64 Adoranten 2017 Introduction Depictions of metal weapons such as spears, swords, and axes are frequent in the Swed- ish Bronze Age rock carvings of Bohuslän, Uppland, Östergötland, and Skåne. Most images are non-representational and mostly portray the object type rather generically. Occasionally, the carvings exhibit details of the objects including the shape of the hilt, ferrule (or butt-spike), and scabbard, so as to suggest that they are images of real ar- tefacts that existed during the Bronze Age. It is at times possible to determine precisely the type and chronology of the object de- picted. This is the case, for example, with the swords shown on the Ekenberg rock carving in Norrköping (Östergötland), which compare to actual Bronze Age swords from the archaeological collections of the Stockholm Historical Museum (Bertilsson 2015; Hildebrand 1869,). It has often been argued that most of the weapons depicted in Swedish rock art are to be dated to the Late Bronze Age, in particular to Period V (c. 920-720 BC; Vogt 2011). However, de- tailed analysis of the carvings, including the digital-technology analysis presented here, indicate that this may not be the case, as a number of carvings appear to depict spear types from the Early Bronze Age, 1750 -1100 BC. This includes the spearhead from the second Valsömagle metal hoard from Denmark, which is dated to period IB of the Nordic Bronze Age (Vandkilde 2008). In some cases, it appears that carved spear- heads were updated to represent new types over a period of several hundred years, as is the case with well-known carvings from Bohuslän and Uppland. This demonstrates the importance of the spear as the warrior’s principal weapon in the Scandinavian Early Bronze Age. This study presents previously unknown examples of the practice of re- carving spearheads, which provide unprece- dented insights into the close link that must have existed in Bronze Age Sweden be- tween real and represented weapons. Some interesting parallels from rock carvings in Valcamonica in Italy are also presented. Odin’s spear Gungnir Fighting and weapons are frequent themes in the Nordic sagas; their prominence is due to the notion that the ultimate and Ulf Bertilsson The Spear - Digital documentation sheds new light on Early Bronze Age spear carvings from Sweden – an analysis with some comparative examples from Valcamonica, Italy Table 1. Periods of the Nordic Bronze Age Period I Period II Period III Period IV Period V Period VI 1750/1700–1500 BC 1500–1300 BC 1300–1100 BC 1100–920 BC 920–720 BC 720–550 BC most glorious way for a warrior to die was as a result of single combat or in battle. In this way, the fallen would achieve hero status and be admitted to the company of other warriors in Valhall, the hall of Odin described in the Grimnesmal poem cited below. There, the glorious dead were resur-