Sweden, Bohuslan - Fossum, Main Panel (1)

3D Model

The Fossum panel is unusually compact, and very rich for its size. The pictures are very similar to each other in style & execution - all ships look the same, and the people look cast in the same mould. The characteristic axes wielded by many of the figures existed both in the early and late Bronze Age, but the ships suggest the later dating is correct.

What is less typical about this panel is its location within the landscape. Carvings were commonly made on rock faces that lay immediately adjacent to the sea that existed here in the Bronze Age. Subsequent shore line displacement has meant that these panels are now between 10 and 30 metres above sea level. But the carvings here at Fossum are at a much higher altitude - more than 40 metres above the sea level - and so were never near the sea.