#the netherlands
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,
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Postcard swap between the lovely Tsjisse Talsma and I (click his name for a link to his tumblr!)
The first postcard is one he made for me, and the one below is the one I sent in return.
I cannot get over the beauty of the postcard he has sent me, it’s such a well made object and the colouring & layout of it are so cleverly done. Thank you so much Tsjisse for the mail and for letting me post this on here!
If anyone else would like to do a postcard swap with me, please feel free to ask.
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Here are some fun pictures taken at the beach from last Friday! A lot had happened and I want to thank you for your kind words on my posts lately! It really means a lot…
We had a lot of fun last Friday with Otje, look how big she has gotten! She will be one year old before we know it. Otje is Humans dear friends Sprite. They live more near the beach than us so when we are near it is always fun to see if we can meet up!
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After a whole lot of happenings… Human is kinda sad with the world. There have been riots the past days, last night there was one in our city, 300 meters from our little apartment. Just don’t get why, how and these people, more than half under the age of 25, must be the future? Please… Human has a broken heart for the world right now again, I am still healing from my bite attack that the people don’t want to help Human with pay. Why are there so many self centered anti social humans on this world?
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If anyone of my followers is form Belgium or is able to order from Belgium and feeds Farm Food or uses their chewsnacks or trainers… I may have something for you! You can now get 10% off using the code REMUS10 on koira.be on all Farm Food products! You also help us in the process because we get discounts on our own food :) Thank you for reading!
This has a completely different meaning now
I just love it how he still can’t believe what’s happening to him and like he’s just so down to the earth & treats his fans like friends
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