Sacred mountains and arctic rock art in northern Norway

CERUTI, MARÍA CONSTANZA

Revista de Historia Universal

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Año: 2021 p. 17 - 37

0328-3704

In the Sami worldview, mountains are living entities closely linked to the atmospheric deities, ancestral spirits and shamanic rituals. Peaks may be named after animals, due to a morphological resemblance or a mythical connection. Ancestral places of offering, with deposits of bone and antler of reindeers, known as seides are oftentimes located near distinctive sacred rocks, or below the summit. Isolated mountains with distinctive prominences are considered as protectors of the area and given the name Haldi. This paper is based in the author ́s field experience as an anthropologist and archaeologist who has climbed sacred peaks north of the Arctic Polar Circle, including mount Tromsdalstind. The symbolic dimension of arctic mountains is interpreted in connection with ancient representations of shamans and auxiliary spirits, in rock art panels photographed in the fjords of Tromso and Alta, in northern Scandinavia.