Baltic Sea Bronze Age archaeological research

From the University of Gothenburg in Sweden:

Stone ships show signs of maritime network in Baltic Sea region 3,000 years ago

21 March 2013

In the middle of the Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, the amount of metal objects increased dramatically in the Baltic Sea region. Around the same time, a new type of stone monument, arranged in the form of ships, started to appear along the coasts. New research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden shows that the stone ships were built by maritime groups.

The maritime groups were part of a network that extended across large parts of northern Europe. The network was maintained largely because of the strong dependence on bronze.

Archaeologists have long assumed that bronze was imported to Scandinavia from the south, and recent analyses have been able to confirm this notion. The distribution of bronze objects has been discussed frequently, with most analyses focusing on the links in the networks. The people behind the networks, however, are only rarely addressed, not to mention their meeting places.

‘One reason why the meeting places of the Bronze Age are not discussed very often is that we haven’t been able to find them. This is in strong contrast to the trading places of the Viking Age, which have been easy to locate as they left behind such rich archaeological material,’ says the author of the thesis Joakim Wehlin from the University of Gothenburg and Gotland University.

In his thesis, Wehlin has analysed the archaeological material from the Bronze Age stone ships and their placement in the landscape. The stone ships can be found across the entire Baltic Sea region and especially on the larger islands, with a significant cluster on the Swedish island of Gotland. The ships have long been thought to have served as graves for one or several individuals, and have for this reason often been viewed as death ships intended to take the deceased to the afterlife.

‘My study shows a different picture. It seems like the whole body was typically not buried in the ship, and some stone ships don’t even have graves in them. Instead, they sometimes show remains of other types of activities. So with the absence of the dead, the traces of the survivors tend to appear.’

One of Wehlin’s conclusions is that the stone ships and the activities that took place there point to people who were strongly focused on maritime practice. Details in the ships indicate that they were built to represent real ships. Wehlin says that the stone ships give clues about the ship-building techniques of the time and therefore about the ships that sailed on the Baltic Sea during the Bronze Age.

By studying the landscape, Wehlin has managed to locate a number of meeting places, or early ports.

‘These consist of areas that resemble hill forts and are located near easily accessible points in the landscape – that is, near well-known waterways leading inland. While these areas have previously been thought to be much younger, recent age determinations have dated them to the Bronze Age.’

The thesis offers a very extensive account of the stone ships. It also suggests that the importance of the Baltic Sea during the Scandinavian Bronze Age, not least as a waterway, has been underestimated in previous research.

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Many great tits, pigeons migrating

This video from France says about itself:

A couple of Wood Pigeons made a nest in my flower box in Paris, trashing my geraniums. When I noticed the nest, I let them be. One egg was laid and then another. I named the parents Patience and Constant, because they were! They took turns sitting on the eggs 24/7 until the first egg hatched on Bastille Day 2008, exactly 18 days after it was laid. After several more days it was clear that the second egg had died. I named the surviving baby Hope.

After the hatching, Patience and Constant continued to sit on the nest, keeping the squab warm, and feeding it with pigeon “milk” which they manufactured from their own food. This pigeon baby food is regurgitated from the throat into the squabs beak.

At 12 days old, Hope was left alone for the first time and I found her at 4:00 am, drenched in a torrential downpour. I made a bed for her and brought her in for a few hours, putting her back in the nest before her parents returned! The next night it rained again and I put up an umbrella to keep her dry.

In the week that followed she began to stretch her wings, balance on the edge of the window box, and look outward to the world beyond. At 20 days old, Hope flew for the first time. She came back to rest in the nest in the flower box on three occasions. After that she stayed out with her flock. Today she is healthy, plump, beautiful, and free.

The Dutch ornithologists of SOVON report record numbers of woodpigeons migrating from Scandinavia through the eastern Netherlands to south-western Europe this year. In the month October alone, 2,7 million pigeons were counted, a record number.

SOVON also reports record numbers of great tits coming to the Netherlands from northern and eastern Europe this year. Nearly 80,000 this year. Bird migration researchers think these were probably mainly not from Scandinavia, but from Baltic countries. Probably, the birds migrate because of a lack this year of beech nuts and other food in eastern Europe.

November 2012. A new strain of avian pox is taking its toll on garden birds in Britain, according to new research. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), University of Oxford, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and RSPB report on the impact avian pox is having on great tit populations: here.

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Migrating birds die at sea

This video is called No food, no offspring. Climate change has reached migratory birds in the North Sea.

From the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain:

Migrating birds lost at sea

Last modified: 26 October 2012

An appalling combination of fog and winds around England’s coast this week have created terrible conditions for migrating birds, with some fishermen reporting to the RSPB the deaths of many exhausted and disorientated ‘garden’ birds plunging into the sea around their vessels.

England’s east coast, from Northumberland to Kent, has seen the arrival of many birds, including redwings, fieldfares, bramblings and blackbirds, perhaps numbering in their millions this week. The RSPB believes these birds may be the lucky survivors which have managed to cross the North Sea, but the Society concedes many others may have perished before making landfall.

The sky was thick with garden birds. I estimate I saw 500 birds die and that was just in our 300-yard sphere

One such site to experience a ‘fall’ of stranded migrant birds is the RSPB’s Bempton Cliffs reserve in North Yorkshire. Ian Kendall is the reserves manager. Commenting on the sight, he said: “There are birds in their thousands, on the cliffs, in the surrounding fields, hedgerows and along the length of the Yorkshire Coast.

“The birds left Scandinavia in glorious sunshine but as they crossed the North Sea, they flew into fog and rain, so they stopped off at the first bit of land they have come across. The place has been dripping with birds.”

Disorientated

Along England’s south coast, the RSPB has received several reports of thousands of disorientated and exhausted birds drowning in the sea. One respondent, a professional boat skipper, said: “While fishing about 10 miles south of Portsmouth, we witnessed thousands of garden birds disorientated, land on the sea and most drowning. Species included goldcrests, robins, thrushes and blackbirds. The sky was thick with garden birds. I estimate I saw 500 birds die and that was just in our 300-yard sphere. On the way home we just saw dead songbirds in the water: it was a harrowing sight.”

Martin Harper is the RSPB’s conservation director. He said: “The scale of these reports are truly shocking, and it has the potential to adversely affect the status of species which may be declining for other reasons.”

Those exhausted birds which have made it to the UK will be looking for food and may be visiting gardens, especially as the weather is expected to turn with the UK forecast to receive the first icy blasts of winter.

Topping up bird feeders

Ian Hayward is an adviser with the RSPB’s wildlife enquiries team. He said: “The first cold snap will encourage many birds to visit gardens increasingly, in a quest for food. Now is the time to start topping up bird tables and feeders. These birds need all the help they can get, so gardeners and farmers can also help birds by not cutting hedgerows laden with much-needed berries.”

Blackbird migration: here.

Related articles

• Thousands of migrating birds lost in North Sea (ascendingstarseed.wordpress.com)
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