A brand new research suggests that folks from the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) in historical Scandinavia seemingly constructed boats from animal skins, probably 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 trusted the seas, the place they relied on maritime actions, significantly seal looking, as evidenced by the massive portions of seal bones found at their inhabited websites.
Seal Hides and Maritime Travel
Mikael Fauvelle, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden told Live Science, seals weren’t solely hunted for meals but additionally performed a key position in making watercraft. Seal hides, together with oil extracted from their blubber, could have been used to assemble and keep boats.
Archaeologists have discovered traces of seal oil inside pottery, exhibiting that these folks had vital portions of it. Boats constructed from such supplies had been sturdy sufficient for lengthy voyages, which was important given their reliance on sea journey, as per a study printed within the Journal of Maritime Archaeology.
Long-Distance Trade and Seafaring Technology
The PWC’s boats needed to cowl massive distances between islands like Gotland and Åland, making seal-hide watercraft very best for these journeys. Primitive alternate options, similar to canoes constructed from hollowed logs, wouldn’t have sufficed for such expansive travels. The boats could have been massive sufficient to move as much as a dozen folks and animals, together with deer and bears.
Evidence from Rock Art and Fragments
Though 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, counsel that the PWC had been superior of their seafaring strategies.
