Towards ontological alterity

Recent contributions to the state of the art of research into Late NBA ideology have focused on its conceptual fluidity (Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019a), suggesting that it incorporated animistic notions (Ahlqvist & Vandkilde Reference Ahlqvist and Vandkilde2018). Whether the art expresses beliefs that align with animism or rather resonates with ontological systems that have been described as totemism or even analogism can be discussed (Descola Reference Descola2014; Fowler Reference Fowler2021; Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019b, 64), but the question is whether pursuing this question further is productive (see Jones Reference Jones2017, 176) or possible; people’s worldviews tend to be flexible and may alternate between individual people or groups, incorporate aspects from multiple ontological ‘modes’, or place them somewhere within or outside (Fuglestvedt Reference Fuglestvedt2018; Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019b, 69). Perhaps, rather than debating how we best categorize the art and the society producing it, utilizing ontological difference as a resource is an appropriate next step in operationalizing these Late NBA beliefs as we think they could have functioned.

Representationalism which casts observations as indicative of natural phenomena regarded as true and absolute is at the heart of Euro-American ontology. This system is considered to be correct regardless of culture and, as such, the truth about the world. Thus, this ontology is uni-natural and representationalist; Euro-American ontology presupposes the existence of a natural world that ‘Other’ cultures have differing views on, meaning that we as Euro-American researchers can never fully commit to these; our perspective remains epistemological (Alberti & Marshall Reference Alberti and Marshall2009). Ontologically different positions are automatically considered untrue by default as they perceive the world differently (Alberti & Marshall Reference Alberti and Marshall2009; Cipolla Reference Cipolla2019; V. Watts Reference Watts2013). This means that our understanding of ontological alterity becomes limited and hierarchically orders some ways of knowing over others, restricting archaeological interpretation. Additionally, there are associated risks of academic imperialism (Cipolla Reference Cipolla2021; Todd Reference Todd2016; C. Watts Reference Watts2018). One step to counter this may be granting archaeological material the space to act non-representationally—to ‘take ontological alterity seriously’, in the words of Alberti and Marshall (Reference Alberti and Marshall2009). Viveiros de Castro suggests approaching ontological alterity from a humbler perspective, which leaves room for the possibility that Euro-American thinking may be faulty. Following this, ontological alterity can be thought of as a resource that may bring forward Euro-American categories of thought (Viveiros de Castro Reference Viveiros de Castro2002; Reference Viveiros de Castro2003; see also Rosiek et al. Reference Rosiek, Snyder and Pratt2020). My take on this in the current paper is twofold: to ask what happens to our archaeological interpretations if we, instead of merely viewing the material as representative of animist notions, allow it to act animistically, whilst accepting that the art embodies rather than depicts cosmology.

Relational ontologies are central to such an approach, as this ontological position considers the world as constructed through relations rather than substance (e.g. Barad Reference Barad2007; Fowler Reference Fowler2013; Harris & Crellin Reference Harris, Crellin, Astor-Aguilera and Harvey2018; Harvey Reference Harvey2018; see also V. Watts Reference Watts2013). In this way, matter cannot be absolute because substance only becomes real when it is encountered, for example through human senses or scientific measuring equipment (Fowler Reference Fowler2013): it emerges through relations. This also means that substance is dynamic and relative because the relations that condition its existence change and vary (Conneller Reference Conneller2011). This cannot be conflated with sameness across all beings and entities; rather, the differences between them can be considered a matter of perspective rather than something constant detached from the context. Perspectivism, as most thoroughly explored by Viveiros de Castro (Reference Viveiros de Castro1998), regards perspective as conditioning understandings of difference. Perceived differences are dependent on one’s seat in the world and as such adhere to the body, person, entity, etc. that experiences the world rather than a ‘natural’, pre-existing difference. What to us looks like difference between, for example, a human and a horse is constructed via perspective rather than stemming from ‘true’ difference (Viveiros de Castro Reference Viveiros de Castro1998, 347; Reference Viveiros de Castro2004). The world is created and understood in the relation between entity and the environment. Approaching matter this way stresses the ubiquity of relations even when not immediately present by showing how entities, whether organic, artificial or cosmological, only exist in relation to other entities (Barad Reference Barad2007).

