rock carvings at Norrfors, Umeå

this is just outside of umeå, and yet i have NOT been out here ever before, which is a little embarrassing since i'm born and raised in Umeå. i have no good explanation for this. but i decided this day was the day!

the post-glacial rebound dates these rock carvings to around 4000 years of age. mostly elks, some without internal lines but most have internal lines and dots. the other figures i saw were two boats, a funny looking humanfigure and a bird.

the woodbridge leading up to the carvings have little time notes on it for visitors to get a better perspective of the timeframe. It starts at world war II and goes backwards in time and at the end, by the rock carvings, the time line ends with mesopotamia and the egyptian pyramids which were buildt around the same time as the rock carvings were made. most people are familiar with the pyramids so it's easier to understand.

my sister and i spent an hour here, sitting, talking, having tea and trying to figure out the circumstances of the carvings. we didnt really come up with anything new. so no, no new ideas!

the river here is regulated so i couldnt get an idea of the waterflow, but there used to be water around this little rock.

my sister at Glösa, seen through holga camera.

My sister doesn't really know anything about archaeology or prehistory. Some people are interested, some are not, some just haven't gotten there just yet. So when she was following me around on my excursion, i talked about and explained all the sites to her that we visited. 

i assumed i was talking to only one ear but when i asked her later in the evening about the most important things from all the sites, she got 7 out of 10 questions right! and she was enthusiastic as well! 

questions such as where the closest hill forts to the mjälle hill fort are located, the age of the trapping pits, the difference between a storage building and a house, where certain rock carving motifs are in the country etc etc. i was really happy to see her interested when we were at the museum as well, especially when she saw the artifacts from places we had just visited, "aw so cool!" she said. 

 There is hope for humanity!