Art rupestre protohistorique à l’extrémité nord de l’Europe (Laponie de l’Est)

Abstract

In Fennoscandia, in the very north of mainland Europe, the Arctic regions, which has the historical name Lapland, several hundred locations of ancient rock carvings have already been discovered. These figures, which have come down to us from the depths of centuries (10-2 millennia BC), carved and painted on the rocks are invaluable evidence of the spiritual culture of our distant ancestors, a manifestation of their sacred deeds, the origin of subsequent myths, legends, legends. There are relatively few of them on the Russian territory of Fennoscandia (Murmansk region and Karelia), only 6 points, which is a tiny percentage of the total number, but if you count by the number of very large ones (more than 1000 images) rock art galleries (there are only 6 such objects here), then exactly half of them (Kanozero in the Murmansk region, Besov Nose and Zalavruga in Karelia) were found on our territory. These Russian (by location) monuments, as well as another, smaller-scale (about 300 images) petroglyphic monument on the Ponoy River (Chalmn-Varre) in the central part of the Kola Peninsula is dated within the beginning 4-2 the millennium BC. If in Western Lapland there are (Valle, Efjord in Northern Norway, and some others) rock art monuments (petroglyphs) about 10,000 years old with individual large (up to 7 m) images of marine (whales, seals) and land animals (bears, deer family), then in Eastern Lapland the earliest (not older than 7-6 millennia BC) are the chamber complex Pyave is a gallery with 30 mostly geometric figures painted in red ochre.