Rocks move. Rocks remember. Rocks cry. Movement, memory and animism in the pictographs in Finland

This landscape archaeology study examines the roles of the pictographs in Finland within a changing Neolithic landscape, foregrounding the cumulative human-environment relationship through theories of agency, power and memory. GIS and digital landscape visualisation tools are employed alongside insights from ethnographic sources and geomythology. The results include a visual representation of the landscape transformation caused by post-glacial land uplift and concurrent changes in water routes in present-day Finland’s Lakeland region in the longue durée (throughout the Neolithic). The research examines the functional roles of the pictographs as narrative devices, navigational markers and mnemonic aids. I argue that animism and power are vital to understanding the human-environment interactions