Relational ontologies mean that the study of intangible phenomena is as valid as the study of concrete substances, making for a more symmetrical or ‘flat’ approach than is for example purported by classic natural sciences. Focusing on relations rather than substance further seeks to avoid the automatic hierarchy afforded by classic Enlightenment substantivist paradigms that systematically values some substance—for example human—higher than others (Cipolla Reference Cipolla2021, 510; Govier & Steel Reference Govier and Steel2021). It challenges the inherent dualism in Euro-American thought where entities are generally viewed as separate and distinct. A central point in critiques of ‘classic animism’ claims that it perpetuates such dualism, by which it essentially ends up a distorted inversion of Western nature/culture paradigms (Halbmayer Reference Halbmayer2012). Such takes on animism are still underscored by a Euro-American reference frame which risks overlooking the insights that may be gained from a more nuanced approach to ontological alterity. Furthermore, associated risks of cultural appropriation and lack of due credit extended to Indigenous thinkers have been pointed out (Rosiek et al. Reference Rosiek, Snyder and Pratt2020; Todd Reference Todd2016).

More recent engagements with relational paradigms gravitate towards an appreciation of the difference in ontology as a productive space for analysis rather than looking for ‘signs of animism’ when studying prehistoric worldviews (Fowler Reference Fowler2021). The ‘new animism’ as a theoretical turn explicates how ontologies diverting from enlightenment principles may assist academics as heuristic tools in exploring past ontologies (Harvey Reference Harvey2018). Focus is on actions, practices and relations as constructing the world rather than substance (Fowler Reference Fowler2021; Ingold Reference Ingold2000), pointing to the connectedness of entities—in line with some Indigenous philosophies (Rosiek et al. Reference Rosiek, Snyder and Pratt2020) as explored by, for example, Bird-David (Reference Bird-David1990), Jordan (Reference Jordan2003), Willerslev (Reference Willerslev2007) and C. Watts (Reference Watts2018). A central point is considering the possibility of agency beyond intention—and even matter—when trying to engage with ontological alterity as a way of furthering our understanding of the past (Fahlander Reference Fahlander, Englehardt and Rieger2017; Jones Reference Jones2020). Accepting more-than-human capacities for agency, for example, means that the agency of art and stories can be considered a presence directly affecting the lives and actions of people (Gell Reference Gell1998; Sjöstrand Reference Sjöstrand2017; V. Watts Reference Watts2013). In this sense these entities are ‘animate’—not to be understood directly as imbued with a soul per se but as capable of affecting the world through their relations (cf. Jones Reference Jones2020). Thus, even if Late NBA art may have represented something (e.g. Kaul Reference Kaul2005), the central point from such a perspective is not to provide a final answer as to what an image could represent or what this might say about society, but rather to explore how it affected the beings that it came into contact with—a fruitful approach to Late NBA art, historically subject to debates about the exact meaning of the stylized motifs (Müller Reference Müller1921).

The relational effects of Late NBA art are intrinsically linked to the objects through its close entanglement with the artefacts—both as ornamentation engraved on the surfaces and through the shape of these objects which echoes the two-dimensional motifs. Both engravings and shape can be considered dimensions of the art (Ahlqvist Reference Ahlqvist2023); as such, in order to consider the way that the art made itself present in the world through affect, I anchor my analysis in the social use of the objects themselves and their connection to the human wearers. The ornamentation on the objects should not be approached as detached from either the objects or the people wearing, handling and using them. Rather we need to look at the art-object as a new concept in itself (cf. Sjöstrand Reference Sjöstrand2017), created via the relation between them: they become-with each other (Fowler Reference Fowler2021). When the objects are worn or used by humans, a new interspecies relationship emerges, created and animated through the connection between art-object-human. All entities in this relationship affect each other in differing ways, which has implications for the other parts of the relation and a range of associated relations (i.e. other objects and humans, etc.). In turn, these relations probably had wider social implications.

