Rock Art and the Wild Mind. Visual Imagery in Mesolithic Northern Europe (Book review)

Abstract

I was asked to review Ingrid Fuglestvedt’s Rock Art and the Wild Mind in terms of its approach to rock art and the ideas used to support her inter-pretation of north European Mesolithic rock art rather than the usual sort of review consisting of a description of chapters and general content. Thus, this review explores some of the underlying theory of Fuglestvedt’s reading of the rock art of northern Europe. The book is an impressive body of research with meticulous scholarship and volu-minous detail. It pulls together the results of past investigations of Scandinavian rock art in a new highly descriptive fashion rather than by simply summarising. It then weaves together a vast array of theoretical perspectives in order to present a new way of understanding the rock art of Mesolithic northern Europe, with a particular focus on key sites such as Alta, Vingen and Nämforsen.