This chapter posits the processes that favored the rise of ranked polities in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age.
We put forth the Supra Regional Interaction Hypothesis to explain how elite households were able to consolidate political power through their involvement in boat building, timber extraction, long-distance exchange, and raiding for slaves with the goal of financing trading expeditions to secure coveted metals. These elite households were organized into supra regional political sodalities that controlled political power, surplus production, debt, exchange, feasts, and warfare as well as ritual and religious means.
We hypothesize that this sodality functioned as types of “secret society” as described by 2018 [The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity]:
(1) they were shaped and operated by a rudimentary aristocracy of aggrandizers that strived to secure advantages for themselves: they extracted surpluses from non-secret society members and their actions were self-serving rather than integrative for society; (2) they controlled local and to some extent regional politics and exercised substantial influence over the activities that generated surpluses; (3) they transcended kinship by forging ‘fictive’ supra kinship organizations that sometimes replaced the functions of clans; (4) they monopolized ritual knowledge, ideology, and political power by proclaiming control over supernatural powers that were believed to be hazardous to non-secret society members; (5) they enforced ‘private’ initiation rituals at remote locations in the landscape, often in caves along with the creation of rock art; from junior members and non-members alike; (6) they invested in long distance exchange of exotic items thus, fomenting the distribution of certain artistic styles over large areas; (7) they used exotic items, special ritual paraphernalia, and iconography to demonstrate their exclusivity in society and their privileged connection to the supernatural world.
Thus, in order secure boats for long-distance exchange of metals and other exotica, the said political sodalities established trade confederacies, alliances, and colonies between rich agro-pastoral regions (more coercive) and regions rich in timber (more cooperative)—the latter ones famous for its rock art. They established transregional networks that linked and controlled interaction and exchange between regions with varied forms of environments and social organizations, spanning from more coercive to cooperative social settings (2017). In doing so, they could control labour, raw materials, skills, and surplus production over large areas.
Moreover, we theorize that aggrandizing households sponsoring boat building and timber extraction also reaped many benefits stemming from the capturing of slaves.
We also claim that the rock was made and controlled by members of “secret societies” and that the abundance of rock art sites in more cooperative timber-rich regions should be seen as an outcome of political/ritual interactions with elites from more coercive areas (Figure 4.1).
…In this context, we argue that transregional boat building guilds with representatives from both Tanum and Jutland (ie. secret societies) conducted maritime long-distance exchange, warfare, slavery, and various forms of ritual activity. Similar activities emerged during the Viking Age when boat guilds were established (1992). Also, ethnographic data shows that North American indigenous boat guilds were involved in long-distance exchange (1997; 2001; 2007). Additionally, we argue that these transregional guilds also created the rock art found in the Tanum/Bohuslän area on a seasonal basis as part of the ritual process associated with the transmission of knowledge relating to navigation, boat construction, watercraft maintenance, warfare, religion, and cosmopolitan affairs. Pilgrimages and local religious shrines should also be considered in the context of rock art (2018; see also the Concluding Discussion section). These carvings formed part of a larger ritual component designed to ensure the seaworthiness of watercraft along with the overall success of voyages (2008; compare 1922). Thus, we contend that the agents depicted on rock panels feature individuals from this boat building guild who, in turn, formed an integral part of a secret society comprising warriors, traders, mariners, and craft specialists. Interesting ethnographic parallels link “maritime” secret societies with rock art, as the following quote indicates about the widely feared maritime based Northwest Coast Bella Coola of British Columbia:
Bella Coola chiefs would always call for a meeting whenever a new member was to be initiated into the kusiut secret society. “Near every village is a place where the chiefs hold such meetings. All the inhabitants know the general locality, but there is such dread of the supernatural powers possessed by members of the kusiut society that none would dare go there. If an uninitiated person should do so, he would formerly have been either killed or initiated into the society. The meeting-place of the Qomqo-ts chiefs is on a ledge or rock jutting out over a waterfall about a quarter of a mile from the village. The stream winds down a narrow cleft of the mountain side, screened by dense vegetation, and suddenly falls into a cauldron, so hemmed in by cliffs that no sunlight can enter. The ledge is immediately above the brink of the falls, one of the most awe-inspiring places imaginable. The meeting-places of other villages lack such natural settings, though all are at the bases of cliffs, or near some easily distinguished feature. Some of them are decorated with rude carvings, pecked into the stone. The meaning of the designs is not known to any of the present inhabitants. Some of them were made, long ago, by chiefs when they were composing tunes; they picked out the rock in time to the music forming in their minds. Others were mere memorials of certain events. If a chief gave an important ceremony, he, or one of his friends, carved a figure, perhaps that of a man, perhaps of some animal connected with the rite, to recall the occasion.
(1948: pg177–178)
It is fascinating to note that the making of rock art, in connection to private initiation rituals, took place at remote sites on the landscape. A similar setting is found in Scandinavia where local rock art panels are located away from habitation sites, at a distance ~1 km (2008, 2015). It is fascinating to note that the making of rock art, in connection to private initiation rituals, took place at remote sites on the landscape. A similar setting is found in Scandinavia where local rock art panels are located away from habitation sites, at a distance ~1 km (, ling 2015). It is generally believed that the appearance of Scandinavian rock art is associated with various social transformations including changes in the local political economy (2013). Such changes fostered new political institutions and, in this context, it is reasonable to associate rock art with the presence of secret societies (2018; et al 2018a). Interestingly, Scandinavian rock art often depicts warriors wearing ritual garb that includes bird-like costumes, bi-horned helmets, and masks (1998). It is important to note that such accoutrements are often associated with secret societies (Butt-1929; 2018).2 Moreover, these anthropomorphic figures are often shown standing in or beside large boats. Additionally, many scholars have argued that Bronze Age Scandinavian rock art formed part of important initiation rites on the landscape (2013) and many factors link the propagandistic and esoteric nature of Bronze Age Scandinavian rock art to 2018’s assertion highlighting the desire on the part of secret societies to impress audiences.
Moreover, since warfare and warriors were associated with secret societies, it is interesting to see that that these features are so prevalent in Tanum rock art (see Figure 4.1, Figure 4.5–4.7).