Moelv Petroglyphs Part 4

Some of the figures on side three the Moelv rock are made in a different style than the ones on side 1, and it is probable that more than one artist made the figures on the rock and possibly there were big gaps of time between the creation of some of the figures.

The shape of the head of the top left figure, figure 9, is somewhat different from the other carvings and together with the stocky body it remined me of a bear. One of the lines goes down into the figure below and they might be supposed to be connected in some way, but here i rendered the figures separately.

Silhouette of figure 9 and drawing of figure 9 as a bear.

The shape of the figure at the bottom left, figure 10, reminded me of a donkey with the long ears and tail. Many figures have these internal lines that I in some renderings just incorporate into the fur when rendering, but in this drawing I explored the possibility that the lines may represent parts of the skeleton of the animal. The rock carvings were probably made during the stone age, and there probably weren’t any donkeys in Norway at that time.

Silhouette of figure 10 and drawing of figure 10 as a donkey with exposed muscles, bones and organs.

The middle figure, figure 11, it noticeably less well drawn than all the other carvings on the Moelv rock. Perhaps it was made by an apprentice artist, or perhaps it was made by someone inexperienced that wanted to imitate the other art a long time after the other carvings were done. I rendered this shape as a sort of moose type ruminant, but no animal will fit very well withing the shape of this carving. While i interpreted the vertical lines in figure 10 as ribs, I attempted to interpret them as stripes in the fur of the animal on figure 11.

Silhouette of figure 11 and drawing of figure 11 as a striped ruminant.