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<p>Åland, in the middle of the Baltic, provides a unique case study for travel across the sea. At the beginning of the Finnish Neolithic (5000&#xa0;cal [Calendar years] BC [Before Current Era]), Åland was situated 100 kms from the mainland, yet people managed to settle the islands. The distance travelled was double the distance that can be documented elsewhere for voyages across the open sea in the Nordic Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. Not until the end of the Stone Age (2400&#xa0;cal BC) can voyages of similar length be attested. The Åland settlements prove that people arrived from Finland on winter hunts for seals. The sea was probably more or less covered by ice, with travel on the ice or as a combination of transport across open and frozen water. This versatility created a laboratory for flexible travel, where experience from travelling on solid ground could be transposed to open waters and vice versa. This may also have created a fertile context for developing new means of transport. Plank-built boats may be one such achievement. A few wooden objects, traditionally interpreted as sledge runners, could be examples of flexibility in the relationship between sea and overland travel, and they demonstrate the presence of craft needed for making plank boats in the Neolithic.</p>

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Pagonauts and Argonauts of the Nordic Neolithic – on the Introduction of the Plank-Built Boat in the Baltic

  • 期刊论文

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年6月30日

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  • Håkon Glørstad

摘要

Åland, in the middle of the Baltic, provides a unique case study for travel across the sea. At the beginning of the Finnish Neolithic (5000 cal [Calendar years] BC [Before Current Era]), Åland was situated 100 kms from the mainland, yet people managed to settle the islands. The distance travelled was double the distance that can be documented elsewhere for voyages across the open sea in the Nordic Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. Not until the end of the Stone Age (2400 cal BC) can voyages of similar length be attested. The Åland settlements prove that people arrived from Finland on winter hunts for seals. The sea was probably more or less covered by ice, with travel on the ice or as a combination of transport across open and frozen water. This versatility created a laboratory for flexible travel, where experience from travelling on solid ground could be transposed to open waters and vice versa. This may also have created a fertile context for developing new means of transport. Plank-built boats may be one such achievement. A few wooden objects, traditionally interpreted as sledge runners, could be examples of flexibility in the relationship between sea and overland travel, and they demonstrate the presence of craft needed for making plank boats in the Neolithic.