Centuries Before Farming, Hunter-Gatherers Introduced Fish to the Norwegian Mountains
Radiocarbon dating of five traps shows early mountain communities moved brown trout to secure a lasting food source, researchers said.
- Archaeologists discovered 7,000-year-old wooden fish traps in Lake Tesse, Norway, proving that Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers deliberately transported brown trout into previously fishless mountain lakes.
- After glaciers receded from Norway following the last Ice Age, steep waterfalls barred fish from reaching high-altitude lakes, leaving these ecosystems empty until human intervention around 5000 BCE.
- Radiocarbon dating of wooden poles placed the traps between 5000 BCE and 2700 BCE; the best-preserved structure contained 46 poles forming a circular chamber roughly 3.5 metres wide.
- Axel Mjørum, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo, called this the "oldest documented example of human-mediated translocation of fish," showing early Norwegians managed resources like farmers long before agriculture arrived.
- Modern brown trout populations in these mountains descend from those original transplants, demonstrating that ancient foragers fundamentally reshaped entire ecosystems through early environmental management thousands of years before farming emerged.
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13 Articles
Seven-thousand-year-old wooden fish traps discovered around Lake Tesse in the mountainous region of southern Norway have revealed that prehistoric people used far more sophisticated methods than previously thought.
Hunter-Gatherers Brought Trout to a Norwegian Mountain Lake 7,000 Years Ago, the Earliest Known Example of Humans Translocating Fish
Researchers have long known that the animals were introduced into the region's high-altitude bodies of water, but they weren't sure when it happened or whether humans had a hand. Analyses of recently discovered ancient fish traps provide new clues
Mesolithic Fish Traps Found in Norway’s Southern Mountains - Archaeology Magazine
3D rendering (top) and in situ examples (above) of poles from the Lake Tesse fishing traps OSLO, NORWAY—Fish traps radiocarbon dated to 7,000 years ago have been identified in Lake Tesse, which is located in the mountains of southern Norway, according to a La Brújula Verde report. Some 10,000 years ago, as glaciers retreated from the area, people were able to migrate into the mountains. Fish, however, would not have been able to swim upstream ag…
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