The significance of this relationship becomes particularly salient if we accept the art to be cosmology; as tangible as the objects themselves. As such, the terms art-object and cosmology are interchangeable terms in the following. Looking at art this way underlines the potency of these ornamented objects: the people wearing them wore literal cosmology—not just representations of it. The created relation on the one hand granted the cosmology a body with a set of associated relations, and on the other, the humans with the power of embodying the divine (Ahlqvist & Vandkilde Reference Ahlqvist and Vandkilde2018). But getting closer to an understanding of Late NBA ontological alterity entails a move beyond regarding the objects and the cosmology as tools used by humans for human purposes (Fahlander Reference Fahlander, Englehardt and Rieger2017, 77). Can we approach the social use of these objects from a more symmetrical perspective? Returning to the idea of allowing the archaeological material to act animistically, how did the cosmology, the art-object, make itself present in the world through its relations? As a first step towards an exploration of this, I consider its physicality as a way of becoming present in the lives of the humans interacting with it through the personal art-objects (Jones Reference Jones2020, 548), thus exploring the relational effects of the cosmology.

The physicality of Nordic Bronze Age cosmology

The art-objects constituted a physical presence in the lives of the people interacting with them in a range of ways, some of them very concrete. When explored like this, it emerges that the cosmology intervened in people’s lives on different levels, which likely affected the way people thought about the art. The art-objects left a mark through their relations (Jones Reference Jones2020) which shaped part of the human condition for the people wearing and interacting with it. The physicality of the art as it was engaged with and experienced in the Late NBA can be approached from different perspectives, which consider the entanglement between art and appearance, behaviour, mind, mood, sound, and tangibility.

Appearance and behaviour

The Late NBA art-objects affected their wearers’ appearance in different ways. The potential of hair removal enmeshed in one of the main purposes of a razor is an obvious place to start. Shaving enables a bodily change that is both experienced (see below) and encountered by the surrounding society. The removal or sculpting of a beard may drastically alter the look of a face and, possibly related to this, shaved faces have been suggested to associate with particular identities in the Late NBA (Skogstrand Reference Skogstrand2016, 127-31; Treherne Reference Treherne1995). Performing in accordance with an identity may have elicited certain behaviour (George et al. Reference George, Kurchin, Britt, George and Kurchin2019, 4–5; Jenkins Reference Jenkins2008, 5–7); however, on a more concrete note, having a beard may affect the way a person eats, drinks, grooms, kisses, etc. In this way, the act of shaving may elicit behavioural changes that go beyond the act itself. The possibility of shaving other parts of the body, for example the head, should also be considered (Thedéen Reference Thedéen2003), as possibly evident in some Late NBA figurines from Fårdal (Denmark) and Itzehoe (Germany) (Glob Reference Glob1970, 129–31), where it appears that a shaved zone between the temples and crown of the head formed part of the coiffure (Glob Reference Glob1969, 197–9).

Much of the period’s ornamented attire is oversized and would have altered the shape of the wearer. The neck-rings accentuate the thickness of the neck, which can make it look shorter and the shoulders narrower. In relation to this it can be noted that a demarcation of shoulders is absent from Late NBA figurines showing female bodies wearing neck rings and belts (Fig. 2) (see Terberger et al. Reference Terberger, Borgwardt and Krüger2022). The oversized belt bowls worn on the back or the stomach may constitute the most dramatic transformation of the human shape, however (Fig. 3). The size of these art-objects varies throughout the Late NBA from smaller in the earlier phases (10–14 cm diameter with a height of 4–6 cm in the period 1100–900 bce) to 16–24 cm diameter, height 7–10 cm in the period 900–750 bce, up to very large (i.e. 32 cm diameter, height 11 cm) in the final phase (750–500 bce) (Baudou Reference Baudou1960, 69–71). When worn, the objects would have stood out as large protrusions on the body, especially when the person was seen from the side. Use-wear traces on the objects indicate that they were suspended from the handles and on many of them the top part of the ornamentation appears worn. In some cases, it has been rubbed away almost entirely through repeated friction, for example caused by fabric. A cloak, probably woollen, overhanging the bodily ornaments causing the wear is one interpretation (Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen1974b, 28–35). Wearing a thick cloak over the over-sized objects would have caused radical modification of the human shape.

Figure 2. Three examples of Late NBA figurines without clearly demarcated shoulders, two of them wearing neck rings. (Photographs courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark (CC-BY-SA license, modified).)

Figure 3. (Left) examples of an ornamented neck ring and belt bowl; (right) belt bowl, buckle, neck-ring, ear-ring and spectacle fibula in its bodily context. (Photographs courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark (CC-BY-SA license, modified) and illustration by Flemming Bau.)

