| Petroglyphs
| | Petroglyphs, i.e.signs or pictures carved in stone are found all over southern Scandinavia, but also elsewhere in Europe. They have been carved in the younger Stone Age and the Bronze Age periods
In the Sound region a large number of picture petroglyphs have been found in Simrishamn in Scania and in Bornholm. |
What are Petroglyphs?
Petroglyphs are pictures and signs, which in pre historic time was carved and ground into heller, i.e. smooth stones and rock surfaces. The phenomenon is known from all over the world in different times. In the North the oldest petroglyphs exist in Norway and Middle Sweden.
In southern Scandinavia the predominant proportion of the petroglyphs has been made in the Bronze Age, of these the saucer shaped depressions make up half of them, among the rest are the stylized pictures of ships. Representations of human beings are depicted in situations, which reflect the fertility cult of the Bronze Age.
The Saucer Shaped Depressions
The so-called saucer shaped depressions, round hollows carved in stone, is the oldest known form of petroglyphs and they exist on both sides of the Sound. The meaning is unsure. In many dolmens and passage graves from the younger Stone Age, you can see depressions carved in the top side of the cover stones. For instance in the dolmens in the woods around Elsinore: Klosterris Hegn and Horserød Hegn.
And on the stately Snarringe dolmen at Skegrie between Malmø and Trelleborg there are no less than 268 saucer shaped depressions carved into one of the cover stones.
Saucer shaped depressions also exist in loose stones and on rock sides. There are many of them especially in the north western and north eastern part of the landscape.
The saucer shaped depressions can be dated to the end of the peasant Stone Age and the Bronze Age. On the oldest datable find in the North was made in Fosie in Malmø. A woman belonging to the so-called ”battle axe culture”, had a larger round stone with two carved depressions in her grave from 2.300 BC.
The Pictures
Petroglyphs in the form of pictures exist in large amounts close to Simrishamn in south eastern Scania and in the northern part of Bornholm. The areas Järrestad, Simrislund in Skåne and Allinge in Bornholm are known names for people interested in petroglyphs. Here is a vast number of ships, oxen, footprints etc.
Interpretation of ”The Dancing Man from Järrestad”
In Järrestad there is a petroglyph of a strange man. The legs are twice as long as his body and the head with two horns are extremely small.
What are the horns on this figure? It looks as if they are stuck on a helmet, as the Bronze Age in fact had horns on their helmets. In the National Museum in Copenhagen there are two quite unique bronze helmets, which support this assumption. Two tall, curved bronze horns are stuck on the helmets. The front of the helmet is shaped like a face with eyes, eyebrows and a crooked nose. Helmets like this probably didn´t have a practical function as protection in a battle situation. The function must be ceremonial.
The dancing man from Järrestad has heavy and marked lower legs. This is not unusual in petroglyphs from the Bronze Age and is often interpreted as if the dancer wore leg pads or leather pads to protect his shins
Moreover the man has a bronze sword hanging from his waist.
That this is a religious picture is clear from the way the man is depicted. Both his hands are stretched out in worship.
Simrislund | 
Järrestad Ship | 
Järrestad | 
The Järrerstad Dancer | 
Traces from the Past |
Chariots
Another exciting petroglyph exists in Frännarp, about 30 kilometres north of Kristianstad in Scania. A number of chariots have been carved into a rock here. These chariots are direct copies of chariots known from Egypt and Greece from around 1400 BC. The Frännarp petroglyph indicates that there must have been connections to countries in the south.
This is also the case with the famous Kivik grave A large number of carved stones show the coffin in the middle of the grave. In one of the stones there is a man on a chariot drawn by two horses.
Chariot | 
The Kivik Grave |
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