Ertebøllekulturens harpuner
Authors: Andersen Søren H. 
Published: February 2022

Harpoons of the Ertebølle cultureTwo morphological criteria, alone or in combination, may be employed to distinguish harpoons from other types of bone points in archaeological assemblages. Both reflect function: when in use, a harpoon must be easily detachable from its shaft, hence the shape of the base is indicative; but with the aid of a line it must still be connected to the shaft or the harpooner, calling for a line hole or other fastening arrangement.Until recently, only one harpoon fulfilling these criteria had been recovered in systematic excavation of a settlement referable to the Ertebølle culture (Bloksbjerg, fig. 12). Other such harpoons tentatively assigned to this culture were single finds or had been found in equivocal circumstances. (3).In recent years, however, four new harpoon finds, all deriving from systematically excavated marine deposits unambiguously referred by their artefact content to the Ertebølle culture, have provided a sounder basis for the attribution of loose finds and for a definition and relative dating of a number of forms and variants: Flynderhage (fig. 1-2) and Hjarnø (fig. 3) in eastern Jutland and Vejlebro in northern Zealand (fig. 4).These four specimens are made of cortical red-deer antler, one face of the harpoon representing the original outer surface and the other showing traces of the inner porosity. In each case, the harpoon is barbed along one edge only.The surface of Ertebølle harpoons is always carefully smoothed near the point and at the base, and this treatment often extends to the whole surface. The tip is short and broad, triangular or linguiform in outline, and one or more barbs occur along one edge, 2 to 4 cm from the tip. These barbs are triangular or uncinate in outline, measure ½-3 cm across at the root, and form an angle of 30-60° with the axis of the harpoon. Where there are several barbs, they are separated by triangular or acutioval notches. The base is linguiform in outline and distinctly flattened, with regularly convex edges. At a varying distance from the end there is a little hole in the mid-line, biconical in form. Ertebølle harpoons are 15-20 cm long, up to 3.5 cm wide and 0.4-1.5 cm thick.Preliminary dating suggests that harpoons were in use in the period 3600-3200 B.C. Two main types may be distinguished among the four new harpoons and the Bloksbjerg specimen: a straight type A and a falciform type B, fig. 42a. The harpoons from Flynderhage (fig. 1-2) and Hjarnø (fig. 3) represent type A, and those from Vejlebro (fig. 4) and Bloksbjerg (fig. 12) type B.Harpoons of types A and B have been recorded previously in Danish publications. The first occasion was in 1869, when a small fragment from the kitchen midden at Sølager was described (18). In 1904 a harpoon from Kiel Fjord was published (19). Harpoons were also mentioned in 1919 by K. Friis Johansen (20) and in 1924 by H. C. Broholm (21). E. Westerby's publication of the important Bloksbjerg harpoon followed in 1927 (22). The most recent mentions of Ertebølle harpoons have been by Th. Mathiassen in 1935 (23), 1938 (24) and 1948 (25), C. J. Becker in 1950 (26) and J. G. D. Clark in 1936 (27), 1946 (28) and 1952 (29). There is, however, reason to point out that none of these authors have paid sufficient attention to the fact that they were dealing with harpoons of very different types which may well have been attributable to different archaeological cultures.Comparison of the five specimens on which the above classification is based with the remaining material reveals similarities sufficient to justify an exten­sion of this grouping to the latter harpoons.Thus as examples of type A may be mentioned the harpoons from Koster, fig. 5 (30), Svinninge Vejle, fig. 6 (31), Ulfshale, fig. 7 (32), Præstø, fig. 8 (33), Skive Fjord, fig. 9 (34) and Kalø, fig. 10 (35). A specimen of unknown provenance, fig. 11, may also be assigned to type A.The length of type A specimens varies between 12.7 and 27 cm, the width between 1.8 and 4 cm and the thickness between 0.8 and 1.5 cm.Early examples of type B derive from Tubæk Mølle, fig. 13 (39), Grimstrup Mose, fig. 14 (40) and Romsø, fig. 15 (41). The edge of a specimen of type B from Ravnstrup Mose, fig. 16 (42) is decorated with pairs of incised lines.Variants. A number of loose finds deviate from types A and B. In no case is attribution certain, but there is reason to emphasize that several of them were found in circumstances which suggest reference to the Ertebølle culture. The harpoons fig. 17 and 18 may be termed variants of type A. They both derive from submerged settlements in Gudsø Vig ( 46 ). A single find from the Randers region is also of this type (47). All three harpoons have been fashioned from a red-deer antler tine, the natural point of which has been retained as the point of the harpoon. A notch near the tip forms a single stout