Antrea Net
The Antrea Net is the oldest known fishing net in the world,[1] dated 9310±120 BP or in calendar years 8300 BC with radiocarbon dating. It was found by a farmer named Antti Virolainen in Antrea, Finland (today Kamennogorsk, Russia) in autumn 1913, while he was ditching a swamp meadow. The place was then excavated by the Finnish archaeologist Sakari Pälsi. The net is made out of willow and it is 27–30 metres long by 1.3-1.5 metres wide, with a 6 cm mesh.
The find included 18 bark floats with holes which were attached to the top of the net, while 31 stone weights were retrieved (the stones weighed 450 to 550 grams each). Strips of birch bark recovered with the find were probably used to attach the floats and the weights. The net itself was made of willow bast (the inner bark fibre of willow) and two of its knots were so well preserved that they could be reconstructed. Sakari Pälsi, the archaeologist who excavated the find, identified the knot as belonging to a type with existing ethnographic parallels known only from Estonia and the eastern regions of the Finno-Ugrian people.[2]
The net had sunk to the bottom clay of the Ancylus Lake that existed during that period, most likely in an accident that made the fisherman's boat capsize and lose all his equipment.[1] Along with the net various tools were found, including hunting weapons, fist-sized rock weights, floats made from Scots Pine bark and other tools made out of bones.[1]
The net is estimated to have weighed about 30 kilograms when wet. The Antrea Net is on display in the National Museum of Finland.
References
- Miettinen, Arto, Kaarina Sarmaja-Korjonen, Eloni Sonninen, Högne Junger, Terttu Lempiäinen, Kirsi Ylikoski, Jari-Pekka Mäkiaho, Christian Carpelan & Högne Jungner. (2008) The palaeoenvironment of the Antrea Net Find Iskos 16, 71-87, (Journal of the Finnish Antiquarian Society).