Mark Sapwell | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)
Papers by Mark Sapwell
This article explores how Howard Morphy and Alfred Gell’s descriptions of art as a form of action... more This article explores how Howard Morphy and Alfred Gell’s descriptions of art as a form of action may offer new insights into the role of rock art palimpsests. The discussion first outlines both Gell’s and Morphy’s arguments, focusing on their mutually reconcilable theory that art is a form of action that involves the realisation of agency. It takes palimpsest art as a particular form of art as action; one that specifically involves the act of accumulation. Using contemporary examples, the article outlines two key accumulative practices that result in palimpsest art. The first is a practice where images are added to one place in order to support and continue a shared idea (the singular palimpsest). The second is a practice where images are added in more diverse ways, and choices are made over which images to add to over others (the multiple palimpsest). Using a formal methodology to differentiate the two types of palimpsest, the article examines the rock art palimpsest of Nämforsen and argues that Laxön, a major part of Nämforsen, was likely a multiple palimpsest, where ideas of community revolved around the making and clustering of the human and elk motifs. Through this example, the article demonstrates how Gell and Morphy’s theories greatly enrich the potential insights that a rock art palimpsest may offer to the archaeologist and how the rock art palimpsest can in turn demonstrate and develop arguments for how art can be seen as a form of action.
F ollowing a workshop in 2008 at Linnaeus University, Sweden, Changing Pictures offers 13 papers ... more F ollowing a workshop in 2008 at Linnaeus University, Sweden, Changing Pictures offers 13 papers that address the study of rock art from northernmost Europe. Written entirely in English, the volume provides a rare and celebrated case where the latest rock art research in Fennoscandia is made accessible to an international audience.
This paper explores how the long-term addition of images to one place enables the development and... more This paper explores how the long-term addition of images to one place enables the development and exchange of knowledge in prehistoric northernmost Europe. In particular we focus on how rock art realises different senses of community in Sweden (Laxön, Nämforsen) and Russia (Zalavruga).
We argue that for both rock art landscapes there exists consistent patterns in how motifs are placed in relation to each other, and most importantly demonstrates selective acts of accumulation where art was used in the act of including and excluding ideas by the community. Both Laxön and Zalavruga served as places where the collective relevance of ideas were evaluated and expressed through selective accumulation. While both palimpsests shared similar techniques of selective accumulation and repeating motifs, their effects in building community and a sense of the world are very different, and in some cases almost opposing.
We hope that the approach presented in this paper can be applied to other parts of Northern Europe and beyond to explore the role of rock art in the exchange of ideas and the building of identities.
Landscape History Volume 35: Issue 1, 2014
In, Ginn, V, Enlander, R, & Crozier, R (Eds.), Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe: Our Cons... more In, Ginn, V, Enlander, R, & Crozier, R (Eds.), Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe: Our Construct or Theirs?: Oxbow 2014
Using the Bird People of Kallsängen at Bohuslän, Sweden as a case study, I argue that for a shama... more Using the Bird People of Kallsängen at Bohuslän, Sweden as a case study, I argue that for a shamanic or cosmological argument to be successful in the interpretation of rock art, it must replace the division between mind and material implicit in an iconographic argument with the consideration of art as actively engaged in the formation of ideas. The possibilities of moving beyond the idea of art as idea-substrate will be explored in the examination of the Kallsängen and further Bohuslän rock carvings. This paper works to demonstrate how new connections and associations made in reference to ‘art as active’ improves the explanatory power of the interpretation, by giving a greater emphasis to the status of the image through time. It is argued that this approach does not conflict with a shamanic model, nor Bradley and Kaul’s solar and tripartite cosmologies, but work to enrich the consideration of altered states of consciousness and beliefs of the world as a practice entangled in wider human experiences.
Talks by Mark Sapwell
Circumpolar rock art involves interesting contrasts between large-scale cosmologies and changing ... more Circumpolar rock art involves interesting contrasts between large-scale cosmologies and changing networks of communication and exchange, visible in the archaeological record. Changing distributions of slate objects and amber, the spread of ceramic technologies and shared artistic devices demonstrate the extent communities in northernmost Europe were entangled within complex landscapes of interaction. When exploring the possibility of enduring circumpolar cosmologies it is therefore important to question how continuity and social mobility interrelate.
