Where Styles Meet - What Does it Mean?

Abstract

My PhD project focuses on the concept of style in rock art. As in other parts of the world, style has primarily been used as a dating method in Norwegian rock art research. In combination with shoreline dating researchers developed a stylistic sequence of the rock art belonging to the Northern Tradition, which has been used to a greater or lesser extent for almost a century. An interesting characteristic of central Norway is the meeting between the Northern and the Southern Traditions. In this region, the different traditions coexist not just in this macro-perspective, but also side by side at the same sites – occasionally even at the same panels. The region is a perfect place to study the interaction between the two traditions. The rock art also shows enormous variation in style and drawing methods. What can this encounter tell us? And why does this area show such stylistic variation?