Rock Carvings in Tanum
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How it came to be
The Tanum carvings are cut into granite bedrock in northern Bohuslän in western Sweden. The rock was scraped clean about 14,000 years ago as the Scandinavian ice sheet withdrew northwards. The images were made in the Nordic Bronze Age, around 1700 to 500 BC, by pecking and grinding with stone hammers and points.
They show people, animals, weapons, boats and other symbols, in scenes of travel, status, power, warfare and ritual. More than 600 carving sites lie within the property, the highest density of such panels in northern Europe. The Vitlycke rock alone has nearly 300 carvings. The area was on the coast when the images were made and now stands 25 m above sea level.
The first record dates from 1627, when Peder Alfsön, a Norwegian doctor, made ink drawings of some of the carvings. In 1792 Carl Gustaf Gottfried Hilfeling, sent by the nobleman Pehr Tham, made the first professional recordings. In the late 19th century Oscar Montelius and Viktor Rydberg presented evidence linking the carvings to the Bronze Age, and the site was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994.
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