During the last Ice Age, a person living near the Rhine River in what is now Europe picked up a piece of rock and carved an image of what appears to be a fish caught in some nets. They could not have guessed that 15,800 years later, researchers would declare their fishing as one of the first examples of fishing in human history.
Researchers from the University of Durham in England and the Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie in Germany used advanced imaging techniques to reveal a fish carved into grid-like patterns in ancient schist (a thin, shard-like piece of metamorphic rock). As the researchers detailed in their study, published earlier this month in PLOS ONE, the grid patterns can be interpreted as representing fishing nets or traps, making this artifact not only the oldest illustration of fishing in European history, but also the only physical evidence. how Paleolithic hunters from this period caught fish. Of course, that is if the researchers’ explanation is correct.
“Although it is known that fish formed part of the diet of Paleolithic hunters at that time, until now, there is no evidence of how the fish were caught,” the researchers explained in a statement from the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie.
This latest find is one of hundreds of plaques engraved by archaeologists found at Gönnersdorf, an Ice Age campsite in present-day Germany inhabited by hunters around 15,800 years ago. In addition to stylized depictions of women, the etchings appear to depict animals important to the survival of Late Upper Paleolithic humans (approximately 24,000 to 14,000 years ago), including woolly rhinoceroses, wild horses, mammoths, reindeer, and now, fish.
“These findings represent a departure from previous interpretations of the site’s imagery, which emphasized natural depictions of animals,” the researchers wrote in the study. In other words, the existence of the imaginary fish painting challenges the idea that Ice Age artists depicted only animals and people.
The discovery of the fish plaque came within the context of a broader effort by researchers to understand the role of the Gönnersdorf plaquettes in the lives of early hunters. To achieve this, the interdisciplinary team used archaeology, visual psychology, and advanced imaging techniques such as Reflectance Transformation Imaging, which reveals surface details that are invisible to the naked eye.
The researchers suggest that the texture and shape of the plaquettes could have played a role in what Ice Age artists chose to depict—a process called pareidolia, which involves identifying meaning in an abstract pattern, not unlike when people think they see shapes in clouds. . They also hypothesized that Late Upper Paleolithic societies may have incorporated fishing into “symbolic and social activities,” according to the statement.
The team notes that this discovery is a reminder that just because certain technologies—such as fishing nets—are rarely found in the archaeological record, it does not mean they lack ancient origins. Finally, the Gönnersdorf fish plaque joins the repertoire of amazing Ice Age art, sheds light on how our ancestors were able to enjoy fish, and is also strong evidence that paleolithic artists drew inspiration not only from animals, but from everyday activities, again.
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