Posted on 12/24/2007 1:13:30 AM PST by bruinbirdman
The origins of ice-skating have been traced by scientists to the frozen lakes of Finland about 5,000 years ago, when people used skates made from animal bone.
Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University have calculated that skating on the primitive blades would have reduced the energy cost of travelling by 10 per cent, suggesting that it emerged as a practical method of transport and not as recreation.
Southern Finland has been identified as the most likely home of skating through an analysis of the shape and distribution of lakes in central and northern Europe, which shows that the early Finns would have had most to gain from travelling on the ice.
Archaeological evidence indicates that skating began about 3,000 BC, as skates made from bone dating to this time have been discovered in Scandi-navia and other parts of northern Europe. The reason why people started skating and where they did it has always been a mystery. The new research, led by Federico Formenti and Alberto Minetti of the university’s Institute of Biophysical and Clinical Research into Human Movement, has offered an answer to both questions.
“In Central and Northern Europe 5,000 years ago, people struggled to survive the severe winter conditions and it seems unlikely that ice skating developed as a hobby,” Dr Formenti said. “As happened later for skis and bicycles, I am convinced that we first made ice skates to limit the energy required for our daily journeys.”
To test their theories the scientists made ice skates modelled on 23 ancient specimens in the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, then used volunteers to test them at an ice rink in the Alps. After a day getting used to the bone blades, the volunteers had their heart rates, oxygen intake and skating speeds measured so that their energy consumption and the efficiency of their skating could be calculated.
The results were fed into a mathemtical model simulating 240 10km (6mile) journeys across Europe. The scientists found that being able to skate and walk across the primitive terrain in Finland would save 10 per cent of people’s energy. The energy saving was only 3 per cent in Norway, and 1 per cent or less in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. The effect reflects the local geography of southern Finland, which has the highest concentration of lakes in a 100 sq km area anywhere in the world.
“Finnish populations could benefit more than others from developing this ingenious locomotion tool,” the scientists said. “The study supports the hypothesis that, compared to populations living elsewhere, Ancient Finns were more likely forced to develop a tool that helped them to save energy when travelling. In a time and environment in which the equilibrium between energy extracted from food and energy required to live was crucial, the minimisation of the cost of locomotion might have helped humans to survive the severe conditions.”
The piece doesn’t seem to describe the accompanying photo but if associated with the text, that a remarkably preserved buckle.
Since then, we Northmen have been pretty productive in the field of innovation.
Blond hair is often associated with stupidity but for some reason the blondest people in the whole world, the Scandinavians:
- Have been more successful in the field of inventing revolutionizing technology than any other people on Earth (what Ericsson and Nokia have accomplished in the area of mobile telecommunication is in fact just a small example of Nordic engineering competence)
- Have higher IQs than any other people (according to several international studies)
- Have been so immensely successful in such a wide range of economic activities that Scandinavia today is the richest part of the Earth (measured by nominal GDP per capita)
- Present groundbreaking scientific research results at a rate which could make you think they are on tap in this corner of the world (it’s not a mere coincidence that Scandinavia is home to the Nobel Prize)
Apart from this, we know how to skate. Finns and Swedes are rather respected in the world of ice hockey.
To everyone in America and elsewhere who are of Scandinavian ancestry:
BE PROUD!
Them wild and crazy Finns
Merry Christmas y’all
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Interesting.....ping.
'Tis blind luck that you were born on the winning side of the 'Equator problem'.
Where being born out on the frozen tundra required organization and intelligence to survive.
Today that skill set and some North Sea oil are a winning combination!
Democracy index Vs latitude Democracy Index Graphs http://www.neoformix.com/2007/DemocracyIndex.html
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
My anthropology books tell me that Scandanavians have larger teeth than all other Europeans. I found out last year that my mother has Skolt Sami DNA, mtDNA ‘V’.
"Grave findings have shown that late Palaeolithic settlers in central Europe and their Mesolithic descendants in the Scandinavian Peninsula were Europoids, who had compartively large teeth - a seemingly comical detail, but nevertheless an important factor in identifying these populations."
See, I told ya we were inventive and talented!! Even the Reindeer are smart!!
Merry Christmas, Alfa6!!
"scientists made ice skates modelled on 23 ancient specimens in the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum"
yitbos
Interesting.
Thanks for posting and Merry X-Mas!
Ping.
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Thanks uglybiker. |
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Monty Python: Finland
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be,
Pony trekking or camping,
Or just watching TV.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
It’s the country for me.
You’re so near to Russia,
So far from Japan,
Quite a long way from Cairo,
Lots of miles from Vietnam.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be,
Eating breakfast or dinner,
Or snack lunch in the hall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
You’re so sadly neglected
And often ignored,
A poor second to Belgium,
When going abroad.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland has it all.
I do wonder sometimes at academics. If the nordics invented skates to save effort, then how’d they rationalize all those permanently lamed up by breaking their ankles while trying to learn to skate?
Sometimes folk do stuff just because they can and not everything has to be work related.
And to those saying Finns are sooo smart... well, ok. Sure. I bet many of them are just bright as lightbulbs.
But the industrial revolution was started, fueled and expanded by my ancestors in Scotland!!! So, any real bonus in smarts y’all got must have been from your ancestors close association with my ancestors in the long ago days.
One fine Scott lass or laddy added to a foreign devil’s family by marriage and that family is enhanced for the rest of their generations.
Sami DNA!! Far out!!
I need to be tested. My Dad called himself a black Swede, due to dark hair.
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