2,700-year-old petroglyphs depicting people, ships and animals discovered in Sweden

On a steep rock face in western Sweden, researchers uncovered a captivating discover: round 40 petroglyphs — depicting ships, folks and animal figures — courting again round 2,700 years. 

The petroglyphs have been carved on a granite rock face that was as soon as a part of an island, which means folks would have needed to make the carvings whereas standing on a ship, or from a platform constructed on ice, stated Martin Östholm, a undertaking supervisor with the Basis for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings who is likely one of the archaeologists who found the petroglyphs, informed Reside Science. 

Bohuslän is already identified for its rock carvings, together with Bronze Age artwork made at Tanum, a United Nations Academic, Scientific and Cultural Group (UNESCO) web site. The crew was searching for new petroglyphs within the space after they got here throughout the moss-covered rock face. They observed some traces on it that gave the impression to be human made, in order that they eliminated the moss, revealing the petroglyphs beneath. The rock face is simply too steep to face on, Östholm stated, so the crew needed to stand on a platform to do their archaeological work. 

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The petroglyphs embody depictions of ships, folks and animal figures, together with four-legged creatures which may be horses. The largest one reveals a ship that’s 13 ft (4 meters) lengthy, Östholm stated, noting that lots of the petroglyphs are between about 12 and 16 inches (30 to 40 centimeters) in size.