barb. The base, which is strongly flattened, has been formed with an oblique cut across the tine, fig. 18.The harpoons fig. 20 and 21 may also be regarded as variants of type A. Fig. 20 was found during the excavation of a kitchen midden on Langø, northern Funen, while fig. 21 was recovered from a submerged settlement in Gudsø Vig, east Jutland (50) during dredging. Both pieces have been fashioned from whalebone. The Langø harpoon is equipped with a basal hole, but has apparently not had barbs, whereas the Gudsø Vig specimen has three small, slender barbs but no basal hole. On account of the very careful working of the base, however, this specimen is also considered to be a harpoon.These two specimens are unique in the Danish material, on account both of the raw material employed and of their being the largest extant harpoons from the Ertebølle culture. The Langø specimen is 21.2 cm long, 4.2 cm wide and 1.8 cm thick while the Gudsø Vig harpoon is 30.2 cm long, 5.4 cm wide and 4 cm thick. They are possibly a special type of harpoon with a different function to that of types A and B.It is more difficult to decide whether the harpoons from Sølager, fig. 22 (57) and Livø Tap, fig. 23 (58) should be assigned to the Ertebølle culture. The Sølager specimen has been assigned to the Pitted Ware culture (57), but even a superficial comparison with published Pitted Ware harpoons from for example Vasterbjers (59) and Stora Forvar (60) reveals considerable divergences of form.Both specimens are straight harpoons with a single row of unciform barbs, separated by deep, broad notches. The base is short and rounded and furnished with a line hole placed asymmetrically in relation to the median axis.The general appearance of these harpoons suggests attribution to the Ertebølle culture, but it is possible that they belong to one of the phases of the Funnel Beaker culture represented at the Sølager settlement (62). They seem to form a special group of single-edged red-deer antler harpoons and until specimens have been secured under Jess ambiguous circumstances, their cultural attribution must be left in abeyance.In connection with the variant forms of harpoon, a small group of harpoons with barbs on both edges should be remarked (65). Four specimens are known from Denmark, fig. 24-26, while a related specimen has been found during dredging in Kiel Fjord, fig. 27. The characteristic feature of this type is the smooth transition of the point into two opposed barbs of triangular outline, fig. 42a. In all other respects this group attaches to type A. The peculiar shape of the base in the specimen illustrated in fig. 25 is due to the fact that this harpoon has been fashioned from an antler axe, the edge of whose shaft hole forms the base of the harpoon.The Danish specimens of this kind are all single finds, while the Kiel harpoon was associated in the dredge with artefacts of Ertebølle type.The harpoon fig. 28 is unique in the Danish material on account of the special shape of the base, fig. 42a. Instead of a line hole, a forwardly directed barb has been cut to serve as a line fastening. This feature is also found in the above-mentioned harpoon from Bloksbjerg, fig. 12. Ertebølle harpoons have thus two different types of line fastening, a hole or an adcurrent notch or barb.Finally the specimens illustrated in fig. 29 will be mentioned. In respect both of the choice of raw material (bone and elk antler) and of the other typological features there is considerable difference between them and the other Ertebølle harpoons.This is possibly merely due to these specimens belonging to an earlier milieu of relatively rare occurrence.It is proposed to allot a group of artefacts which do not fulfil the stipulated criteria for identification of harpoons in archaeological contexts, but which the author considers to have had this function, to a type C. Harpoons of type C, fig. 30-34, are known from a large number of Ertebølle sites, several of which are systematically excavated settlements (76). They have also been found at Ertebølle settlements on Rügen (82).The raw material is roe-deer antler, sharpened at the distal end. One or more (usually two) of the tines have been fashioned into barbs whose length varies between 0.5 and 2 cm. The barbs are fashioned so that they lie either perpendicular to the basal surfaces, fig. 32, or in the same plane, fig. 30. They are triangular or irregularly unciform in outline, but are in many cases quite rudimentary, fig. 31-32. The base is formed at the burr, two oblique cuts meeting in the mid-line, fig. 30. Two opposed rudiments of the burr are retained to lie in the same plane as the two basal faces, fig. 30. The surface has normally been scraped only near the point, but in some cases the whole surface has been carefully smoothed. In one case a geometric pattern, fig. 346, occupies the surface.The extant specimens of type C are 14-19 cm long, while the maximum width is 2½-4 cm and