Long Before Vikings, Skin Boats Allowed Early Scandinavians to Rule the Seas

While it’s agelong been known that Neolithic Scandinavians had a seafaring tradition, the nonstop benignant of boats they utilized has been a taxable of debate. Now, archaeologists judge they person an answer: These past radical apt built boats with carnal tegument frames, akin to the umiaks constructed by the Inuit.

Long earlier Vikings came on astir 800 CE, confederate Scandinavia was inhabited by a radical known arsenic the Pitted Ware culture, which lasted from astir 3500 BCE to 2300 BCE. Evidence suggests these hunter-gatherers were adept astatine maritime transportation, but intact vessel remains from the epoch person been scarce, truthful it’s been hard to accidental what benignant of vessels they used.

In the paper, published successful the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Mikael Fauvelle, a researcher astatine Sweden’s Lund University, and his colleagues presented respective pieces of grounds that, taken portion by piece, aren’t conclusive, but signifier a beardown statement erstwhile taken together. Those included vessel fragments recovered successful Sweden that person rounded bottoms and lashing holes that could person been utilized to necktie skins to the frames, though it’s unclear if those boats belonged to Pitted Ware peoples.

They besides cited Scandinavian stone creation recovered successful areas either inhabited by PWC people, oregon neighboring their territory. Alongside images of whales, seals, and fish, determination were etches of boats with instrumentality figures of radical appearing to person a lasting posture: a assemblage presumption usually associated with tegument boats, arsenic opposed to the sitting presumption communal to canoes. Some of the boats successful the sketches were drawn with elk-headed bows, which whitethorn person served arsenic harpoon rests, akin to those recovered connected umiaks.

Preserved vessel fragments, shown present successful a recreated drawing, hint that prehistoric Scandinavians utilized carnal skins to screen their boats. © Christian Horn/Journal of Maritime Archaeology

Other grounds includes ample amounts of seal lipid recovered astatine PWC sites—a worldly that would person been cleanable for waterproofing tegument boats. The archaeologists besides noted that PWC sites person been dotted with remains of seals and Atlantic cod, some of which would person required boats susceptible of heading acold from shore.

That’s not to accidental the PWC didn’t usage canoe-like boats dug retired of trees. As clip went on, immoderate grounds suggests they did yet follow this model, though apt reserved these boats for duties that were adjacent to land. The tegument boats were apt amended suited to different uses.

“Compared to logboats, we reason successful the insubstantial that tegument boats would person been amended for agelong region and unfastened water transport,” Fauvelle told Phys.org.

Because the PWC near nary written grounds behind, Fauvelle acknowledged successful the insubstantial that it whitethorn beryllium intolerable to ever conclusively beryllium they utilized tegument boats. Still, helium believes that due to the fact that these types of boats are truthful good suited to traveling agelong distances, they whitethorn person played a relation successful expanding trade, arsenic good arsenic allowing the aboriginal Scandinavians to get a sensation for raiding.

So, successful essence, the PWC whitethorn person been hipsters of the time, raiding the coasts of Europe earlier the Vikings made it cool.