Ravfigurer og zigzagmønstre: – jægerkunst fra istiden

Amber Figures and Zigzag Patterns
– The Hunting Art of the Ice Age
Danish finds of Ice-Age art were unknown until 2010, when a finely decorated
bone staff from Fogense on Western Funen (fig.8) was carbon-14 dated to the
Younger Dyras, i.e. the Bromme culture. The viper-like staff has a zigzag pattern
recognisable from an amber figure from Egemarke (fig.9). Since the appearance
of a similar amber figure at the Federmesser settlement of Weitsche (fig.5) it has
been necessary to re-evaluate the dating of other amber figures from Denmark
(figs.12 and 13). Several amber figures from Denmark and adjacent countries
should now apparently be linked to the Federmesser culture, which spread
throughout the woodlands of Northern Europe during the Allerød period, carrying
with it an old Ice-Age tradition for naturalistic depictions of ideologically
significant animals. For the people of the Federmesser culture elks and bears
seem to have been important (totem?) animals. At the same time there was a
widespread use of ornamented bone artefacts with characteristic, non-figurative
decorations comprised primarily of different combinations of carved
zigzag lines, which presumably played an important role in providing magical