The rock carvings of Tanum, in the north of the province of bohuslan, It is not only a unique artistic achievement for its rich and varied motifs (depictions of humans and animals, weapons, ships, and other themes), but also for its cultural and chronological unity.
They reveal the life and beliefs of the people in Europe during the Bronze Age and are notable for their large numbers and exceptional quality.
And it is that the wide range of motifs, techniques and compositions on the Tanum rock carvings provide exceptional evidence of many aspects of life in the European Bronze Age.
The continuity of settlements and consistency in land use in the Tanum area, as illustrated by rock art, archaeological remains, and modern landscape features in the Tanum region combine to make this a remarkable example. of continuity of more than eight millennia of human rights history.
Bohuslan is a land of granite rock, some of whose parts are scraped clean as the ice sheet slowly moves north, leaving the slightly curved rock faces exposed, many of them with deep scratches made by rocks trapped in the ice back off.
These were the canvases of those selected by Bronze Age artists, all of them just above the coastline of the period that began in 1500 BC, that is, 25 to 29 m above the level of the river. current sea.
This rock art is unique compared to those in rock art areas in other parts of Scandinavia, Europe and the world in its excellent artistic qualities and its varied and vivid stage compositions of Bronze Age man. Frequently animated scenes and complex compositions of elaborate motifs illustrate everyday life, war, worship and religion. Some of the panels have obviously been planned in advance.
There have been many interpretations of the importance of these carvings since research began on them in the 18th century. Today, the generally accepted explanation is that they are examples of early symbolic art and expressions of instrumental art, demonstrating the order of life and the pattern of existence (weapons, cars, animals, humans) and on the other of transcendent art, concerned with the other world and the unknown (distorted animals and human beings, disembodied hands).