Inspired by ethnographic research of the Yupik in Alaska and Tsimshian in British Columbia, this paper argues that instead of forming a contradiction, change and movement of experiences and people was a crucially formative aspect of cosmological thinking in Circumpolar Europe. To demonstrate this, I examine the rock art palimpsests of Zalavruga in Karelia and Nämforsen in Northern Sweden. By using G.I.S reconstructions and compositional analyses, it is possible to explore how the visual traditions of Circumpolar Europe involved embracing, merging and separating pictorial subjects in contrasting and changing ways. This aspect of the rock art suggests that by producing images in terms of moving people and ideas, mobility and change was a constitutive aspect of how Circumpolar communities experienced their worlds and each other.
During the 4th to 2nd Millennium BC, hunter-gatherer-fisher groups of northern Sweden, Norway, Fi... more During the 4th to 2nd Millennium BC, hunter-gatherer-fisher groups of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and western Russia lived in a changing world. Varying environments and sea levels, diversifying conditions of extensive contact networks and transforming ideas of people and the world all contributed to the appearance of new hunting traditions, new forms of material culture and new ways of moving through and acting within the landscape.
Though we know that many significant developments occurred in Fennoscandia at this time, it is often difficult to see how the various elements worked together to manifest such changes. This paper discusses the role rock art plays in the changing ideas of hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in Fennoscandia.
I argue that the rock art palimpsests of northern Sweden, Norway and Russia, and the rock art landscapes of Finland served as ‘think-tanks’, where cosmologies are not only expressed, but discovered, challenged and transformed. To demonstrate this possibility, I discuss the rock art palimpsest of Nämforsen in northern Sweden and Zalavruga in western Russia. Using reconstructions of the rock art landscapes and compositional analyses with GIS it is possible to examine how new forms of composition develop through time. These compositions often reference their predecessors and use old images in new ways to express and test new forms of cosmological thinking. Through working with images, prehistoric people developed and tested new ideas which were entangled in the successes and failures of other forms of material culture and affected by the changing Fennoscandian landscape.
By placing the rock art palimpsests as a central component in how ideas and actions change in Fennoscandia, new ways of binding various threads of evidence are possible. This follows the understanding that changing practices seen in prehistory always involve changing conceptions of people and the world.
This article explores how Howard Morphy and Alfred Gell’s descriptions of art as a form of action... more This article explores how Howard Morphy and Alfred Gell’s descriptions of art as a form of action may offer new insights into the role of rock art palimpsests. The discussion first outlines both Gell’s and Morphy’s arguments, focusing on their mutually reconcilable theory that art is a form of action that involves the realisation of agency. It takes palimpsest art as a particular form of art as action; one that specifically involves the act of accumulation. Using contemporary examples, the article outlines two key accumulative practices that result in palimpsest art. The first is a practice where images are added to one place in order to support and continue a shared idea (the singular palimpsest). The second is a practice where images are added in more diverse ways, and choices are made over which images to add to over others (the multiple palimpsest). Using a formal methodology to differentiate the two types of palimpsest, the article examines the rock art palimpsest of Nämforsen and argues that Laxön, a major part of Nämforsen, was likely a multiple palimpsest, where ideas of community revolved around the making and clustering of the human and elk motifs. Through this example, the article demonstrates how Gell and Morphy’s theories greatly enrich the potential insights that a rock art palimpsest may offer to the archaeologist and how the rock art palimpsest can in turn demonstrate and develop arguments for how art can be seen as a form of action.
F ollowing a workshop in 2008 at Linnaeus University, Sweden, Changing Pictures offers 13 papers ... more F ollowing a workshop in 2008 at Linnaeus University, Sweden, Changing Pictures offers 13 papers that address the study of rock art from northernmost Europe. Written entirely in English, the volume provides a rare and celebrated case where the latest rock art research in Fennoscandia is made accessible to an international audience.
This paper explores how the long-term addition of images to one place enables the development and... more This paper explores how the long-term addition of images to one place enables the development and exchange of knowledge in prehistoric northernmost Europe. In particular we focus on how rock art realises different senses of community in Sweden (Laxön, Nämforsen) and Russia (Zalavruga).
