Dug-out Canoes Used For Fishing, Transport During Neolithic Age Unearthed

(Photo : Getty Images/QUEILA FERNANDES)

A recent study indicated that five dug-out canoes that were believed to be used during the Neolithic Age were unearthed in the Mediterranean Sea.

Boats Used In Neolithic Period

Recent research indicates that the navigation in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic is studied here through the boats that were used, the degree of technical specialization in their construction and, above all, their chronology.

Experts pointed out that after a brief explanation of the exceptional site of La Marmotta, the characteristics and chronology of the five canoes found at the settlement and one of the nautical objects linked to Canoe 1 have been extensively tackled.

They said that this would allow a reflection on the capability of Neolithic societies for navigation owing to their high technological level.

Further, they said this technology was an essential part in the success of their expansion, bearing in mind that in a few millennia they occupied the whole Mediterranean from Cyprus to the Atlantic seaboard of the Iberian Peninsula.

Scientists also noted that it is clear that the Mediterranean Sea must have often been used for travel, as boats usually allowed rapid movements of population, contacts and exchange of goods.

This is seen not only in the vessel or other watercrafts, but also in the location of the first Neolithic settlements on islands or near the sea.

For this reason, several researchers have proposed that the first farming communities must have traveled by sea or by means of short voyages following the coastline.

Obviously, those groups did not set sail without knowing what lay beyond the horizon they saw from their shores.

Experts said that their knowledge about the maritime routes began to be acquired by Mesolithic groups, and possibly before, and was transmitted and perfected from generation to generation.

Much of the first indirect and direct evidence of maritime travel in Europe has been found at Mesolithic sites. Sea voyages explain the occupation during this period of Cyprus, Corsica, Sicily and Greek islands like Icaria, Lemnos and Melos.

Strategies Unearthed

The study explained that the canoes discovered at several sites open a window to past navigation. Researchers said that they have been preserved under water, such as in lakes and lagoons, or in very humid sites like the peat bogs.

Their documentation reveals the types of boats that were used and their building techniques.

Some of the most notable examples of Mesolithic canoes have been found at Noyen-sur-Seine and Le-Codray-Montceaux-Nandy, in France; Dümmerlohausen and Stralsund-Mischwasserspeicher, in Germany; Pesse, in Holland; Tybrind Vig, Lystrup and Praestelyng II-Baden in Denmark, and Hotiza, in Slovenia.

The archaeobotanical study of the canoes of the Neolithic site of La Marmotta, allowed the experts and even the public to understand, on the one hand, the strategies of management and use of woody resources as raw material by the inhabitants of this village.

On the other hand, this study allowed the public to understand the level of specialization of the first Neolithic communities that spread in the Mediterranean.