Covered rock art sites

Rock art is a common term for images and signs that are carved, pecked, grinded or painted in rock surfaces in prehistoric times. The oldest rock art in Europe is about 25-30.000 years old. In Scandinavia, rock art was made between approximately 10.000 and 2000 years ago.

Rock art, Skarvberget

Among the Stone Age rock art motifs are antropomorphs and animals, motifs that are easy to recognize for us today. What we do not know for sure, however, are the reasons for their choice of motifs, the meanings of the images, scenes and compositions, or their choice of location. It seems reasonable that they used well-known shapes to express common social and religious values and stories connected to myths and rites. The chosen site location must have had important ritual and social meaning.

During the past two decades, negative changes in the condition of the rock art sites are documented. These are caused by natural processes as well as by human influence. Physical, chemical, and biological deterioration has resulted in an upper, porous weathering zone on the rock surface. Consequently, the rock surface is vulnerable to further chemical dissolution, mechanical stress, and destructive microvegetation (lichens and mosses), resulting in crumbling rock surfaces or fissuring and exfoliation/flaking.

The Norwegian Rock Art Project (1996-2005) has made intensified research and management measures possible. The goal is to identify causes of the rapid detoriation and to find methods to halt and delay destruction of the rock art. An effective method of removing microvegetation is to spray the rock surface with alcohol and then cover the rock surface for one or two seasons. The cover will stop the light which is necessary for green plants to be photosynthetically active.

Covered rock

At the Skavberget site the work to improve conditions was started in 2003. First, the rock surface was cleaned with water, then sprayed with pure alcohol in order to kill living organisms and finally covered with tarpaulins. Alcohol spraying is repeated for additional effect. The plans are to open these sites to the general public in 2006.


More information:Troms fylkeskommune, Tromsø kommune og Destinasjon Tromsø