A new study suggests that ancient Scandinavians may have used boats made from animal hides for fishing, hunting, and transporting goods.
According to research published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, a group of hunter-gatherers from the Neolithic era, known as the Potsherd Culture (PWC), inhabited Scandinavia from 3500 to 2300 BCE. They are perhaps best known for their pottery, characterized by flat-bottomed vessels. They were also skilled hunters, particularly of seals.
Rock art depicting two deer being transported by boat. (Photo: Martin Kristoffer Hykkerud and Verdensarvsenter).
Archaeologists believe that the PWC may have used the hides of aquatic animals to construct boats, as well as seal oil for maintaining their vessels.
“We know that these people hunted a significant number of seals, as evidenced by the many seal bones found at their living sites,” said the lead author of the study, Mikael Fauvelle, a researcher in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University in Sweden.
He added: “Seals are also one of the most suitable animals for boat construction, as the Inuit [a group of Indigenous people living in Canada, Greenland, and Alaska] have used seal oil to waterproof their boats. We know that the PWC had a large amount of seal oil, which can be found in their pottery (at archaeological sites).”
Researchers analyzed the interiors of several vessels and found traces of lipid residues from seal oil, Fauvelle added. The PWC was a culture that relied on fishing due to its location surrounded by large bodies of water, including the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.
Fauvelle stated: “They moved around frequently and traded with other groups. They were out in the ocean, navigating vast waters.”
Researchers suggest that more primitive boats, such as canoes made from hollow logs, would have been ineffective for traveling hundreds of miles across open seas. Seal-skin boats would certainly have been sturdier.
In fact, according to the study, these boats—depending on their size—could have been large enough to carry around a dozen people, as well as animals, including deer, bears, and livestock.
However, the researchers acknowledge that they found very little physical evidence of these boats, aside from a few small fragments discovered over the years at various sites across northern Sweden, which researchers believe may be direct evidence of the use of Neolithic skin boats.
The paintings, along with potential fragments of boat frames, provide evidence that the PWC were exceptional boat builders, knowledgeable about “maritime technology” and utilizing “advanced vessels” to travel between different islands.