Wearing these over-sized objects comes with certain restrictions. Bending, running, climbing and jumping are all hindered by the presence of the objects on the human body, which needs to alter behavioural patterns accordingly. Likewise, the bodily ornaments limit physical proximity to other beings, more-than-human as well as human, as they form a boundary between the body and its surroundings. In this way, the art-objects affect both wearer and their surrounding environment.

Mind and mood

The engravings on the art-objects, especially on the belt bowls, are arranged in wavy patterns that tie together in complex systems where lines must meet up correctly to construct the perfect symmetry. If executed correctly, each wavy pattern incorporates an inverse reflection. The exact construction of these waves means that they bear resemblance to some of the recognizable motifs that Late NBA art employs on other objects, suggesting that they embed several motifs in each composition (Fig. 4), partially concealed through optical illusion (Ahlqvist Reference Ahlqvist2024). That Late NBA art incorporates ambiguous stimuli that play with visual psychological functions has recently been acknowledged and described as a phenomenon (Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019a; Rédei et al. Reference Rédei, Skoglund and Persson2020, 113–24). The process of decoding particularly ambiguous stimuli necessitates a relaxed but focused mental state, which is associated with positive emotions like joy and absence of self-awareness. The sense of success and reward following the identification of a ‘hidden’ figure—suddenly visible, almost as if by magic—makes the state self-reinforcing (Lindstrøm & Kristoffersen Reference Lindstrøm and Kristoffersen2001, 76; cf. Gell Reference Gell, Coote and Shelton1992).

Figure 4. (Top) Various ways that a horse is represented on belt bowls, emphasizing how the omission of defining anatomical attributes leaves the image more ambiguous. (Bottom) belt bowl motif which, initially appearing as a wave, embeds an ambiguous figure of two mirrored horses in a style typical for the Late NBA. The embedded, mirrored horse image is traced out in blue and red, respectively. (Illustration by author; photograph by Lennart Larsen, courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark (CC-BY-SA license, modified).)

In this way, the act of being able truly to see the art-object, to make meaning of the engravings, likely had psychological effects (Janik Reference Janik2020). Interacting with the art-objects might thus have stimulated the brain activity of Late NBA people, perhaps even affecting their mood. Related to this, long-term visual exposure to the interweaving patterns may elicit a relaxed, almost semi-hypnotic state, similar to what can be achieved through meditation (Gell Reference Gell, Coote and Shelton1992; Oma Reference Oma, Chilidis, Lund and Prescott2008). The effect would be particularly strong if the object was moved or spun around or through play with light and shadow. Thus, it is possible that the composition of these art-objects—and the concomitant cosmology—had the capacity to affect the Bronze Age mind through their visual appearance (cf. Ahlqvist Reference Ahlqvist, Nørgaard and Reiter2025).

Sound and tangibility

The visual and psychological effects of the art-objects must have been accompanied by other sensory properties. The physical proximity to the wearers (i.e. used and carried directly on the body) enabled sensory interaction defined by the intimate relationship between body and object. For example, the singing of the razor across the skin, broken up by the change of pitch as it slices through a hair, was part of the experience of shaving, along with the feeling of the engravings beneath one’s fingers, felt whilst holding the object (Fig. 5). Handling bronze in general is accompanied by faint metallic sounds and especially when over-sized jewellery was handled, these sounds must have been noticeable. The art-objects sound differently depending on whether they are held, rubbed and polished, rubbing against cloth, spun around or used as containers, etc.; the different sounds associate with specific uses at different points in the objects’ life (Conneller Reference Conneller2011).

Figure 5. Two razors with engraved art. (Photographs courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark (CC-BY-SA license, modified).)

The tactile dimension, the physicality of the art-object itself, is another sensory impact encountered by persons interacting with it. The bronze can be touched and feels different whether dry, wet, old and brittle or completely fresh, for example in the casting process (Jakob T. Hviid pers. comm., 22 October 2022). Thus, the art-objects embodied different manifestations from different perspectives: the interactions of a bronze caster handling the bronze, first as constituent parts coming together in liquid form and later through the painstaking process of removing the object from the mould followed by hammering and/or polishing, are of a different kind than those of a wearer who may instead focus on the object’s heaviness, sharpness, smoothness, coolness, etc. (Conneller Reference Conneller2011; Fowler & Harris Reference Fowler and Harris2015). In either of these cases and the wealth of other interactions centred around the art-objects, the physical properties of the bronze, its shape and the engravings afforded a tangibility and manifested its presence in the physical world. Like the effects on behaviour, some of the feelings elicited by the objects may have been experienced continuously even after the object was no longer in use or even present—a sort of delayed response. For example, the feeling of wind, rain or sunshine on a shaved face, the feeling of fabric on shaved skin, or the sensation of lightness and sudden change in centre of gravity when a heavy object is removed from one’s back or stomach.

