Today I take you along on OUR CRAZY ADVENTURE at the NÄMFORSEN ~ A ROCK-CARVINGS ~ #PETROGLYPHS SITE from around 4500 B.C. in NÄSÅKER ~ Västernorrland County, SWEDEN. 🇸🇪 Want to know all about it? Come and check it out.
With this visit at the #ROCK-CARVINGS IN NÄSÅKER, SWEDEN 🇸🇪 I enter in the last day of this MONTH’S #WINTERCHALLENGE from @worldmappin. You can read all about it 👇🏻
Winter is coming 🥶🥶🥶 - and with it the Worldmappin Winter Challenge 🥳🥳 Last day to join in, in the #WINTERCHALLENGE ☃️❄️ are you?
Today’s photographic selection will be of 57 PHOTOGRAPHS
Date : 4 DECEMBER 2023
The Photographs in this post are taken with my #CANONR5 📸 and some with my #iPhone 📱
I will follow the time stamps on them. So it looks like you are experiencing my #adventures on this #walk to 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻 #discover everything what I saw, like the little #details seen through my eyes.
Location of the ROCK-CARVINGS in Sweden we find on the following screenshot of Google Maps :
More information about the site you find in English here: Nämforsen!
The höga kusten website has also more information for you here : Petroglyphs at Nämforsen.
Check out Wikipedia about ROCK ART IN SWEDEN HERE!
‼️ LET ME START WITH THE FOLLOWING: IF YOU WANT TO VISIT THIS PLACE, DO NOT VISIT IT IN THE WINTER HAHAHA 🤣
Recommended visiting time of the year will be JUNE to August. That time the museum is also open and there are guided tours.
…but one can’t always choose when one is in the area 😇
So we drove around this area on our road trip end of last year. It was the beginning of December and there was loads and loads of snow everywhere ☃️☃️
We thought… let’s visit it anyway, as the ROCK-CARVINGS are outside. 😎
Come along and find out what happened 🙂
We managed to drive to the #museum of the Nämforsen site. Of course it would be closed. Hubby jumped out of the car to check the map 🗺️ on the wooden board to see the best way we would reach the #CARVINGS.
The snow was deep.
The map 🗺️ of the area and location of the petroglyphs along the river. Hubby saw the walking trail from the museum down the steep mountain. WAS NOT WALKABLE…
A capture of the museum 😊 it was here 13:26h on a Monday.
We saw there was a road towards the hydroelectric power station by the river. So we decided to drive to there and find a spot along the road to park our car.
We wrapped up well it was about -15 degrees Celsius ~ 5 Fahrenheit 🥶
That road was steep but we could walk down and see this view in front of us.
Next to the road in a flat area we find the following sign with loads of information in Swedish 🇸🇪 the English part is not much but let me show it to you.
The above sign 👆🏻 has on the left side the following information:
THE VALUABLE MOOSE 🫎
About 500 moose are depicted on the rocks. As the moose was the hunters' most important prey, it was central in their thoughts and conceptions. After the 19th century BC, however, we seldom find moose bones on settlement sites. Was it a shortage of moose that prompted the hunters to carve their coveted prey on the rocks?
On the right side the following:
FIGURES ON THE ROCKS
Apart from moose figures, you can see figures of people, fish, birds, the soles of feet and cup marks. Cup marks are ancient and have been used in carvings around the world. The oldest moose figures here, which are carved out of the rock, should be from the 5th millennium BC, before they began to be carved as outlines. In one example you can see an old ship that forms the antlers of a moose. There are other compositions of this kind among the carvings.
The below 👇🏻 sign has on the right…
…the following information:
TRAPPERS IN THE NORTH
When the inland ice melted from northern Sweden some 8,600 year ago, people from all over came to hunt the new grounds.
Thy found their nourishment in hunting and fishing and edibles from nature. The most hunted animal was the moose. In the winter, people lived in permanent dwellings but in summer they moved from place to place to where the fishing was best.
On the left side of the below photo 👇🏻 we find the following text:
NÄMFORSEN CARVINGS
Welcome to one of Europe's largest rock carving areas. Here are some 2,600 figures that were carved between 4000-1000 BC, most of them probably in the latter part of the period. There is also a settlement site on the southern side of the river, with finds of #arrowheads and scrapers, among other things.
So interesting to know more about this AMAZING SITE. 🤓
Peeking over the wooden balustrade we see the path that would have come from the museum. (We think)
The snow was untouched. What means nobody has been to this area in a long while… hubby checking out the views.
I join him and we look around. We see a wooden boardwalk and loads of steps down towards the river. ALL COVERED UNDER HALF A METRE OF SNOW ❄️ 😳
My view between the trees of the river.
I walk carefully, through the DEEP SNOW to the edge on the top of the boardwalk/ steps down. We LITERALLY CAN NOT SEE ANY STEPS, but they are there hahaha 🤣
The view towards the right shows us the #hydroelectric power plant and its sluice gates of the #river. Do you see the #ICE 🧊
A view further away. The bright colours are interesting.
