The environmental context of a prehistoric rock carving on the Bjäre Peninsula, southern Sweden

Palaeoecological analysis of peat deposits from a small bog at Lingården, southern Sweden, have beenused to examine the nature and timing of vegetation changes and anthropogenic activity associated witha nearby rock carving located close to the edge of the wetland. This study is the first of its type to investigate the environmental context of rock carvings in southern Sweden. Debate has tended to focuson chronology and iconography, with little consideration of the environmental relationships of rockcarvings and how vegetation may help construct a site within its surrounding landscape. The pollenevidence from Lingården demonstrates that the rock carving was located in an isolated semi-wooded setting during the late Bronze Age. This is in stark contrast to several other pollen studies from the BjärePeninsula that record widespread woodland clearance and agricultural activity from the late Neolithic/Bronze Age transition. The results of this study support hypotheses that suggest complex rock carvings,such as Lingården, were separated from settled areas. This sense of separation and isolation is reinforcedby the vegetation surrounding the rock carving. This paper also discusses the relationship betweencharcoal in the pollen sequence and evidence that the decorated outcrop had been burnt.