Archaeologists suggest that Neolithic Scandinavians may have used skin boats for hunting, traveling and trading

Recent research by Dr. Mikael Fauvelle and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeologyproposes that the Neolithic Pitched Ware Culture (PWC) may have used skin boats for trading, travel, fishing, and hunting activities.

The PWC were a Neolithic culture that migrated from the East during the Early and Middle Neolithic. They settled in what is now Scandinavia around 3500–2300 BC. This hunter-gatherer culture is named for the pottery they produced, which was characteristically decorated with deep pits around its entire circumference.

The Pecked Ware Culture (PWC) was unusual among European hunter-gatherer groups specializing in marine life. While other such groups gradually incorporated more agricultural products as agriculture developed, the PWC continued to focus on sealing and fishing, even though agriculture had been practiced in Europe for more than five centuries.

Pleasure boats not only continued to hunt seals and fish, but also made long-distance voyages across the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits. Evidence of these movements of people and goods can be seen in stone tools, animals and some clay from Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

To reach these different locations, the jet skis needed boats that were able to navigate the open sea. However, traces of such boats are rare.

Many Neolithic cultures around the world used dugout canoes or wooden boats, usually made from hollowed-out tree trunks. Some of these canoes have been found at watercraft sites. However, the size of the canoes is directly proportional to their function. Not only were these canoes usually found in inland lakes and peat bogs, but their small size, only a few meters long, made them unsuitable for the open sea, where they were prone to capsizing.

Dr Fauvelle and his colleagues suggest that the jet ski may have been better suited to some tasks, while the canoes were better suited to other activities on inland lakes and river estuaries.

“Compared to wooden boats, we argue in the article that skin boats would have been better for long-distance and deep-sea transport,” says Dr. Fauvelle.

Additionally, Dr Fauvelle believes this new technology could help explain the widespread raiding and trading seen during this period: “I think it’s likely that this new technology accelerated the trends in maritime raiding and trading that we already see, for example, in watercraft during the Neolithic.”

However, skin boats are believed to be even less well preserved in archaeology, and therefore the evidence for their existence is based on the combination of different lines of indirect evidence, including potential bone frames, rock art, seal oil, tools and animal remains.

In Germany and Sweden, potential boat carcasses with skins sewn onto them have been found. The first, from northern Germany, were repurposed reindeer antlers dating from the late Mesolithic (7th–6th century BC), while two of the four Swedish examples may date from the Neolithic or Neolithic/Bronze Age, respectively.

These examples of possible boat structures may indicate that the knowledge and practice of skin boat making existed in northern Europe and may have been used by the PWC people.

Similarly, rock art images in northern Scandinavia may indicate the use and existence of skin boats. While some rock art predates the PWC, others were made at the same time, and some sites even show PWC components.

The rock art panels depict fishing, whaling and sealing activities, which the PWC was known to engage in, as well as boats that share a striking resemblance to the Umiak skin boats used by the Inuit.

Not only do depictions of these boats share a similar size to the Umiak skin boats when size ratios are taken into account, but it is interesting to note that individuals depicted standing inside are often drawn as if the lower half of the body is still visible. This is very similar to how backlit Umiak skin boats became semi-translucent, allowing observers to observe the outlines of the individuals inside.

This could indicate that the Scandinavian Neolithic boats depicted in rock art are also skin boats, which is why the people inside are depicted in their entirety when the boats would have partially obscured them.

Additionally, some boats are depicted with animal head-shaped prows. These are similar to the forked harpoon holders that the Umiaks were sometimes equipped with. When viewed in profile, these harpoon holders resembled animal heads. It is possible that the rock art boats were also equipped with a harpoon holder or similar fishing line guide, giving the appearance of animal heads when viewed and drawn in profile.

Finally, indirect evidence for the use and manufacture of skin boats may come from jet ski sites. Faunal assemblages at these sites are dominated by seals and fish, particularly Atlantic cod and weever fish. Seals typically congregate on small islands, ice floes, and coastal reefs, and to reach them, jet ski hunters require boats capable of navigating open water.

Similarly, Atlantic cod, found at depths of 150 to 200 m, would have required boats to reach them. While the harlequin weever could have been hunted in shallow waters, this venomous fish would have caused excruciating pain, inflammation, vomiting and necrosis if stepped on, and would therefore have required boats to fish safely.

Seals were caught and used in abundance, but their bones were rarely used in tool making. Apart from consumption, they were probably caught in large numbers for processing their skins, potentially for the manufacture of skin clothing, tents and boats. This last point is also supported by the types of tools used.

Scrapers, used in the manufacture of hides, are one of the most abundant tools at PWC sites. In addition, awls, too large for clothing, have also been recovered and would have been more suitable for piercing and sewing the seams of hide tents or boats.

The manufacture of skin boats also required large quantities of seal oil, which was abundant at watercraft sites, an essential ingredient for waterproofing skin boats. Not only did the manufacture of skin boats require a large amount of skin, but it also required re-oiling every few days to ensure that they were waterproof. Thus, the manufacture of skin boats in addition to their consumption would explain the large number of seal remains and seal oil at watercraft sites.

Finally, seal oil was commonly used in the Neolithic period and only began to be replaced by pitch, which was needed to waterproof sewn-plank boats, in the Bronze Age. This plank boat technology has been found in Egypt and dated to around 2500 BC.

Dr Fauvelle says: “Plank boat technology in Scandinavia probably did not come from Egypt (at least not directly), but was probably introduced from the British Isles where we have older evidence of this technology.”

According to Dr Fauvelle, “the introduction of this new technology was accompanied by many other technological and social changes that occurred during the Bronze Age.”

Although it is possible that sewn plank boats were also used by the PWC in the past, the evidence suggests that PWC groups were making and using skin boats. These boats allowed them to continue to hunt seals, fish, and travel long distances, which was not possible with the small and limited number of dugout canoes found at some of their sites.

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