The alterations to the human body enabled by these objects may represent and intermingle with specific symbolic uses and identities; however, for the purpose of the current discussion, the definitive point is not what this presence represented but rather that it was present. Cosmology became manifest to people through its various ways of making a mark in the world, demanding attention by stimulating the sensory system. In this way, art-objects intervened in people’s life through physical engagement, shaping behaviour and experience of the world in a process of becoming-with (cf. Barad Reference Barad2007; Fowler Reference Fowler2021; Fowler & Harris Reference Fowler and Harris2015).

Art-objects enmeshed in relations

The physical reality of the art-objects was not limited to the wearers—their impact most often formed part of elaborate chains of actions and reactions that somehow integrate the objects. In this way, the relational effects of the cosmology go beyond immediate interaction. For example, the presence or absence of a beard may have signified a certain identity, which acts as a social cue for other people. This likely demanded a certain response or treatment of the bearded/non-bearded people, or it may simply have affected one’s perception of the shaved person (Jenkins Reference Jenkins2008, 112–17; Treherne Reference Treherne1995). Though there are a lot of unknowns in this example it is hardly a stretch to suggest that the use of these objects was socially significant; that much we can infer based on their number, the material wealth necessitated by their production, their depositional context and the investment of time and care in creating them (Höckmann Reference Höckmann2021). Thus, we may not be able to pinpoint exactly how the effects of the cosmology were experienced and impacted other people, but we can expect them to have been there.

As already touched upon, the objects’ way of becoming present changed throughout the use life of the objects. Thus, the physicality cannot be considered static but changed through the various relations that the artefacts formed part of through interactions with different actors, for example in the casting process as pointed to above (Conneller Reference Conneller2011; Fowler Reference Fowler2013, 29; Fowler & Harris Reference Fowler and Harris2015). These various relations can be thought of as transformations of the art-object with implications for its conceptualization, imbuing it with significance (Brück & Jones Reference Brück, Jones, Hendon and Harrison-Buck2018; Zedeño Reference Zedeño2009). People, practices and objects that have been in contact with a belt bowl throughout its life can be witnessed in the evidence of use and in the current context of the object, for example its inclusion in a hoard. Especially female jewellery was deposited in hoards in the Late NBA, likely taking part in ritual practices that perhaps involved the wider community (Fontijn Reference Fontijn2002; Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen1974a) or maybe just people whose identity linked them to the artefacts (Melheim Reference Melheim, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015).

Such practices are made meaningful through a careful selection of objects, perhaps anchored in the object’s use-life, its treatment and connection to specific people, objects, or events. Through such structuring acts, the ritual significance is established; the object transforms with its inclusion in the ritual and potentially further as it plays out (Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist Reference Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist2020; Chapman Reference Chapman2000; Garrow Reference Garrow2012; Joy Reference Joy2016; Murray & Mills Reference Murray, Mills and Watts2013). Past relations are key here, as they impact the social notions controlling what and how objects are included in rituals. The object’s connection to the past is still present in its contemporary appearance—for example, recognizable on resharpened blades or by engravings almost erased by wear—visible to the people encountering it. In this way, the object’s former relations still inhabit it, shaping its conceptualization in human minds (Harrison-Buck & Hendon Reference Harrison-Buck, Hendon, Hendon and Harrison-Buck2018). In a process of becoming-with (Fowler Reference Fowler2021), the art-objects emerged so that a belt bowl, for example, simultaneously embodies the entirety of relations that it has—and will?—participate in when it is worn. Each object in the depositions would thus embody its own set of relations that become woven together in the ritual deposition (Chapman Reference Chapman2000; e.g. Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist Reference Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist2020). In this way, the art-objects function as material anchors for a meshwork of relations (Ingold Reference Ingold2011) all incorporating the cosmology. This points to how strongly its presence might have been felt for people in the Late NBA: it affected their bodies and their senses, extended into their relationships and played a role in their practices.

