CAUGHT BY THE DOCUMENTS

One way to get to know the research material was - and still is - not only to observe the rock art on the rocks but also to study the documentation of finds produced over time. In the beginning this started as a check on their accuracy (Nordbladh 1995, 2004).

Eventually, however, I realized that in going through the documented Swedish rock art - which went back more than four centuries - it became more interesting to get to know how earlier colleagues argued and how they constructed their documents. This new insight made the documents far more impressive, and recourse to the archived sources facilitated the exploration of useful observations made by others earlier (Kjellen & Hyenstrand 1977; Marstrander 1978; Nordbladh 1980b, 2000, 2004; Helskog & Olsen 1995; Edgren & Taskinen 2000; Helskog 2001); they became the main research material, as basic statements on which arguments could be formed. In a way, the documented and standardized archaeological material - the rock art and its location - was transformed into a new form as documents. In this format, sources could be moved, printed, copied and laid out side by side, facilitating comparison. This latter is very valuable, but impossible in the real landscape, yet for most archaeological objects it is the normal procedure.

“Petroglyphs” is a category created by the archaeological classification of the nineteenth century. But observation and documentation of stone images has a long history and most of the documents can be profitably used to save and carry information for historical studies. The early antiquarians Carl Gustaf Gottfried Hilfeling (1740-1823) and Carl Georg Brunius (1792-1869) made their measurements using grid systems and standardized scales and they also often marked parts of the surveyed bedrock which were affected by weathering (Nordbladh 1997, 2000).

To reflect on what had happened at the observation places and sites, I also made a study called “Observing the Observers” (Nordbladh 2004), which made it clear that a study - in the archive and the library - had to open up a new engagement with the pictures in their natural and cultural setting. In this way, conditions were created for new analytical entities. This shows that even source materials have an existence and growth of their own as new relations are perceived.