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On the coasts of Norway, Denmark and Scotland, there are
many prehistoric sites with cetaceans remains, but their existence itself
is not sufficient evidence for whaling, because whales were frequently
stranded in these regions. There are also some Norwegian rock-engravings
of porpoise hunting in the Stone Age, but it is difficult to identify their
absolute dates or chronological positions in the Stone Age. There is no
tangible evidence to justify the assumption that the Ertebolle people hunted
porpoise in the later Mesolithic Age. The Ertebolle began in the later
half of the Atlantic, a warm period in the climatological history, and
dolphin or porpoise "fishing" in Japan dates to the Early Jomon
(c.6000-5000 B.P.) in the later half of this warm period. It is an obvious
fact that since Pre-modern Age people at the Mawaki on the Noto Peninsula
have used driving method by boats and nets, which may be traceable to dolphin
"fishing" in the later Early Jomon. The ethnography in north
Europe depicts porpoise driving which made good use of the geographical
features and the animal behaviors. I will discuss the assumption of porpoise
hunting of the Ertebolle, referring to my study of the dolphin or porpoise
"fishing" in the Jomon period. (I B I REPORTS, 5:65-74, 1995) |
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