a. ’There are a few myths about the cosmic elk (Sarvas) and cosmic elk hunts among the Sami (Lundmark 1982: 93-104), but when compared with the frequent stories of the bear, elk stories have a much smaller role. Judging by the rock art of northern Scandinavia, it seems that the elk once had an equally strong if not stronger position than the bear, but in contrast to the bear did not maintain its position into the recent past.
Part of the reason why elk gained a special meaning within the system of belief and practice may be related to the nature of the elk itself, its size and behaviour, and the habitat in which it lives. The elk is the largest land animal in the north. Elk live in woodland and associated open country, including mountains. In particular, they favour marshlands, river valleys and lakes in summer and drier ground in winter. In north-cast Europe they can migrate up to 150 km between feeding grounds in summer, although some are known to be non-migratory (MacDonald & Barrett 1993). In the summer their diet comprises mainly large herbs and leaves, including aquatic plants for which they wade, swim and even dive. Of the terrestrial animals in the north, the elk is the one most oriented towards a watery habitat.
With the exception of one panel from Zalavruga, northern Karelia, Russia, all the examples I discuss are from Alta. In Alta no two panels are identical. The angles of the rock surfaces vary from approximately 45* to horizontal, and the panels vary in size from 70 m2 to less than 1 m2, from polished to eroded, and from red to grey. Other variations include large panels with a large number and variety of figures, to small panels with few figures and little variation. The group of panels that I examine here are all from the earliest phase.
Figure 10.5 Berghelm I. This redrawing emphasises a number of figures and cracks
that have been added to a standard redrawing such as that seen in Figure 10.3.
As a result, the perspective is faulty. Note the concentration of elk in the lower section.
The first panel, Berghelm I (Figures 10.5 Sc 10.6), Alta (6200 BP-5600 BP), was first recorded in 1975. The lowest part was well preserved under peat while the upper two-thirds was strongly eroded. We worked all hours of the day and night to exploit the shifting light of the sun, but did not succeed in recording many engravings on the upper part. In the summer of 1999 I re-examined the upper section — looking with different eyes, and using a large black plastic sheet to manipulate light and shadows — eager to discover what figures were actually there. The result was astonishing, and the distribution of the figures reinforced the impression that entire panels can represent a landscape with stories. The eroded rock surface is, however, undoubtedly still hiding engraved lines to be discovered, but we have recorded most of what there is without stripping additional peat.
Figure 10.6 Bergheim I. Photograph showing the northern section of the surface, looking north-north-west.
The surface of the panel is even, with striation marks from the last glaciation at 90* to the direction of the slope. The top section of the panel is relatively horizontal before sloping (20*-30‘) downwards to another relatively horizontal surface which steepens into a 45* slope. The rounded ‘horizontal’ top, the slope and the relatively horizontal surface are all strongly eroded and the engravings are difficult to see, while on the lowest slope the engravings are well preserved, having once been protected by a cover of peat that the upper surfaces lacked.
The animal figures in the top section are strongly eroded. The group of five animals to the right are other elk or reindeer. The animals to the left all appear to be reindeer. In the slope immediately below, all are reindeer, with one exception. To the left there are two vertically split ‘ovals’. There is what appears to be some form of enclosure marked by long, wide lines similar to those on two other contemporaneous panels. Snow shoes, or prints thereof, are depicted in a semicircle moving from the right