Signs and symbols in Karelia rock art: classification and issues of interpretation

The paper provides new data on images of rock art of Lake Onega and the White Sea such as solar and lunar signs as well as other abstract images with complex semantics which sparked enormous interest among researchers and generated heated discussions in the 1930s and 1960s. These images were regarded key for interpretation of Onega rock art images. The author analyzes existing hypotheses, highlights their drawbacks and presents her view on this issue. Over the past ten years the author conducted field research of petroglyphs with application of modern methods. The increased number of petroglyphs and clarification of their location and contours is a result of this study. This provides a more solid basis for rock art interpretation. In Karelia petroglyphs were created during a limited span, less than one thousand years (6500-7000 years ago). Together with the surrounding landscape, the petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the petroglyphs from the White Sea form open air sanctuaries. Similarity of the images is caused by chronology, similar natural conditions, the same cultural context, whereas differences are more likely to be related with local conditions and specific features of natural environment. Similar and sometimes even identical images point to direct contacts between the population of both regions and similar trajectories of petroglyphic tradition development. Discs, circles, crescents, rods, etc., often represented together with birds, forest animals, boats and people in the boats and near the boats, have been identified (Figs. 1-4). Such symbols were of great importance in mythological concepts, rites and rituals of the Neolithic population inhabiting the Lake Onega shores.