2023-09-14 13:22:42
Until now it was known that whaling in Europe took place for hundreds of years, but pre-industrial whaling in Europe was little known. A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Sciencein which the University of Oviedo participates through the Institute of Natural Resources and Territorial Orientation (Indurot), suggests that these first whaling activities were widespread and had a significant impact on whale populations in European waters.
A group of archaeologists, led by Youri van den Hurk from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, analyzed 719 bones from archaeological sites throughout northern and western Europe and their preserved collagen to identify the species.
Carlos Noresresearcher at Indurot and participant in the study, explains that archaeologists discovered that many bones belonged to two species of whales that are no longer present in European waters.
They analyzed 719 bones from archaeological sites throughout northern and western Europe and their preserved collagen to identify the species.
It is believed that more than 300 bone remains come from the North Atlantic right whale. This large species of whale can currently only be found off the North American coast of the North Atlantic, although it was formerly widely caught in European waters.
The North Atlantic right whale is in critical danger and only between 300 and 400 individuals remain. The second species that was found in large quantities is the Gray whale, of which just over 100 bones were found. This species is now extinct in the North Atlantic and can currently only be found in the North Pacific.
Nores highlights that both the North Atlantic right whale and the gray whale are very coastal species, which put them within reach of medieval whalers such as the Spanish of the Cantabrian Sea, the Normans, the Flemish and the Scandinavians. The study points out that Whaling, since before the Middle Ages, could have played a key role in its disappearance from European waters.
Both the North Atlantic right whale and the gray whale are very coastal species, which put them within reach of medieval whalers.
Furthermore, the work suggests that gray whale hunting has existed for a long time. The Vlaardingen culture of the Netherlands He did so in the Late Stone Age, between 3500-2500 BC, which could represent one of the oldest whaling traditions in Europe.
Learn from the past with a view to the future
The researchers note that looking into the past provides a better understanding of where the North Atlantic right whale and gray whale lived, and what their migration patterns were.
In the last two decades, at least three gray whale individuals have returned to enter the Atlantic from the North Pacific. Understanding how early whaling activities affected European whales is vital to their conservation. If a return to European waters occurs, we can better protect the gray whale by knowing where it once thrived.
It has been possible to study 96 cetacean bone remains from Luanco, Candás, Lastres, Gobiendes, Ribadesella, Toranda and Llanes, as well as another 48 from other Spanish provinces.
Carlos Nores, Indurot researcher
Carlos Nores highlights that the work now published is the most complete archaeozoological study carried out to date in all of Europe on whales.
“They have been able to study 96 cetacean bone remains from Luanco, Candás, Lastres, Gobiendes, Ribadesella, Toranda and Llanes, as well as another 48 from other Spanish provinces, such as Cantabria (Oyambre), A Coruña (Porto de Bares), Lugo (San Cibrao) and Pontevedra (A Lanzada and Pontevedra) and Cantabria,” says the researcher from the University of Oviedo.
The study has also provided information on the capture of whales in Roman and high medieval periodstages in which the written documentation available on whaling in Europe was almost non-existent and about which archeology is capable of providing new and important information.
This early use explains why the gray whale disappeared so soon from the Atlantic Ocean and its presence in our waters went unnoticed during the best-known stage of late medieval and early modern whaling.
Although the Bay of Biscay does not seem to have constituted the optimal habitat for this species, since most of the remains appeared on the coasts of Flanders and the Netherlands, the study identified gray whale specimens located in San Cibrao (Lugo), Cudillero and Guéthary (Atlantic Pyrenees, France)which are added to the one already identified a few years ago in Campa Torres (Gijón) and in the province of Cádiz (Bologna and Algeciras).
Reference:
Hurk, van den, Y. et al. “The prelude to industrial whaling: identifying the targets of ancient European whaling using zooarchaeology and collagen mass-peptide fingerprinting”. Royal Society Open Science
Fuente: SINC
Rights: Creative Commons.
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