Paterned oar blades from Tybrind vig

Abstract

Patterned Oar Blades from Tybrind Vig

During excavation of the submerged Ertebølle settlement Tybrind Vig (4200-3300 BC) on the Little Belt (fig. 1 and 2) (1), a number of characteristic wooden implements were recovered, of a kind not previously found in Denmark, fig. 3. Similar objects are known from the Rüde 2 settlement at Satrup, South Schleswig, where they are called "spades" (2). In this article, however, these implements are considered to be oars.

They are made of ash and have a c. 100-120 cm long shaft with a broad heart-shaped blade, fig. 3.

During the 1980 excavation, the patterned oar was recovered, and another one was found later, fig. 7.

Patterned wooden objects have never before been found in a Danish Mesolithic settlement and the new find reveals and entirely new art form and technique.

The oar fig. 4 is made of ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and lacked on excavation only a little of the blade.

The shaft is 116 cm long and the blade 20 cm wide (original width c. 30-35 cm), 30 cm long an about 1 cm thick. The surface is smooth and exhibits no traces of working or wear. One well preserved side of the blade is patterned.

The pattern covers the top two-thirds of the blade an appears in low negative relief in the smooth surface. When the oar was found, it was inlaid with a brown pigment, fig. 4. Careful investigations suggest that the pattern has been pressed into the surface of the wood, for instance by means of a stamp or the like.

The point of inlaying a dark pigment in the pattern must have been to emphasize its effect, a technique which is known from patterned Ertebølle objects in other materials, for instance antler, bone and amber (3).

The composition covers the width of the blade and is symmetrical about the long axis and a transverse axis, fig. 4a-b.

The ornament consists of a mixture of geometrical motifs and "softer", sinuous bands, balancing the effect of strict composition and the geometrical motifs.

The pattern is built around a transverse central field with a horizontal rhombic figure, bordered symmetrically by vertical parallel bunches of lines and horizontal ellipses. This field is framed by a single and then 3 transverse parallel "point-lines". Then comes parallel to these sets of 2, 3 and 5 short, parallel point-lines, framing horizontal "spectacle figures". Above and below, the whole pattern is completed with elegant sinuous and fanshaped lines resembling birds' tails.

As to the individual motifs, the dominant one is small, round, raised dots close together in short lines, or slightly curved or angular bands, fig. 4 top right and bottom left. The short lines are seen in groups of 5, 2 and 3+3, while the longer bands occur singly as straight lines or in parallel groups of 3+3. Other motifs are vertical bunches of thin, parallel, closely applied lines, ellipses, rhombic and spectacle-shaped figures, and large fields of sigmoid and sinuous bands, surrounding fields with fan-shaped rows of dots, fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a reconstruction of the pattern.

The oar blade fig. 7-8, which is also of ash, is likewise decorated. It is 26 cm wide, 25 cm long and 1.5 cm thick. The pattern is only locally present, but on both sides, the top halves of which show a composition and motifs corresponding to those in the first described oar fig. 4. The shaft of this oar is missing.

Two patterned oar blades of the same shape, size and decoration suggest that oar decoration may be a characteristic feature and one aspect of a particular artistic form of expression in wood.

The two oar blades belong to the Ertebølle culture, c. 4200-3400 BC (converted C-14). An examination of the other c. 10 oar blades from Tybrind Vig shows that they are not patterned. The two patterned blades also differ in being the largest. This combination of features may indicate that patterned oars were of special (ceremonial?) importance.

The ornamented oar blades are a unique feature of the European Mesolithic. From the Danish area, decoration is known only in antler, bone, amber and in a few instances, clay (4). For the first time, we get a glimpse of how the many wooden objects of the Mesolithic were decorated with coloured pattern.

Both the composition and several of the motifs separate this ornament from our other patterned Ertebølle objects. Among the motifs, fig. 9, the dot rows can be recognized again in patterned objects of bone, anler and clay (5), but here as drilled dots. The motif with bunches of thin parallel strokes is also known in Ertebølle implements (6), whereas all the others are unknown, which is probably due to the fact that they have been executed in a different raw material, wood, and the oar ornament most resembles art in "softer materials", such as clothing or the body.

In the Mesolithic period, artistic expression, e.g. motifs and compositions forms, has presumably been determined primarily by the nature of the raw material used.

As mentioned above, these implements have earlier been called "spades" and been adduced as evidence of a primitive Neolithic "spade cultivation" in the later Ertebølle culture (7-8). An examination of the South Schleswig and Danish specimens does not reveal traces suggesting digging or cultivating tools. Digging experiments with replicas made distinct scratches in the blade after brief use, both in light and heavy soil, not seen in the prehistoric originals. Now we have the two new pieces with a fine relief pattern which does not seem appropriate in a digging tool.

I believe these objects to be paddles of a special kind, perhaps for ceremonial use. That oars, in particular, should be decorated is easily explainable: they may easily be lost while in use, and the decoration serves as an ownership mark.

Søren H. Andersen

Oversættelse: Peter Crabb