Crazy Lemontree: The Petroglyphics in Østfold

The Petroglyphics in Østfold

All these pictures are taken the summer of 2014 at Gullskår in Begby (Fredrikstad county). I’m not a very good photographer, and the sun made it even worse. But I hope you can get an impression of what we saw there, and that you some day would want to go there and see the site for yourself.

In Østfold (close to the Swedish boarder), in Sjebergkilen you can see over 100 of these ancient drawings made from the Bronze Age and up to the Iron age and even after the birth of Christ. Today people pass by in their cars on the E6 from Oslo to Sweden, and they probably have no idea of what they are missing out on.

Scientists believe that at the end of the last ice age 10 000 – 12 000 years ago the first hunters paddled up this creek in their canoes. Findings made at a Stone Age settlements at Høgnipen on the border between Rakkestad and Skjeberg, confirm the theory that the first people settling in Norway probably came here in that period. So an important part of Norwegian history started here.

These are carvings made in the rocks by our ancestors, and tell us a little bit about them. But the drawings still raise a lot of questions. Why did they make them? For themselves? For their gods? As messages? And if so, to whom?

Some of them you can see what they are supposed to look like. You can see boats, both with and without people, horses, sleds, wagons, other animals and people. But some you can only wonder about. Still they are fascinating.

You can find holes carved into the stone, like bowls or little dishes. The smallest ones are 5 – 10 mm (1/5 – 2/5 of an inch) wide. And the largest up to 300 mm (just shy of a foot) wide. And some are made so that if you poor water in one of them, they will overflow and it will poor into the next one. What were these made for? Offerings to the gods? Or maybe something more practical and useful? Who knows?

The carvings have been painted red quite recently by conservators. This is so that people more easily can see them.

There has also been made some excavations around some of these sites. They have found pieces of pottery, burned clay and burned flint. Maybe the clay pots contained whatever they used to paint the drawings.