Earlier research in Finland between 1960 and 1990 has been reserved about drawing conclusions concerning the relationships between Finnish rock paintings and the figures on heads in the Sámi shaman drums. However, due to the recent discoveries and analysis of the content of more rock paintings in Finland, these similarities can no longer be ignored. The symbolic artwork in both cases is like a signature of the inheritance of past generations, linking Sámi history from Lapland with the central and southern areas of Finland.

Within the content of the paper, the author made comparisons between the horned and triangular headed figures found from Keltavuori, Lappeenranta and Uittamonsalmi, Mikkeli and two shaman drums collected during the eighteenth century from Lycksele and Åsle in the Swedish Lapland.

These recent findings point towards the survival of a nature based sacrificial religion from the Stone Age era in Finland. The source of this was shamanistic in its essence, and is seen portrayed on rock and boulder formations by hunters similarly to how figures were illustrated on drum heads by the Sámi shamans from the nomadic era of the 17th and 18th centuries in Lapland. This more recent recognition strengthens the argument for Sámi involvement in the creation of rock paintings in Finland, which has been a highly controversial subject amongst scholars.

In Finland there are many colourful and symbolic pre-historic rock paintings mainly close to rivers and waterways in the central and southern parts. Altogether in Finland there are 128 currently recorded rock painting sites, and 96 of which, have figures that are identifiable.

“My findings whilst conducting the research into pre-history in Finland has demonstrated there are indeed many gaps in Sámi cultural history when it comes to trying to assemble a clear portrait of the past. One of the main reasons for these circumstances is because the Sámi like other indigenous people have expressed their culture, religion and relationship with nature through art, which is a form of oral transmission“ , says Researcher Joy.

The historical Sámi in Finland are often thought of as residing in Lapland, but as the article demonstrates, there have been many Sámi places in central and southern Finland before Christianity arrived. The scope of the research has emphasized the need for a broader and more comprehensive study of the relationship between the hunting culture who, through the rock paintings have left their signatures on boulder formations close to the lakes and waterways, and the nomadic reindeer culture from Lapland, who left their signatures on the heads of painted Sámi shaman divination drums.



Left, a picture of two horned figures drawn on the head of a Sámi shaman drum from Swedish Lapland. From the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One of the figures is holding a bow. Right. A scene from a rock painting from Astuvansalmi, Riistina which shows similar characteristics on two painted figures. On the left of the painted panel, is a naked woman holding a bow whose breasts are visible. Right, is a horned figure that is holding what looks like an axe or hammer? The rock paintings have been dated between 3,500 – 7000 years BCE.

Literature

Francis Joy, 2013. To all our relations: evidence of Sámi involvement in the creation of rock paintings in Finland. Polar Record, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0032247413000351,

Luukkonen, Ismo 1994-2013. Suomen kalliomaalauksia-Finnish Rock Paintings. http://www.ismoluukkonen.net/kalliotaide/suomi/ Accessed on 29.03.12

Manker, Ernst Mauritz 1950. Die lappische Zaubertrommel: eine ethnologische Monographie. 2, Die Trommel als Urkunde geistigen Lebens. Stockholm: Gebers. (Acta Lapponica; 6).