Pit potters traveled in leather boats

in Finland at least the Stone Age hunter-gatherer population that settled in Åland traveled along the sea, perhaps in boats made of leather. These people belonged to the so-called pit ceramic culture, which got its name from the small pits that decorated the sides of the clay vessels.

5,500–4,300 years ago, the living areas of pit potters covered a wide area of ​​Scandinavia, from Denmark to Sweden and the Åland Islands. Jettböle, located less than ten kilometers north of Mariehamn, was one of their places of residence, and significant pottery and bone discoveries have been made there.

There are also human bones in the group, some of which were from a place that was interpreted as an abomination and were treated in a way that might indicate cannibalism. A less dramatic option is that the traces on human bones came in burial rituals.

The people who lived in Åland, who lived by catching seals and fishing, must have been able to move long distances in the open sea. For example, the analysis of dog teeth found in Jettböle tells about the connections behind the long sea turtles, according to which the dog came from Gotland.

Sea voyages probably folded with boats made of seal skin, proves the researcher of anthropological archeology at Lund University Michael Fauvelle and colleagues Journal of Maritime Archeology -in the scientific journal.

In some pit pottery excavations, hollowed-out trunks have been found. However, such small wooden boats would easily capsize in the waves of the sea, and therefore researchers believe that they were only suitable for calmer inland waters. In their opinion, they ventured out to sea in larger leather boats.

“I believe that this new technology accelerated the sea-based raiding and trading that can be seen in the Stone Age pit pottery period,” Fauvelle tells Phys.org-on the site.

Seal skin has not been preserved from the pit pottery culture area from that time, which may be due to the fact that the skin has decomposed in the soil over time. Despite this, some other findings speak in favor of the use of boats made of leather.

One the proof is possible boat frame structures from the Stone Age, which have been found both in northern Germany and in Sweden. If the interpretation of the finds is correct, they prove that this boat-making technique was known in the area of ​​influence of pit pottery.

According to the researchers, rock art also supports the theory. They are especially looking at rock carvings found in Alta in northern Norway, which show human figures standing in boats in fishing poles.

What is special about the pictures is that people’s feet are also visible, even though they should be hidden behind the side of the boat. The explanation could be a translucent leather boat in the backlight.

According to the researchers, Alta is so close to the pit pottery populations that knowledge of leather boats could have been transmitted between different cultural circles.

Historically, leather boats have been used especially in polar regions such as Greenland, Alaska and Siberia. Such was, for example, the Inuit umiak, where sealskin was attached to a frame made of wood or bone and treated with seal oil to make it waterproof. Up to 15 passengers could ride in the ten-meter-long umiak.

Published in Tiede magazine 12/2024.