Solsem Cave, Leka

Trøndelag · Norway · Natural site

Thirteen red human figures dance on the cave wall deepest inside the mountain — and on the floor beneath them lay bones of animals and of infants.

Deepest inside Solsemhula, a forty-metre fissure high in the steep western face of Leka, thirteen people are dancing. They are painted in red, up to a metre tall, gathered to the left of a large cross, and both walls of the innermost part of the cave are covered with them. When the figures were discovered in 1912 the find was the first of its kind in northern Europe; the paintings date to the late Neolithic or the Bronze Age. The cave opens 78 metres above the sea and is hard to reach. On the cave floor were found some 2,000 bones of fish, seabird, seal, goat, cattle and horse — but also human bones, from adults and from infants. Archaeologists read Solsemhula as a cult site. What the dancing figures represent, and what happened in there, nobody knows.

FAQ

Where is Solsem Cave, Leka located?

Solsem Cave, Leka is in Trøndelag, Norway.