I'd like to start this blog by showcasing some pieces of culture and sightseeing spots from my home country!
These photos (see below) were taken this summer on a fascinating trip to Tanum, and it was well worth the visit. The site is located just outside Tanum municipality, near the northwestern coast of Sweden. The rock carvings paint an interesting picture of the people who lived in this area during the Bronze Age, from around 1700-500 BC. Here are 10 quick facts about this historical place:
❇ Tanum was included on the World Heritage List in 1994, because of its high concentration of rock carvings, with an unusually diverse range of imagery.
❇ “Carving” is a misleading term, the images were in fact hammered into the rock with hammer stones.
❇The earliest images in Tanum were made about 2000 years before the runic alphabet futhark (ᚠᚢᚦᚬᚱᚴ) started to appear in Scandinavia.
❇The motifs include ships, people, animals, weapons, footprints, circles, chariots, ploughs, hands and nets.
❇Tanum’s best known image is the bridal couple scene. A man and a woman are standing beside each other, accompanied by a man with a raised axe. Perhaps he was the leader of the ritual, blessing them with the axe.
❇The three closely positioned ships (see picture), is the most widespread rock carving image in Sweden. It’s been on the Swedish 50 kronor note since 2015.
❇The monumental graves called cairns (rösen in Swedish) started to be built to honour specific individuals. A clear contrast to the Neolithic Age, when a large number of people were buried in the same grave.
❇One of the most difficult images to interpret is the person raising a gigantic hand with rows of marks above it (see picture). Could it be a count of something that belongs to the holder?
❇Understanding what the images depict is easier than interpreting why the carver made them. We can only guess, but much of the imagery seems to revolve around love, power and magic.
❇The museum has two reconstructed longhouses (see picture), to give an idea of how a Bronze Age farm could look like.
Sightseeing is one of my biggest hobbies, and it also brings me inspiration for my translation work and content writing in the tourism & travel sector. Where have you traveled this summer? If you have any favorite spots to recommend, I’d love to hear about it!
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