Rock art from 5,000 years ago
The Astuvansalmi http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3956 cultures.
Finland’s rock paintings mainly consist of brownish-red figures and markings painted onto steep granite walls, often overlooking waterways. Scenes feature people, boats, elk, fish and mysterious partly human figures that may be linked to shamanistic beliefs, as well as more abstract shapes and patterns whose meanings will probably remain forever lost in the mists of time. “So far we know of 127 sites in Finland where such paintings have been found,” explains archaeologist Helena Taskinen of the National Board of Antiquities. “These paintings have survived thanks to the formation of a thin layer of silicon dioxide on the rock surface, which has protected them. Many more paintings have undoubtedly vanished over the intervening millennia, but it’s also likely that more paintings are still out there in the forests waiting to be discovered.”
Experts believe the paintings were made by people from the “Comb Ceramic Culture”, who lived in what is now Finland between 5000 BC and 2000 BC. They made their paints using iron oxide obtained from the soil, probably mixed with blood, animal fat or egg, although traces of these organic materials are no longer detectable.
http://www.6d.fi/Lifestyle/page.2008-03-31.0662985477