In all the scenarios and contexts where the art-objects make themselves present in the lives of people, they do so through relations. It is in the interaction between art-object and people that cosmology comes through. This interaction goes both ways; the art is not a passive vessel for people’s ideas about cosmology, a constant that allows academics to ‘read off’ past worldviews (Jones Reference Jones, Abadía and Porr2021). As art functions through relations, it is also in the relation to other entities—including humans—that its meaning is created and becomes real (Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019b, 71). In this sense, cosmology needs humans as much as humans need cosmology; through the connection, both emotionally and through physical proximity, it becomes manifest. The art-objects come to function as a conduit for cosmology, which breaks through to the physical world via the different human actors using the objects, linking up with the objects’ use-lives and their inclusion in social practices. In this way, the objects become the necessary forum in which the dialogue between cosmology and humans can take place (cf. Ingold Reference Ingold2000). The relationship between people and art is one of co-dependence, as they rely on each other to compose ontological reality through creation and dialogue, a process enabled by the art-objects.

As such, we can accept that the art on these objects is cosmology, not representations of it. The horses, waves, ships and suns are magical and agential beings, as real and significant as the humans wearing them. By engaging with NBA art in this way, we remove ourselves from Euro-American representationalist thinking perhaps best encapsulated by Plato’s Cave, which presupposes a distinction between observable matter and its adaptation into a cultural representation (Rouse Reference Rouse1996, 209). The allegory orders separate entities in a tripartite relationship: the real, the observed and the observer (Barad Reference Barad2003, 804). Here, beings are regarded as separate due to the perception of an internal difference, i.e. of different essence (Webmoor Reference Webmoor2007, 570). As such, it stands in contrast to for example, perspectivist thinking, which places emphasis on connections—relations—as constituent elements of the world(s) rather than separation and matter (Barad Reference Barad2003). Doing away with the limiting hierarchy of representationalist thought allows us to regard the creatures shown in the art as cosmological beings entangling with NBA humans’ lives, affecting, steering and assisting them. Cosmology and associated beliefs have the capacity to shape human behaviour significantly and direct our attention to the ways that our world is bigger than just us. In a sense, cosmology opens our world, helping us when navigating difficult or life-altering events and can give us a sense of safety and direction.

This points to the agency of the objects and perhaps why these ornamented artefacts primarily are found in liminal contexts, i.e. burials and hoards. Considering these objects as fundamental in the foundation of a dialogue between the physical and metaphysical reality links up with their significance in liminal contexts concerned with the passing of one state to another (Thedéen Reference Thedéen2003; van Gennep Reference van Gennep1960). People tend to rely on spirituality and rituals when grappling with such transitions, which may explain why Late NBA people turned to their cosmological imagery when burying their community members or depositing their personal objects and concomitant relations in the landscape (Bradley Reference Bradley2006; Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019a; Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen1974b; Melheim Reference Melheim, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015). The razor and other toiletries included in the burial together with the burnt bones sustained the deceased through their past relations and the tangible connection to the art-object’s use on the body while it was still alive; an emotional connection probably familiar to most people in contemporary society in that, for example, a loved one’s possessions hold meaning even after they are lost to us. Such objects transgress separation between life and death, the here and there, challenging these categories as they allow the deceased’s or the deposited objects’ relations to remain in the world (Büster Reference Büster2021). Perhaps this is one main reason that personal objects, bodily ornamentation and grooming tools were the objects of choice for cosmology in the Late NBA. Their liminality links up with cosmology crossing the boundary between physical and metaphysical reality, rendering these objects as transformative agents able to negotiate between worlds.

