Antti Lahelma University of Helsinki Institute for Cultural Research, Department of Archaeology P.O.

Box 59, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto Finland antti.lahelma@helsinki.fi THE BOAT AS A SYMBOL IN FINNISH ROCK ART A little over one hundred prehistoric rock paintings, of which some eighty have identifiable figures, are known today to exist in Finland (Lahelma in press). The paintings are made with red ochre on open-air rock cliffs rising at lake shores, sometimes also on large erratic boulders. The range of motifs in these paintings is rather limited, with images of elks, stick-figure humans and boats making up approximately 80% of all the images of Finnish rock paintings. The remainder consists of some representations mainly of fish, birds, snakes and geometric figures. In much of Finnish rock art research, the human figures and elks have been interpreted in a relatively straightforward manner, mainly as representing hunters and prey. However, boat figures have been regarded problematic. The schematic shape of the figures (a curving line with some strokes or triangles pointing up, interpreted as the crew) is not always immediately recognisable as a boat (fig. a), although it does resemble the boat figures of Northern Scandinavia and Russian Karelia. As in the rock arts of said regions, the Finnish boat figures sometimes appear to have an elk head in the prow (fig. c). However, the picture is complicated by the fact that in a few cases the boat appears to have both the head and legs of an elk (fig. b). Moreover, sometimes there appear to be two heads one in each end (fig. d) and in a few cases the boat is attached to the forehead of an elk, so as to form the unrealistically huge antlers of the animal (fig. e). Such images, sometimes referred to as elk-boats and boat-antlered elks, make it clear that the images of boats do not always refer to crafts used for travelling in this world.

Fig. Some examples of boat figures in Finnish rock paintings: a) Ruominkapia, b) Saraakallio, c) Patalahti, d) Saraakallio, e) Pyhnp.

That fact that boats are sometimes attached to the foreheads of elks led Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen (1978) to argue that the images should, in fact, be interpreted as elk antlers rather than boats. Following Taavitsainens paper, an element of confusion concerning the boat figures has continued to haunt Finnish rock art research. A similar strangenesss in the combinations boats, elks and other images at Nmforsen, Sweden, prompted Tilley (1991) to present an elaborate thesis on the inherent ambiguity of prehistoric art. Schematic boat figures can be found in the rock arts of various parts of the world, but occur particularly frequently in the circumpolar region, with a distribution of almost identical images extending from Scandinavia to Northern Russia, Siberia and North America. Although the image of a boat as such can potentially symbolise an almost anything, there is a recurring religious aspect cross-culturally associated with boats and canoes in this vast region. This is the association of boats with shamanism and shamanic journeys to the otherworld. Boats and shamanism As Vastokas & Vastokas (1978: 126) point out in a discussion of the boat images of Peterborough petroglyphs in Canada, boat imagery has deep roots in both Eurasian and North American shamanism. Probably the best known example of this is the spirit canoe of the coastal Salish of Washington State. In the rite, several Salish shamans join together in an imaginary canoe to travel to the underworld, with each shaman holding a pole or a paddle to steer the canoe (Vitebsky 2001: 44). A similar visionary experience is recounted in a song performed by the Chukchi shaman Nuwat, in which the vehicle of the shamanic journey is described as a boat with a fish-bone rudder (Bogoras 1904-1909: 438). The Chukchi also refer to the shaman drum as a boat, as do the Siberian Evenk, who think of the drum variously as a wild reindeer, a weapon and a boat (Anisimov 1963: 117-8). Perhaps more relevant to the interpretation of Finnish rock paintings, evidence of the boat as a shamans vehicle to the otherworld can also be found in Saami ethnography. Boats greatly resembling those of prehistoric rock paintings are often depicted on the membranes of Saami shaman drums (Manker 1938). Although it is not always clear how these images should be interpreted, a clue is offered by the ethnographically accurate account of a shamanistic sance found in the 12th century Historia Norvegiae (Tolley 1994). The Saami shaman in Historia Norvegiae is described as having a drum on which water-beasts, reindeer, snow-shoes and a boat are depicted. These are all said to be vehicles for the soul of the shaman. In later Saami shamanism, fish, snakes, birds or reindeer typically act as the vehicles of the shaman. That a boat could fulfil the same function is, however, suggested by the fact that the Saami of Lake Kemijrvi in Finland used boatshaped shaman drums, called lodde-karbes or bird-boat (Itkonen 1946: 121). Stories of journeying to the Land of Death in a boat are found also in Finnish Kalevala poetry, the shamanistic character and ancient roots of which are widely recognised (Siikala 2002). Finally, it should be noted that this complex of beliefs regarding boats and the otherworld is intimately associated with the ancient and widely spread practice of boat burial, for which archaeological evidence is found already in the Danish Mesolithic finds (Skaarup 1995) and which is still today practiced by some of the Khanty, who bury their dead in boat-shaped coffins (Siikala 2002: 139). Understanding elk-boats and boat-antlered elks In the light of northern ethnography, interpreting the boat figures of Finnish rock art as shamans vehicles to the otherworld thus seems plausible. This idea is not new but was suggested by Siikala (1981) already two decades ago. Siikala, however, found the boats the most problematic group of motifs in Finnish rock art, and ultimately left their interpretation open. Rather than shamans vehicles, the boats might be interpreted as carriers of the gods, of the sun, or similar mythical boats for which we also have evidence in northern myth and belief. To make the interpretation more compelling, we therefore must return to the problem with the strange images showing combinations of boats and elks.

