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Similarities between the Bronze Age cultures of Denmark and Norway suggest people were making the journey from one place to the other. How did these ancient people cross the sea?
A new computer model described in the journal PLOS One has been used to help archaeologists better understand the seafaring abilities of these seafarers Scandinavia.
Bronze Age cultures of northern Denmark and southwestern Norway share similar artefacts, burial systems and architecture. This has led to the belief that cultural exchange between the regions was made possible by vessels traveling along the coastline of Scandinavia – a 700km route along the coast of Sweden.
The authors of the new study, led by Boel Bengtsson from the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg in Sweden, suggest a different route.
Was it possible that Bronze Age Scandinavians were able to travel directly between the 2 sites over more than 100km of open sea?
The team used a computer model to simulate different routes between southwest Norway and northern Denmark. The computational tool uses data on environment such as currents and wind, as well as information on how vessels move through the water.
A reconstruction of a large Hjortspring, a paddle canoe, was used as the model vessel. This boat is about 20m long and was discovered in 1921 in southern Denmark. It dates to 400–300 BCE.
The simulation suggests that Bronze Age Scandinavians indeed had the ability to go directly from Norway to Denmark across the Skagerrak strait.
Such trips would have had a few prerequisites.
A boat making the journey would have to be able to navigate waves up to 1m high and winds up to 10 knots. The seafarers would also have to have had good weather forecasting and navigation skills. Such trips may have been limited to summer months.
“These new agent-based simulations, applied with boat performance data of a Scandinavian Bronze Age-type boat, demonstrate regular open sea crossings of the Skagerrak, including some [with] 50km [of] no visible land, likely commenced by 2300 BCE,” the authors write.
The alternative journey along the coast of Sweden would have been safer and open all year, but it also would have taken weeks with regular pitstops to restock supplies.
The authors also say their computer simulation method could be used to determine the viability of other sea crossings potentially made by ancient peoples around the world.
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