Next to us a bench… covered in lots of #snow ☃️
Looking over the edge again 😳 WHAT SHALL WE DO?
Are we trying to get down there?
I take in some details. The trees are stunning 🤩
All frozen 🥶 and covered in snow ❄️
We decide to go down the first part 😳🫣
Each step down is a #challenge. As we don't see or even feel the steps with so much snow. We slide down a few hahaha 🤣 (silently I am enjoying this a lot)
At the bottom of the first stairs we stop and take in the views.
We are kinda stable, sunken in the deep snow.
I capture the rocks covered with ice and snow. As it is -15 degrees Celsius the WATER IS COVERING ALL WITH ICE 🧊
Our view towards the left 🥰
I must say, just this view alone is worth the challenge of getting down the steep mountain 🏔️ hahaha
The red house in the distance is beautiful, what a spot!
View further towards the left.
Yep… more steps (that we can’t see) to get lower down 😳😱 we are still high up. I am enjoying the views a lot 😎
Another capture along the river.
We manage to get down further. Slowly and carefully. Luckily the balustrade helps, even if it is covered with 30cm of snow hahaha we grab on to it 🤣😂
Next to us we find a small river. What is that in the distance?
Hhmmm looks like a fish trap of some sort to me. What do you think? 🤔
I look along the snow next to us. We can’t see any rocks 🪨 let alone the petroglyphs/ rock-carvings.
Further along the boardwalk… bit by bit we manage. One step at the time… imagine the struggle through this much of snow to get forward haha 😂
We reach a spot where we can see some rocks 🪨 just peeking 👀 out under the snow. We see of course NOTHING 🤓 everything is covered in snow. We have also no idea where the carvings would be.
We make a path towards the right next to this area. We see a large rock 🪨 with fluffy snow… a lot of snow. We struggle to walk further.
Bit by bit we manage to get at the end of the right boardwalk.
Just look at this view 🤩 WOW!
What we see next is stunning. LET ME SHOW YOU THE DETAILS.
The rocks are covered with a thick layer of ice. It solidified into one homogenous ice layer. On top snow. But just look at the dark ice.
Zooming out further. Beautiful views 🥰
Even further…
We walk back a bit towards the largest rock 🪨 I look into some reviews of this area and see we are right next to some petroglyphs on that large rock. Shall we…? 🫣 peek.
(Don’t do this at home kinda warning)
I know how to handle precious expensive artworks, believe me… 😉
So carefully we wiped away the soft and fluffy snow with our thick and fluffy gloves 🧤 Just layer by layer.
Until we saw 🤩
I zoom in on the moose 🫎 at the top.
The moose 🫎 at the bottom. We saw a little tiny part of the over 2600 figures that can be seen here.
Standing back more… so precious. We won’t search further as it is getting really cold 🥶 it is now 1500h it took us this long to get down in the thick snow ⛄️
So beautiful to see the moose 🫎
We decide we want to check out the left boardwalk and see more views from there. It stretches also further into the river.
Yes… carefully step down into the snow deeper and deeper we go on 😎
We see:
The large tree frames this little bay 🥰
Looking further along it.
I take some MORE #photographs of the ice covered rocks on this side. The texture… the details of #WINTER 🥶
I love it. WOW 🤩
Just see the layers 🤓
We walk back in our own footsteps. I couldn’t help taking in this view again 😊
This icy / snowy puddle is interesting. The layers in it.
The view towards the other side, where the large rock is located next to the path. If you were thinking are there fences. Nope there are not, you are right next to the rock-carvings. So we didn't climb any fences 😇
The bench was where we stood. The moose 🫎 are not visible from this side.
My hand with the fluffy thick glove. So I know the layer on the balustrade is about 30 cm thick.
We walk slowly further back. The view. Do you see our path on the right, through the deep snow?
A closer look at the ROCK-CARVINGS
Zooming in even further 🥰 so beautiful.
I have to capture a few more photos to remember this crazy adventure.
The largest rock 🪨 🫎🫎🫎
On our way up… the steep steps that are hidden, we try to step in our own footsteps 🦶🏻 I see this tree 🌲 and the snow.
A little detail of it 🌲
Looking at some other trees 🌲
What an #adventure to get through the snow, but the #VIEWS were sooooo worth it. Don’t you think?
I want to wish you all the best for the NEW YEAR 🥳🥳 on this last day of the year. This year truly was one big adventure. Thanks for sharing it with me 🤗😘
🍾🥂 HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY 🤩 let’s make 2025 awesome!
…and here I say that’s all for today’s post my friends.
Join me next time for more #updates, #adventures, #stories and #photographs 😎👋🏻
Even my own #artworks, once in a while, will come by” 🎨
Thank you so much for looking, and reading.
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Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.
Have a great day all 😎
Grtz Jackie
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!worldmappin 63.44093 lat 16.88262 long ☃️ OUR CRAZY ADVENTURE AT NÄMFORSEN ~ A ROCK-CARVINGS ~ PETROGLYPHS SITE from around 4500 B.C. in NÄSÅKER ~ SWEDEN 🇸🇪 d3scr
