[Finland] Astuvansalmi

The Astuvansalmi, rock paintings, are located in Ristiina, Southern Savonia, Finland at the shores of the lake Yövesi, which is a part of the large lake Saimaa. The rock paintings are the largest found in the whole of Scandinavia. They consist of 65 paintings. The rock paintings were officially found by the Finnish archaeologist Pekka Sarvas in 1968, though locals knew about them already before that.



The Astuvansalmi rock paintings contain the following pictures: 18–20 elk, about as many human figures, tens of hands and animal tracks, 8–9 boats, geometrical figures and pictures that are thought to show a fish and a dog. The paintings could have a link to the Siberian and North European shamanistic tradition, where sun was thought to be a deer or an elk running through the sky. Also the Lapps (or Sami people) have had their beliefs of the sun as a running Cosmic Sun-Reindeer. The people in the paintings were the shamans, who had a contact with the spirit world through trance with their drumming and songs. Shamanism is the oldest cultural tradition of Finland and the North.

The elk has traditionally been a very important prey for the people of the north. The elk has also meant the Center of the Universe. Some of the eighteen elk of Astuvansalmi have dots on their heart. All except one is looking towards west. Some are moving and some are standing. The sun, the symbol of life rises from the east. That was the home of the Big Elk and all the Good Spirits and Gods. The west was the symbol of the Land of Death where the dead were going with their elk-headed boats. The boat was a very important way of transport in the lake regions of prehistoric Finland. Big boats of skin and wood were already being made already before the Vikings started making their big ships. The boats were quite similar to the North American Indian models.

The rock where the paintings are located looks like a human head when looked from a certain direction. The form is clearly visible during wintertime while viewed from the ice of the lake. The rock has presumably been some kind of a cult or ceremony site. The paintings are nowadays 7,7 to 11,8 metres above the water-level of lake Saimaa. The lake level was much higher during the making of the rock paintings.

The oldest paintings are made 3000 - 2500 BC. They are located at the highest level (about 11 metres). The water level changed very fast about 2,5 metres with the landslide of Vuoksi. Later on the level slowly went down 8 metres to its present level. All the later paintings have been made from boats during the different historical water-levels.