Swifterbant FishingBetween 1999 and 2001, the remains of at least 10 fish barriers and 40 fish traps

Swifterbant Fishing

Between 1999 and 2001, the remains of at least 10 fish barriers and 40 fish traps have been found in modern day Flevoland, the Netherlands dated back to around 3000BC which belonged to the Swifterbant culture, about which I wrote a post earlier this week. This fishing gear has been conserved very well. Perhaps because Flevoland was first land, then a lake, then sea and now land again.

The fish barriers in particular are special because they show that these people were very skilled at fishing thousands of years ago. They didn’t simply use a spear or a rod to catch a fish, they made complicated traps in order to lure and trap fish.

The barriers are around 15 to 30 meters long and were shaped like a funnel. Fish could swim into the barrier but they couldn’t get out again. The fish traps were made from willow branches and the poles supporting the barriers were made from birch, elm and hazel wood. The willow branches were woven and bound with a rope made from bark.

Several long, 2 meters long, taxus wood sticks have been found as well which were most likely used to keep the traps in place. This highly efficient way of fishing probably led to a surplus of fish for these mesolithic people. This makes archeologists wonder if they just caught fish for their own consumption or did they also catch it to use for trade?

Were they able to smoke the fish and transport it to other settlements for trade? Evidence for the use of small ships like canoes have been discovered as well near these Swifterbant settlements like peddles. Unfortunately direct evidence of trading this fish is gone by now but it might be very much so possible that these prehistoric people not just caught fish for food but for trade as well, which is a rare thing to see in mesolithic societies.

The way how these Swifterbant people used these fish barriers to fish has not changed for over 5000 years. Fishers in the Netherlands still use this exact same method until this day. It’s a nice prehistoric tradition that still exists today so I thought it would be interesting to share.

Here are photos of:
Swifterbant fish barrier found,
Swifterbant fish traps,
Reconstruction of the fish barrier,
Modern day Dutch fish barrier,
Canoe peddle found,