A brand new examine suggests that folks from the Pitted Ware Tradition (PWC) in ancient Scandinavia doubtless constructed boats from animal skins, presumably seal hides, to fish, hunt, and commerce. The PWC was a Neolithic group of hunter-gatherers who lived between 3500 and 2300 BC in areas close to the Baltic and North Seas. Their survival closely relied on the seas, the place they relied on maritime actions, notably seal looking, as evidenced by the massive portions of seal bones found at their inhabited websites.
Seal Hides and Maritime Journey
Mikael Fauvelle, a researcher at Lund College in Sweden told Reside Science, seals weren’t solely hunted for meals but additionally performed a key function in making watercraft. Seal hides, together with oil extracted from their blubber, might have been used to assemble and keep boats.
Archaeologists have discovered traces of seal oil inside pottery, exhibiting that these folks had important portions of it. Boats produced from such supplies have been sturdy sufficient for lengthy voyages, which was important given their reliance on sea journey, as per a study revealed within the Journal of Maritime Archaeology.
Lengthy-Distance Commerce and Seafaring Expertise
The PWC’s boats needed to cowl massive distances between islands like Gotland and Åland, making seal-hide watercraft supreme for these journeys. Primitive options, corresponding to canoes produced from hollowed logs, wouldn’t have sufficed for such expansive travels. The boats might have been massive sufficient to move as much as a dozen folks and animals, together with deer and bears.
Proof from Rock Artwork and Fragments
Although bodily proof of those boats stays scarce, small fragments present in northern Sweden and rock artwork depicting boats supply clues. Some photographs present vessels with harpoon rests resembling animal heads. These drawings, together with boat body fragments, recommend that the PWC have been superior of their seafaring methods.