We argue that for both rock art landscapes there exists consistent patterns in how motifs are placed in relation to each other, and most importantly demonstrates selective acts of accumulation where art was used in the act of including and excluding ideas by the community. Both Laxön and Zalavruga served as places where the collective relevance of ideas were evaluated and expressed through selective accumulation. While both palimpsests shared similar techniques of selective accumulation and repeating motifs, their effects in building community and a sense of the world are very different, and in some cases almost opposing.
We hope that the approach presented in this paper can be applied to other parts of Northern Europe and beyond to explore the role of rock art in the exchange of ideas and the building of identities.
Landscape History Volume 35: Issue 1, 2014
In, Ginn, V, Enlander, R, & Crozier, R (Eds.), Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe: Our Cons... more In, Ginn, V, Enlander, R, & Crozier, R (Eds.), Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe: Our Construct or Theirs?: Oxbow 2014
Using the Bird People of Kallsängen at Bohuslän, Sweden as a case study, I argue that for a shama... more Using the Bird People of Kallsängen at Bohuslän, Sweden as a case study, I argue that for a shamanic or cosmological argument to be successful in the interpretation of rock art, it must replace the division between mind and material implicit in an iconographic argument with the consideration of art as actively engaged in the formation of ideas. The possibilities of moving beyond the idea of art as idea-substrate will be explored in the examination of the Kallsängen and further Bohuslän rock carvings. This paper works to demonstrate how new connections and associations made in reference to ‘art as active’ improves the explanatory power of the interpretation, by giving a greater emphasis to the status of the image through time. It is argued that this approach does not conflict with a shamanic model, nor Bradley and Kaul’s solar and tripartite cosmologies, but work to enrich the consideration of altered states of consciousness and beliefs of the world as a practice entangled in wider human experiences.
Circumpolar rock art involves interesting contrasts between large-scale cosmologies and changing ... more Circumpolar rock art involves interesting contrasts between large-scale cosmologies and changing networks of communication and exchange, visible in the archaeological record. Changing distributions of slate objects and amber, the spread of ceramic technologies and shared artistic devices demonstrate the extent communities in northernmost Europe were entangled within complex landscapes of interaction. When exploring the possibility of enduring circumpolar cosmologies it is therefore important to question how continuity and social mobility interrelate.
Inspired by ethnographic research of the Yupik in Alaska and Tsimshian in British Columbia, this paper argues that instead of forming a contradiction, change and movement of experiences and people was a crucially formative aspect of cosmological thinking in Circumpolar Europe. To demonstrate this, I examine the rock art palimpsests of Zalavruga in Karelia and Nämforsen in Northern Sweden. By using G.I.S reconstructions and compositional analyses, it is possible to explore how the visual traditions of Circumpolar Europe involved embracing, merging and separating pictorial subjects in contrasting and changing ways. This aspect of the rock art suggests that by producing images in terms of moving people and ideas, mobility and change was a constitutive aspect of how Circumpolar communities experienced their worlds and each other.
During the 4th to 2nd Millennium BC, hunter-gatherer-fisher groups of northern Sweden, Norway, Fi... more During the 4th to 2nd Millennium BC, hunter-gatherer-fisher groups of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and western Russia lived in a changing world. Varying environments and sea levels, diversifying conditions of extensive contact networks and transforming ideas of people and the world all contributed to the appearance of new hunting traditions, new forms of material culture and new ways of moving through and acting within the landscape.
Though we know that many significant developments occurred in Fennoscandia at this time, it is often difficult to see how the various elements worked together to manifest such changes. This paper discusses the role rock art plays in the changing ideas of hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in Fennoscandia.
I argue that the rock art palimpsests of northern Sweden, Norway and Russia, and the rock art landscapes of Finland served as ‘think-tanks’, where cosmologies are not only expressed, but discovered, challenged and transformed. To demonstrate this possibility, I discuss the rock art palimpsest of Nämforsen in northern Sweden and Zalavruga in western Russia. Using reconstructions of the rock art landscapes and compositional analyses with GIS it is possible to examine how new forms of composition develop through time. These compositions often reference their predecessors and use old images in new ways to express and test new forms of cosmological thinking. Through working with images, prehistoric people developed and tested new ideas which were entangled in the successes and failures of other forms of material culture and affected by the changing Fennoscandian landscape.
By placing the rock art palimpsests as a central component in how ideas and actions change in Fennoscandia, new ways of binding various threads of evidence are possible. This follows the understanding that changing practices seen in prehistory always involve changing conceptions of people and the world.