Astuvansalmi rock paintings

[1] The rock paintings were officially found by the Finnish archaeologist Pekka Sarvas in 1968, though locals knew of them before that.

The rock where the paintings are located looks like a human head, the form especially visible during wintertime when viewed from the ice of the lake.

Other archeological artefacts have been found on the site, at the bottom of the lake, among them small amber statuettes of old gods (Ukko and Akka).

The Astuvansalmi rock paintings contain the following pictures: 18 to 20 moose, about as many human figures, tens of hands and animal tracks, 8 to 9 boats, and geometrical figures and pictures that are thought to show a fish and a dog.

[2] The paintings could have a link to the Siberian and North European shamanistic tradition, where the sun was thought to be a deer or an moose running through the sky.

The people in the paintings were the shamans, who had a contact with the spirit world through trance with their drumming and songs.

The boat was an important means of transport in the lake regions of prehistoric Finland.