Posted on 01/26/2012 8:28:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv
An international team of archeologists, led by Ignacio Clemente, a researcher with the Spanish National Research Council, has discovered and documented an assemblage of fish seines and traps in the Dubna Basin near Moscow that are dated to be more than 7,500 years old. They say that the equipment, among the oldest found in Europe, displays a surprisingly advanced technical complexity. The finds illuminate the role of fishing among European settlements of the early Holocene (about 10,000 years ago), particularly where people did not practice agriculture until just before the advent of the Iron Age.
Says Clemente: "Until now, it was thought that the Mesolithic groups had seasonal as opposed to permanent settlements. According to the results obtained during the excavations, in both Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, the human group that lived in the Dubna river basin, near Moscow, carried out productive activities during the entire year".
According to the research team, the Neolithic and Mesolithic inhabitants of the region, known as Zamostje 2, hunted during summer and winter, fished during spring and early summer, and harvested wild berries near the end of the summer and throughout the fall. But Clemente and colleagues suggest that the fishing commanded a salient place in their survival and prosperity. Says Clemente: "We think that the fishing played a vital role in the economy of these societies, because it was a versatile product, easy to preserve, dry and smoke, as well as store for later consumption."
Three years of work have uncovered a variety of artifacts at the site, including everyday objects such as spoons, plates, working tools, hunting weapons, all made from flint and other stones, bones and shafts. Finds included well-preserved organic items of wood, tree leaves, fossil feces and fish remains.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
|
|
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
|
|
Something I'm sure wouldn't have been out of place 7500 years ago.
/johnny
We continue to underestimate our forebearers.
Why are these 'scientists' always surprised to learn that our ancestor were smart?
Please forebear us the histrionics, grandpa. What could old white Russians know about anyway?
Wait a minute, there I go underesteeming again. Sorry.
Perhaps if they’re fish traps were simpler they’d still be around?
Not only complex but long lasting fish traps too.
Trapping for 7,500 years and they still haven’t caught me! Pllffftt!!
Complex Fish Traps Built by the Caviar Brothers Over 7,500 Years Old Found in Russia
The story says this all happened in the early homo scene. I wondered where that all started. Russia. That figures.
Just a quick ‘thank you’ for the many interesting articles you find and post here at FR!
“A brave man it was who first an oyster et”.... James Mitchner Chesapeake
“hunted during summer and winter, fished during spring and early summer, and harvested wild berries near the end of the summer and throughout the fall.”
I remember doing some of that when I was a lad.
So, we’re born with the urge to fish. Cool.
Fish were tougher to catch back then.
Don’t have the link anymore, but archeologists found some wooden items in a Danish bog that were 50,000 years old.
Turned out to be a leg hold trap with wooden springs.
Humans naturally preferred makin’ meat the easy way.
Cool, I would like to see more about that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.