<bron191.htm> [Bronze Age
Text]
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Three versions of a Bronze Age riddle using pictographic
symbols.
The top
example is from Namforsen, Sweden. The
middle example
is from Engelstrup, Denmark, while the lower
one is from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
(Fell 1982).
All three show great similarities.
In the Swedish example,
the Bronze Age artist has just engraved a
representation of a
10-oared boat, with the crewmen shown as plain
sticklike marks.
He takes up his gouge and hammers out a bent
left arm on each
of two facing crewmen. Next he add what seems an utterly irrele-
vant detail, a stylistic horse suspended in
midair above
the vessel's stern.
In the Danish example, another artist carves a stylized ship
into a boulder, with 20 rowers. He now adds two more men, one
at the bow and one suspended above the other
rowers. Each of
these two figures is now given a bent
arm. Next he adds a horse
in midair above the stern.
In the Canadian example, one of King Woden-lithi's artists
also has cut a ship engraving, some 15 ft. due
east of the main sun
figure.
He carves only 6 rowers. Then he
adds a larger stick figure
at the bow, being careful to bend the
forearm. Finally, he adds a
somewhat misshapen horse, suspended aver the
stern.