Norrforsen are rapids in the Ume River in Sweden, between the villages of Norrfors and Sörfors 15 kilometers west of Umeå.[1] The rapids are located downriver from the dam of the hydroelectric power station at Stornorrfors.
At Truthällorna, an island that is underwater when the upriver dam gates are opened, are a number of ancient rock carvings. The petroglyphs are believed to have been carved by hunter-gatherer people between 3,000-2,000 BCE.[2][3] The carvings were discovered in 1984 by a group of archaeology students from Umeå University.[4]
The people made these carvings likely survived the winter in part by hunting moose (sv. älgar, also translated as elk).[4] The majority of the carvings depict moose along with images of boats, a human figure, and unidentified fragment carvings.[5] Note that these are petroglyphs (carvings) and not rock paintings; it is common to paint petroglyphs red in Scandinavia, to make them more visible.[6]
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Depiction of a female moose -
Depictions of moose -
Depiction of a male moose -
Rock carvings at Norrforsen -
Archeological site of the petroglyphs.
References
edit- ^ "Sverigeplats.se - Norrforsen". Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "Umeå, Norrfors". Europreart.net. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ^ Lars-Erik Edlund (1995). Tore Frängsmyr (ed.). Norrländsk uppslagsbok: ett uppslagsverk på vetenskaplig grund om den norrländska regionen. [Lapp-Reens]. "Band 3". Umeå: Norrlands universitetsförlag. p. 249. ISBN 91-972484-1-X.
- ^ a b "Umeås historia – forntid". umea.se. 2023-01-30. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
- ^ "L1938:7601 Hällristning". Riksantikvarieämbetet. 2018-11-21.
- ^ "Att måla runstenar (To Paint Runestones)" (in Swedish). Riksantikvarieämbetet. 2014-10-14. Retrieved 2023-04-12.