CLIFF PAINTINGS OF FINLAND

By Tobias

Cliffpaintings are images from ancient times. The Finnish cliffpaintings are part of the northern image section, that runs from Norway to Siberia. Norway and Sweden have both cliffpaintings and rockcarvings, and in Eastern Karelia (once part of Finland) there are only rock carvings. Finland has only cliffpaintings, no rockcarvings have been found so far. The paintings have been estimated to be from 7000-3300 years ago, from the times of the late stone age and the bronze age, depicting usually the hunting habits of the era. Most cliffpaintings are of humans and of meese.

The cliffpaintings found, about 80 paintings and 20 “spots”, are near a waterway, and have been painted on the south or west side of cliffs, and can usually be seen only from a lake or river.

The finnish cliffpaintings have been made using red ochre mixed with blood, water or fat. Using blood is an indication that the painting has been considered to be something of a sacred work, with shamanistic tendencies and animal sacrifices. The pictures have been painted mostly by hand, but also with sticks, feathers, pieces of leather and even paws of animals (rabbits?).

The motifs of the paintings are usually humans, animal and boats, but also symbolistic marks. The humans are mostly just stick people, with a round or a triangle head (different tribes?), and bent feet. Also paintings with people upside down have been found, but it is insure if they depict a shamanistic experience or a possible accident/death. Usually the human figures do not have clothes or other accessories; the exceptions are depictions of shamans with horns on their heads and one female figure found at Astuvansalmi (= strait of the stepper) with a bow in hand (A Finnish Amazon?!?!).

Hand marks are considered to be the oldest of the motifs, and are found everywhere in the world. The Finnish hand markings are thought to be signatures, protective symbols and also to have some relation to the sun.

The meese motifs are the most popular in Finnish cliffpaintings, tho it’s not always clear if they are really meese, but a deer or a dog, as the paintings don’t usually have horns. Some of the animal paintings have a spot at where the heart is, possibly meaning that it has been killed. The Finnish folklore Kalevala also tells of a moose hunt, where the moose is hunted during winter using skis and a spear.

The boat motifs are considered to have more meanings than the hunting ones; they can tell about journeys of shamans, journeys of the dead to Manala (Finnish folklore’s Hades), or mythical stories in which the sun and the moon travelled by boat across the sky. In Kalevala, the shaman Väinämöinen builds a boat from the lower jaw of a pike.

A cliffpainting found at Ruokolahti’s Kolmiköytisenvuori (= three rope mountain) during summer of 1977 has nine shapes: five humans, a moose, a snake and two angle lines, that possibly depict snakes. The red ochre paint has survived exceptionally well. (photo by Reijo Hupponen)

The newest [ancient] cliffpainting has just been found In Puumala on September 28th, 2004. The painting was foung on a cliff at about 10 feet height, and it is a painting of 9 inches in height, with a triangle “head” from which a line comes down and goes diagonally through a lozenge.

Red ochre is still being used as a paint for Finnish houses:

Modern red ochre paint recipe

Text translated and pictures modified for the article from these main sources:

http://www.mediatampere.fi/esihistoria/taida/kallio.htm

http://www.ruokolahti.fi/matkailu/kolmikoytisenvuori.html

http://www.finnica.fi/artikkel/kivikas.htm