the thickness 2-3 cm.The line has in this case presumably been fastened around the persistent parts of the burr, fig. 426. This interpretation is supported by the specimen from Bloksbjerg, fig. 33a, where the primary base has been broken off. A notch has been subsequently cut into the beam higher up to take a line fastening.Type C seems to be referable to the period 3600-3200 B.C.Method of manufacture With a burin, the beam of the red-deer (types A and B) or roe-deer (type C) antler has been divided into a number of strips from which the harpoons could be fashioned. Blanks of this kind are known from a number of Ertebølle finds, fig. 35. With the outline of the harpoon complete, the line hole was bored in the basal end and the barb or barbs cut, or vice versa, fig. 36 and 37.At many Ertebølle settlements quantities of discarded red-deer antlers have been found showing traces of repeated parallel grooving produced with a burin, fig. 38. It is also not unusual to find hammer sticks or antler axes with considerable traces of stripping with the aid of a burin, e.g. fig 41. At many coastal settlements of the Ertebølle culture 10-20 such pieces occur bearing traces of at least 2-3 excoriations. The form is not known from inland Ertebølle sites.Zoological analysis has shown, however, that none of the bone artefacts found at the coastal settlements are manufactured from strips of red-deer antler. The simplest explanation for this inconsistency is that harpoons were the end-product of the manufacture which the antler strips represent; and nearly all extant Ertebølle harpoons have been made from such strips. Harpoons have moreover seldom been used in the settlement itself; it is only natural that they are rarely found in settlement layers, and then most often broken, but regularly away from the settlements as loose finds, discarded because they were broken, or simply lost.The big kitchen midden at Flynderhage may be used to illustrate this relationship. Only the two harpoons fig. 1-2 were recovered during the excavation, whereas about 35 antlers were found, each showing traces of 3-4 excoriations. This serves to show how many harpoons have been manufactured at some of the Ertebølle sites where the hunting of marine mammals played a role in the economy. The settlements where the waste products referred to occur in quantity also prove to be those containing quantities of marine mammalian bones.The frequently occurring waste product with longitudinal excoriations is thus a far more important indicator of the occurrence of harpoons in the Ertebølle culture than the sporadic finds of finished harpoons.Function. That the objects described here have in fact been used as harpoons is documented by their great typological similarity to harpoons from living cultures and by a number of fortunate finds (1).The Ertebølle harpoon of type A must have been hafted up to the line hole, which must have been free, in a hollow-ended wooden shaft, fig. 426. Shafts of wood or bone, such as they are known from Eskimo cultures, fig. 436, are not known from the Ertebølle culture.There is reason to suppose that harpoons of type B have been hafted in the same manner, fig. 426. This type has the advantage that its curvature will automatically cause it to turn in the animal, whereby its effectiveness is considerably increased.The differences between types A and B suggest that the two types were used for different types of game.The hafting of type C will be apparent from fig. 426.From Greenland, both prehistoric and modem specimens of harpoons are known which closely resemble the Danish Ertebølle harpoons, fig. 44-45 (99). The Eskimo weapons, bladder dart heads (100), are made of antler. The harpoon head is fastened to a short shaft by means of a line through the basal perforation and a bladder is attached to the shaft at the end opposite the head, fig. 43a. On account of the shortness of the shaft, a throwing stick is used in conjunction with this type, which is utilized in particular in hunting seals and small whales from a kayak (101).Judging from the close morphological similarity between the Eskimo bladder dart heads and the Scandinavian Ertebølle harpoons, it is likely that they were used in the same manner.An earlier paper dealt with the animals which could have been hunted with harpoons (108). As far as the localities in which harpoons have been found are concerned, most specimens have been recovered from Atlantic, marine deposits, apparently remote from settlements. A few have been found in freshwater basins, showing that this kind of hunting was not confined to the sea. No typological differences can be observed between harpoons deriving from marine deposits and those deriving from freshwater deposits.Harpoons of the types described here are known only from Denmark and north­west Germany, not having been found in other parts of Scandinavia or in other European mesolithic or neolithic cultures.Søren Andersen