Rock carvings at Tennes

[1] Prehistoric rock art (Bergkunst) was first mentioned in 1799 in the travel notes of professor Martin Vahl, where he described a stag carved in the mountain at a farm in Balsfjord.

[3] To find the carvings located somewhere along the 70-kilometre (43 mi) long fjord, Hallström exploited the knowledge that a professor travelling in the 18th century must have lived on one of the ten large farms that existed along the Balsfjorden.

The 40 figures at Kirkely are from about 2700 BCE, and consists of both sea and land animals (a rare combination for rocks carvings in Northern Norway).

These people were probably hunters, who in the late Stone Age migrated between different living areas throughout the year.

Tennes may already at that time have been a meeting place for the people living in the mainland (mountains), along the seashore, and on the islands.

The rock carvings are accessible by a 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) long well-marked track starting from Balsfjord Church.

The church (built in 1855) is located in Tennes, which is about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the village of Storsteinnes (in Troms county in Norway).