Swedish Rock Art Research Archives
Swedish Rock Art Research Archives (SHFA) is a research infrastructure at the University of Gothenburg established in 2017. Europe-wide, it is the largest research infrastructure that provides researchers, educators, and the public with modern, high-quality, and historical rock art documentation.
Currently, we store over 120,000 data files with c. 27,000 curated for open access in our database. This data includes 3D models, images, and documents from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and Spain. Since its launch in 2011, the online database has had over 2.2 million visitors. We are working with 40 collaborators linked to national and international infrastructures across 14 countries.
For 16 years, SHFA has spearheaded rock art documentation and research, including digital documentation, artificial intelligence, and cross-cultural comparison. Currently, SHFA has several externally funded research projects.
Staff
The rich imagery of Scandinavian rock art is world-famous, and the Swedish Rock Art Research Archives (SHFA) secures free digital access to documentation of this cultural heritage for researchers and the public. SHFA digitises historical documentation made on sensitive materials that are not easily accessible and stored in different institutions throughout Sweden.
Since its foundation in 2007, SHFA has been a modern infrastructure focused on digitising, long-term storage, and archiving documentation of prehistoric motifs, while simultaneously spearheading the development of documentation methods that ultimately boost rock art research. Free, open access under a Creative Commons copyright license is secured through a database with an online interface. We are digitising historical documents, including photographs, plaster casts, tracings on plastic and paper, rubbings, maps, and written descriptions, held by more than 100 institutions in Sweden and Europe. In addition, SHFA is a global driver in using 3D methods to document hundreds of sites with laser scanning and photogrammetry.
Since its beginnings, SHFA has expanded beyond Sweden and today includes material from Denmark, Italy, Norway and Spain. In 2023, SHFA expanded its infrastructure by incorporating petroglyphs from Lake Onega in Russia and Austria. Today, we have digitised over 100,000 documentations, of which more than 25% is already accessible through our online archive. Since its launch in 2011, the website has had over 2.2 million visitors from over 120 countries.
This stunning success has helped SHFA secure funding for six research projects totalling over 80 million SEK in recent years, with collaborators from 14 different nations.
