavia, the Vitlyckehäll, is located in Tanumshede.

In total there are thousands of images called the Tanum petroglyphs, on about 600 panels within the World Heritage Area. These are concentrated in distinct areas along a 25 km stretch, which was the coastline of a fjord during the Bronze Age, and covers an area of about 51 hectares (126 acres or 0.5 km²).

Scandinavian Bronze Age and Iron Age people were sophisticated craftsmen and very competent travelers by water. (Dates for ages vary with the region; in Scandinavia, the Bronze Age is roughly 1800 to 500 BCE) Many of the glyphs depict boats of which some seem to be of the Hjortspring boat type carrying around a dozen passengers. Wagons or carts are also depicted.

Other glyphs depict humans with a bow, spear or axe, and others depict hunting scenes. In all cases the pictures show people performing rituals. There is a human at a plough drawn by two oxen, holding what might be a branch or an ox-goading crop made of a number of strips of hide.

The rock carvings are endangered by erosion due to pollution. To the dismay of some archaeologists, some have been painted red to make them more visible for tourists.

Gallery

The Grieving Woman
Birds
Boat
Chariot
The Snake
29 balls in evening sunlight

References

Coles, John, And On They Went ... Processions in Scandinavian Bronze Age rock carvings, Acta Archaeologica 74 (2003), 211–250.

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Site listing
Scandinavian Society for Prehistoric Art, a society working to document the carvings and running the Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings
Numerous photos (comments in russian)

World Heritage Sites in Sweden

For official site names, see each article or the List of World Heritage Sites in Sweden.

East	Birka and Hovgården Engelsberg Ironworks Royal Domain of Drottningholm Skogskyrkogården

South	Agricultural Landscape of Stora Alvaret (Southern Öland) Hanseatic Town of Visby Naval Port of Karlskrona Rock Carvings in Tanum Varberg Radio Station

North	Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland The High Coast/Kvarken Archipelago¹ (High Coast) Laponian Area Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain, Falun Struve Geodetic Arc²

¹ Shared with Finland ² Shared with nine other countries

Coordinates: 58°42′4″N 11°20′28″E / 58.70111°N 11.34111°E / 58.70111; 11.34111

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