Wattling for Fish: The Materials and Construction of Stationary Wooden Fishing Structures in Stone Age Southern Scandinavia ca. 6500–1800 cal BCE

Abstract The importance of forest resources to the Stone Age populations of Northern Europe has not been comprehensively studied, despite wood raw materials forming the basis for life, settlement, mobility, and subsistence. In addition to firewood and construction needs, wood has been used for a wide range of purposes. The paucity of research is due to the limited preservation of organic materials at archaeological sites in drylands, whereas wetlands and submerged environments can remarkably preserve wood for thousands of years. Findings in such contexts demonstrate that Mesolithic populations in southern Scandinavia had already been using well-designed and functional wooden fishing structures, constructed using the wattle-and-stake principle, as early as 8500 years ago. The easily made, movable, composite, and elastic wattle modules were likely also used for various purposes in settlements and activity areas on drylands, where their remains have simply not survived. This paper examines the Stone Age origins of the wattling tradition associated with wooden fishing structures, represented in the archaeological record of the western Baltic Sea, with particular emphasis on findings from the prehistoric Syltholm Fjord on Lolland, southeast Denmark. The well-preserved organic evidence recovered from the waterlogged sites in this study area expands our previous knowledge of the uses of forest resources, wattle-making, and other manufacturing techniques, particularly from 3300–2600 cal BCE (the Middle Neolithic in Danish Stone Age chronology). Our results demonstrate that these multipurpose structural elements played a crucial role in the practice of an adaptive fishing strategy in a dynamic coastal landscape, involving the use of portable, composite wattle panel modules in fish weirs. Similar elements were presumably also used for a variety of other purposes, thereby significantly enhancing our understanding of woodworking methods and the utilisation of forest raw materials in Stone Age Northern Europe.