At Lake Tesse in the Jotunheimen mountain region of southern Norway, 7,000-year-old wooden fish traps revealed as water levels dropped indicate that pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer communities managed the natural environment far more actively than previously assumed. Dated to the Mesolithic, these exceptional finds are considered highly significant because they demonstrate that the ability to control wetlands and fish populations began centuries before the agricultural revolution.
A Discovery Revealed by Receding Waters
The discovery began when mountaineer and amateur archaeologist Reidar Marstein noticed wooden stakes protruding from the mud on the exposed bed of Lake Tesse. Emergency rescue excavations carried out by specialists from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo identified four distinct fish-trap systems composed of numerous wooden posts driven into the lakebed [1]. Radiocarbon analyses confirmed that the posts date to around 5000 BC and represent the oldest examples of their kind known in Northern Europe [2].
Hunter-Gatherers Who Shaped Their Environment
It has become clear that Stone Age communities in the region were not only hunting reindeer but also establishing sophisticated net systems in the lakes and developing a systematic fishing tradition [3]. Researchers note that the presence of these traps suggests Mesolithic groups may intentionally have introduced fish into high-altitude lakes. This indicates that humanity’s transformative impact on the environment was not confined to sedentary farming societies, and that mobile hunter-gatherers also shaped ecosystems according to their needs.
A Race Against Time to Save the Evidence
The wooden remains became visible when water levels in the lake temporarily dropped due to dam works, then disappeared again as the lake refilled. Because organic materials deteriorate rapidly once exposed to air, archaeologists faced an intense race against time to document the finds and secure them for long-term preservation. The resulting data are helping to reframe our understanding of the complex relationship early Scandinavian populations had with their environment.
Sources and further reading
- [1] 7,000 year old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains
- [2] 7,000 year old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains
- [3] 7,000 year old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains
Image & News Source: Phys.org - Archaeology & Fossils / phys.org