Rock Art Hints At Whaling Origins (6,000 BC)

BBC ^ | 4-20-2004

[blam]

Rock art hints at whaling origins

Capture of a whale, showing a boat carrying whalers (left of the whale) and a float (on the right)

Stone Age people may have started hunting whales as early as 6,000 BC, new evidence from South Korea suggests. Analysis of rock carvings at Bangu-Dae archaeological site in Ulsan in the southeast of the country revealed more than 46 depictions of large whales.

They also show evidence that humans used harpoons, floats and lines to catch their prey, which included sperm whales, right whales and humpbacks.

Details of the research are published in the journal L'Anthropologie.

"You have representations of dolphins and whales, with people on boats using harpoons and lines. It is a scene of whaling," co-investigator Daniel Robineau told BBC News Online.

For example, one scene shows people standing in a curved boat connected via a line to a whale.

Social importance

The rock engravings, or petroglyphs, seem to have been made at a range of different times between 6,000 and 1,000 BC.

The engravings are visibly those of large whales, the researchers say At nearby occupation sites dating to between 5,000 and 1,500 BC, archaeologists have unearthed large quantities of cetacean bones - a sure sign that whales were an important food source for populations in the area.

Other species represented on the rocks at Bangu-Dae include orcas (killer whales), minke whales, and dolphins.

Dr Robineau and Sang-Mog Lee, of the Museum of Kyungpook National University in Bukgu Daegu in South Korea, suggest whaling played an important role in social cohesion in the lives of the people who made the petroglyphs, similar to that which has been observed in historic Inuit populations.

Some of the depictions of whales also bear what appear to be fleshing lines, where the hunters divided up the meat after capturing and killing the mammals.

[blam]

GGG ping.

[lizma]

All in all, I think humans under estimate the people of the past and over estimate the people of the present.

[BenLurkin]

Neat!

(But is it just me . . . cuz I see a frowning face with one eye shut.)

[DefCon]

"...their prey, which included sperm whales, right whales and humpbacks..."
- - -
I wonder how they know this part, about the species of whales.

[blam]

I was thinking of you last week when I read that there was only about 300 Right Whales left in the world. Is this correct?

[RightWhale]

Yep, right whales are nearly extinct. They aren't needed for oil anymore, so maybe they will continue to be around for a while in low numbers.

[RonF]

Examination of the bones can reveal what species of whale they came from.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[yooper]

Looks like a Rohrshach test depicting my mother-in-law first thing in the morning.

[Snickersnee]

...what appear to be fleshing lines, where the hunters divided up the meat after capturing and killing the mammals.

I think they mean flensing, where the meat is pulled off the carcass in long fore-and-aft strips. That's what they taught me at Mystic Seaport, anyway.

[GATOR NAVY]

Yes, but they're talking about finding petroglyphs, not an actual hunting site.

[BenLurkin]

See my post #4.

[DefCon]

...At nearby occupation sites dating to between 5,000 and 1,500 BC, archaeologists have unearthed large quantities of cetacean bones...
- - -
O-h-h-h-h, Now I see that part about the nearby sites.
Silly me.
I was sitting here trying to figure out how the drawings
were good enough to distinguish the whale species just from that...

[GATOR NAVY]

I missed that too.