I photographed the petroglyphs at Bardal on the 8th of July 2023. Bardalfeltet is named after the farm, Bardal, where the carvings are found in Steinkjer municipality.

There is a great variety in the symbols depicted in the rock art found at Bardal, and it is speculated that they were made at different time periods spanning the late Nordic Stone Age (10,000 BCE – 1800 BCE), Bronze Age (1,800 BCE – 500 BCE) and early Iron Age (500 BCE – 1050 CE).

The belief that the art was carved at different times stems from noticeable differences in style, symbols, and weathering. Many of the later figures are also directly carved over the older ones. The oldest ones are probably the deer types and other animal figures typical of “veideristninger”. Many of these figures are now too feint to show up in the photographs.

Notice the more feint marks of large, parallel, vertical lines among the more strongly marked petroglyphs of ships and more abstract animal figures. These feint lines are part of the old, more realistically depicted, petroglyphs. The feint lines under the more distinct figure in the picture below are the legs of large moose figures.

Recent graffiti (or a recent example of rock art) of a bicycle. Continuing the tradition of people carving symbols from their time on top of the symbols of past generations at this site.