Tanum Rock Carvings

In the granite hills around Tanumshede, in the province of Bohuslän on Sweden's west coast, thousands of figures were hammered into smooth rock faces during the Nordic Bronze Age, roughly between 1700 and 300 BC. They are spread over some 600 panels along a belt of about 25 kilometres, and together they form one of the richest collections of prehistoric rock art in Europe, a World Heritage Site since 1994. The carvings are shallow pecked grooves, and many of the best known have been filled with red paint to make them legible — a practice that critics say sacrifices the stone's original appearance to visibility.

The pictures are a window onto a world that left no writing. Ships dominate: boats of many sizes, some with rows of crew, the craft of a seafaring people. Around them move warriors brandishing axes, spears and bows, hunters with their quarry, men ploughing behind oxen, wagons and wheeled vehicles, animals, footprints and countless round cupmarks. Many scenes seem to be rituals rather than daily life, and scholars have long argued about what the ceremonies were. The carvings were first recorded in 1627, systematic study started in the 1790s, and by the late 19th century they had been firmly dated to the Bronze Age.

The finest single panel is at Vitlycke, a sheet of rock some 22 metres in extent covered with around 500 images made across the whole span of the carving tradition. Its most celebrated scene is the so-called Bridal Couple, or Holy Wedding: a man and a woman standing close together, accompanied by a third figure raising an axe. Nearby are warriors, boats, bulls and women; four smaller panels lie along a path of about half a kilometre, and two Early Bronze Age burial cairns on the hilltop look out over the Tanum plain. The best time to see the rock is in low light, early or late in the day, when the grooves throw shadows; the carvings may not be walked on or touched.

The Vitlycke Museum, a few hundred metres from the main panel, is the natural starting point, with guides to the wider World Heritage area and its other famous rocks.

Getting there

Vitlycke lies about 2 km south of Tanumshede along road 914 towards Kville, with parking at the Vitlycke Museum and a gravel path to the panel. The nearest larger towns are Uddevalla, about 53 km away in Sweden, and Halden across the Norwegian border, about 47 km. The closest airport is Trollhättan–Vänersborg (THN), about 73 km away.