The fact that images of elks and boats can merge into composite figures presumes that they share some quality or function that makes such merging intelligible. An elk is a living being, but a boat is an inanimate object. What quality or function can a boat share with an elk? I suggest that the shared function is the capability of being used as a vehicle in shamanic journeys. In the shamanistic traditions of circumpolar region, an elk or a deer commonly acts as the shamans steed on the journey to the otherworld. This is true of the Saami of Northern Finland, but deer and elk shamans are found throughout Northern Eurasia, as shown already by Uno Holmbergs studies of shaman costumes (Holmberg 1922). But as noted above, a boat or a canoe could equally well be used in otherworldly journeys. Thus among several Siberian peoples, including the Nenets, Nganasans, Evenks, and Selkups, the shaman drum is described both as a deer and a boat. This concept of the drum as a deer/boat should not be mistaken for a mere poetic metaphor; in visions and shamanic songs, it is perceived to be a concrete object (Siikala 2002: 52). Moreover, boats and elks may not have been thought of as categorically different as we are accustomed to think. It is important to note that many North Eurasian peoples viewed the shaman drum as an animate, living being (Hoppl 2003: 118-119). Nor was attributing animacy to dead objects limited to shaman drums, but in the context of a worldview such as that of the Khanty, almost any aspect of material culture such as a boat could be seen as animate (Jordan 2003). To make a categorical distinction between animals and inanimate objects therefore runs the risk of being ethnocentric. The conceptual similarity between boats and elks need not be limited to a simple, 'imaginary' functional use, but they can have belonged to the same category of sentient, living beings. As the shaman's vehicles, they perhaps formed an extension of his ego - his 'other self'. Such a conceptual affinity seems to be reflected in Finnish rock art. The interpretation presented above is in line with what I have written elsewhere concerning the interpretation of the paintings (Lahelma in press). Moreover, it gives a possible explanation to the strange and ambiguous imagery of the composite elk-boat images. They can be seen to arise from a shamanistic-animistic system of beliefs, in which 1) anything (including boats) can potentially be alive; 2) in which both elks and boats are invested with a capacity to move from one zone of the cosmos to another, and 3) in which both elks and boats may function as the shaman's vehicle in this passage. In such a system of beliefs, boats and elks can have been thought of as, in a sense, interchangeable. A possible expression of these ideas appears to be found in the rock painting of Pyhnp on Lake Pijnne, where an elk, a human (shaman?) merging with its rear leg, and a boat attached to its forehead form a single image (fig. e). References Anisimov, A.F. 1963. The Shamans Tent of the Evenkis and the Origin of the Shamanistic Rite. In Michael, H.M. (ed.) Studies in Siberian Shamanism. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. Bogoras, W. 1904-09. The Chukchee. In Boas, F. (ed.) The Jesup North Pacific Expedition. New York. Holmberg, U. 1922. The Shaman Costume and its Significance. Turku, Turun yliopisto. Hoppl, M. 2003. Samaanien maailma. Jyvskyl, Atena. Itkonen, T. I. 1946. Heidnische Religion und spterer Aberglaube bei den finnischen Lappen. Helsinki, Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. Jordan, P. 2003. Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty. AltaMira Press, New York. Lahelma, A. in press. Between the Worlds: Rock Art, Landscape and Shamanism in Subneolithic Finland. Norwegian Archaeological Review, Vol. 38, No. 1.

Manker, E. 1938. Die lappische Zaubertrommel I. Acta Lapponica I. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. Siikala, A.-L. 1981. Finnish Rock Art, Animal Ceremonialism and Shamanism. Temenos, Vol. 17, 81-100. Siikala, A.-L. 2002. Mythic Images and Shamanism. A Perspective on Kalevala Poetry. Academia Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki. Skaarup, J. 1995. Stone-Age Burials in Boats. In Crumlin-Pedersen, O. & Munch Thye, B. (eds.) The Ship as a Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia. Copenhagen, The National Museum of Denmark. Taavitsainen, J.-P. 1978. Hllmlningarna - en ny synvinkel p Finlands frhistoria. Suomen antropologi - Antropologi i Finland 4/1978, 179-195. Tilley, C. 1991. Material Culture and Text: the Art of Ambiguity. Oxford, Berg. Tolley, C. 1994. The Shamanic Sance in the Historia Norvegiae. Shaman Journal of the International Society for Shamanistic Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, 135-156. Vastokas, J. M. & Vastokas, R. K. 1973. Sacred Art of the Algonkians. Peterborough, Mansard Press. Vitebsky, P. 2001. The Shaman. London, Duncan Baird.