Ministry of Culture and Public Relations of the Republic of Karelia (Russia)
Karelian Regional State Museum (the Republic of Karelia, Russia)
Museum of Västerbotten (Västerbotten, Sweden)
The exhibition
Petroglyphs of Karelia
Image of World and World of Images
Petroglyphs of Karelia became one of the most outstanding monuments of ancient culture within
Northern Europe. Two rock art localities are known: on the eastern shore of Onego Lake and in the White
Sea region, at the mouth of the Vyg River. For European Russia these are the largest assemblages of the
rock carvings dated back to Stone Ages. About 1300 individual carvings have been found at Onego Lake
and more than 2000 petroglyphs – in the White Sea region.
Contemporary with the Egypt pyramids, engraved on the rocks images like pyramids are simple and
complicated to understand at the same time, petroglyphs are available and “closed”, also mysterious... An
acquaintance with them open for us the magic and mythic world of Prehistoric Man – a hunter, shaman,
warrior.
Rock carvings are thought to serve as an original “iconostasis” (icon-screen) in ancient sanctuaries –
centers of religious activities of primitive communities. Ritual festivals and ceremonies were likely held
there; previous experience that people gradually gained about life and the world was kept in the figural
shape and handed down from generation to generation.
Photographs of Onego Lake and the White Sea petroglyphs are represented on the exhibition. That
gives a good chance for our visitors to compare different groups of carvings and form their own opinion,
perhaps diverse one from scholars’ viewpoint, about spiritual and religious beliefs of Prehistoric Men.
An important feature of the exhibition is our area for games where visitors can be a researcher as
well as an active participant in role games. There are “prehistoric” headdresses (warrior, shaman, child,
hunter or woman’s) to provide an unique opportunity for our visitors to “impersonate” Prehistoric Men.
The special bricks with pictured on their sides Russian (Onego Lake and the White Sea), Swedish
(Nämforsen and Tanum), Norwegian (Alta) petroglyphs and Finnish pisanitsy will help our visitors to
compare independently rock drawings from different countries in Northern Europe, to examine them how
they are similar to or different from each other. If visitors are interested there is a solid model of petroglyph
to copy rock carvings as real researchers of rock drawings do. Our special facilities include small drawingboards. With the help of these “tools”, everyone can try to create his own mythical story, find the meaning
of ancient drawings, discover the things similar to petroglyphs in the modern world (for instance, graffiti)
and tell his imaginary descendents about himself, his feelings, everyday life.
Exhibition author: Alexander Zhulnikov
Designer: Lera Vayan
Photographs: Alexander Zhulnikov
Authors of exhibition items for the interactive area: Yuriy Alexandrov, Vera Busarova, Tatyana
Myullyari, Svetlana Zubova
Film maker: Vitaliy Golubev
Composer: Sergey Stangrit
Project coordinator: Denis Kuznetsov, Anders Karlsson