Images of Fish in the Rock Art of the Ancient Population of Northern Europe

Abstract

The article presents the results of the analysis of the study of the image of fish in the rock art of ancient hunters and fishermen of Northern Europe (final VI – III BC). During the study, 134 fish figures were studied on 6 rock paintings and in 17 clusters of petroglyphs of Fennoscandia. The small proportion of fish figures in relation to the total number of images on the rocks of the region, with a high proportion of fishing in the primitive economy, established by bone remains at Neo-Eneolithic sites, suggests a mythological basis for the images under consideration. Spatial differences in the appearance of fish figures in Northern Europe make it possible to distinguish two areas (western and eastern), radically different in the style of the ichthyomorph image. The rock art mainly reflects representatives of the largest fish species that lived in the region: catfish, sturgeon, halibut, pike, salmon, whitefish. In the bone remains at the sites located near the clusters of rock carvings, other types of fish are usually dominant: zander, cod. In the compositions of fishing, as in other hunting scenes carved on the petroglyphs of Fennoscandia, only active methods of its extraction are presented, although there is numerous archaeological evidence of the use by the inhabitants of the region for catching fish and other animals of various types of traps.