Concluding discussion

All this does not necessarily mean that the art on the personal objects from the Late NBA did not represent something—the rich archaeological research history into the topic has provided us with a fairly good idea of how it might have done (Kaul Reference Kaul1998; Reference Kaul2005; Reference Kaul, Meller, Reichenberger and Risch2021; e.g. Bradley Reference Bradley2006; Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019a)—but rather that it did much more than that. A work of art surpasses its iconographic image as it is bound up in the production sequence necessitated for its production and has interaction as one of its key intents—art acts. It becomes meaningful when it is encountered, and so relationality should be central in the study of it (Danielsson & Jones Reference Danielsson, Jones, Danielsson and Jones2020). Coupling this with a drive to ‘take ontological alterity seriously’ by considering how this might look from an ontological rather than an epistemological perspective (Alberti & Marshall Reference Alberti and Marshall2009; Cipolla Reference Cipolla2019) meant taking seriously the possibility that the art-objects perhaps did more than represent the cosmology; they may have become it. Thus, the study of the art on the personal objects and its impact is more than a study of art; it is a study of cosmology inhabiting these artefacts.

A question arising from these discussions concerns whether the term art can even be used to discuss the complex interconnectedness between ornamentation, cosmology, object and human. Rather than ‘art’ in the Euro-American sense, the images are a way of relating to the world (Goldhahn Reference Goldhahn2019b, 67; Ingold Reference Ingold2000, 112). However, I fear that by giving up on the word ‘art’ when we describe contexts and phenomena that we are not a part of, academics condemn them to a process of othering (see Russell Reference Russell2021), implicitly claiming that only Euro-Americans are able to produce ‘art’ (Sjöstrand Reference Sjöstrand2017, 375–6). One of the biggest issues with this is the risk of reproducing Eurocentric hierarchies by denying non-Western visual culture the status of art (Phillips & Steiner Reference Phillips, Steiner, Phillips and Steiner1999, 10–12; Porr Reference Porr2019). However, it is important to nuance the term and specify how it should be thought of in this context, as the art discussed in the present paper differs markedly from the Euro-American general use of the word.

Considering the relational aspect of cosmological art in the Late NBA from a symmetrical perspective has unfolded how it encountered the people associated with the art-objects throughout their lives. Repeated acts, psychological and sensory stimulation and ensued social responses were tied up in the art-objects, enforcing the presence of the cosmology in the human world. Viewed through this lens, the cosmology and the humans shared a tight-knit, mutually beneficial relationship. Through the interaction, people embodied the cosmology, ensuring its presence within the physical world. In turn, the cosmology assisted people during transitions in liminal contexts. And the connection between humans and the sacred was probably also meaningful in human communications of, for example, power and gender (Ahlqvist Reference Ahlqvist2020; Reference Ahlqvist2024; Vandkilde et al. Reference Vandkilde, Matta, Ahlqvist and Nørgaard2022).

Returning to a more epistemological perspective on all this, it interestingly posits an idea of how ubiquitous cosmology might have been to people in the Late NBA. Directly attached to the body, connected through intimate acts such as shaving, affecting movement and perception by others, cosmology might have presented as an omnipresent force in the lives of these people, as tangible and agential as the physical objects it entangled with. This perspective allows us to consider the cosmology as more than ‘pretty pictures’ on items, nuancing our view on Late NBA life. There is, of course, the very real possibility that the art held no further meaning to Late NBA people than mere decoration, ornamentation on everyday tools and jewellery. However, only pursuing an interpretation of the art as ‘empty decoration’ would be to neglect the long research tradition on Late NBA art and cosmology which has generally agreed upon considering the art as cosmological in nature (Kaul Reference Kaul and Sofaer2018). Instead, the purpose of operationalizing the theoretical toolbox the way I am doing here is to allow the art to have functioned in the Late NBA as it is currently conceptualized in contemporary academic thought.

What I am doing in this paper can be viewed as a first step towards a new understanding of Nordic Bronze Age ontological alterity. The way I see it, such an approach is an appropriate way to bring forward our interpretative frameworks in that regard. Decades of research into the complex concept that art is illustrate how we should proceed with caution when attempting to read specific meanings or even myths into images from a different temporal or spatial context than our own. Then how to move forward with studying prehistoric art and cosmology? Rather than pursuing the identification of representational meaning, we can get at what the art does (Jones Reference Jones2020). In the case of the Late NBA, one answer could be that it brought cosmology into the lives of Late NBA people and gave it a material presence via the objects that it inhabited. The effects of the art, its entanglement with cosmology and the ubiquitous presence in human lives then reveal something about the ontology of the Late NBA, which may have been fundamentally different than contemporary Euro-American thought. If that is the case, then let us try to explore the possibility of ontological alterity on its own terms.