At the Ice Age site of Gönnersdorf near Neuwied am Rhein, researchers from the Archaeological Research Centre and Museum of Human Behavioural Evolution MONREPOS, a LEIZA institution, together with scientists from the University of Durham in England, have made a significant discovery: Using modern imaging methods, detailed engravings of fish on slate slabs superimposed by grid-like patterns have become visible.
These patterns can best be interpreted as depictions of nets or fish traps and provide the first archaeological evidence of early fishing techniques in the late phase of the Younger Paleolithic (ca. 20,000–14,500 BC). The engravings add practical and symbolic elements to the well-known repertoire of Ice Age art, suggesting that fishing also had a social component in the life of the hunter-gatherer societies of the time.
The Ice Age site of Neuwied-Gönnersdorf is one of the most important and richest Late Ice Age sites in Europe and holds artistic treasures from prehistoric times: hundreds, mostly small, flat slates show images of prey such as wild horses, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer and mammoths – animals that were crucial for the survival of the Late Ice Age people who inhabited the camp site 15,800 years ago. In addition to these detailed illustrations, several hundred engravings of highly stylized female figures have made the site world-famous. Now it also provides the earliest known evidence of Stone Age fishing techniques.
With the help of modern imaging techniques, several fish representations were discovered that are covered with grid-like patterns. These patterns are interpreted as fishing nets or traps. Although it is known that fish were part of the diet of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, there has been a lack of evidence of how the fish were caught.
Thus, the Gönnersdorf engravings represent the earliest known depictions of net or trap fishing in European prehistory and once again make it clear that technologies that are rarely preserved in archaeological find contexts may have much older origins than generally assumed.
Elaborate engravings are examined as part of an interdisciplinary project
The investigations into the significance of slate slabs and their use in the everyday life of Ice Age hunter-gatherers are embedded in an interdisciplinary cooperation project between the Departments of Archaeology and Psychology at the University of Durham and MONREPOS.
Funded by a joint initiative of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the research team combines expertise from archaeology and visual psychology. Using the latest imaging techniques such as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), the scientists investigate the interplay between visual perception and the design and use of art objects in the context of Late Ice Age everyday environments.
By examining the nature of the cut marks, the researchers are currently beginning to identify individual artists and their specific "styles". In addition, the shapes and surface structures of the slate plates often seem to have influenced the choice and placement of the motif – a phenomenon known as pareidolia. In doing so, the brain interprets natural shapes, such as those of plates, as meaningful objects, similar to how we occasionally recognize faces in clouds.
The fish engravings show that fishing was integrated into symbolic and social practices, and expand the well-known repertoire of representations in Ice Age art, in which, in addition to the representation of the animals themselves, their exploitation strategies were also artistically implemented.
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