Find in Germany

10,500-year-old paddle fragment discovered

Excavation manager Harald Lübke shows the part of a Stone Age paddle.

(Bild: APA Pool)

During excavations in the Duvenseer Moor in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, researchers have discovered a fragment of a paddle that is around 10,500 years old. For scientists, the find is evidence of early mobility on the water.

"After the famous find of the paddle from Duvensee in 1925, this is the second find of this kind," excavation director Harald Lübke told the German Press Agency (dpa). It is not as well preserved as the find 99 years ago. "But it clearly shows the typical shape of the time, because you can actually place it one-to-one on the old paddle blade," said Lübke.

Although the handle is broken off, the shoulder section is clearly preserved. "These paddles are important evidence of early mobility on the water. Comparable finds can only be found at the Star Carr site in the north of England, whose paddles are somewhat older," said Lübke.

Excavation manager Harald Lübke in an excavation section at Duvenseer Moor

(Bild: APA (dpa)/Markus Scholz)

20 sites found on Duvenseer Moor
The site has long been a hotspot for archaeologists. They have been digging there again and again for around 100 years. There are more than 20 sites, including Stone Age dwellings. When these were still inhabited, the last ice age was already several thousand years ago. The Baltic Sea as we know it today did not yet exist, instead there were many lakes.

Probably broken by chance at some point
Lübke does not assume that the hunters and gatherers lost the fragment while paddling on the lake, as was presumably the case with the find from 1925. "It is much more normal for such pieces to be used for so long that they accidentally break at some point. That's obviously what happened here and this fragment ended up in the shore zone by chance."

Hope of finding a Stone Age boat
The researcher hopes to one day find the remains of a hunter-gatherer boat. "The question of whether people back then used simple dugout canoes or even ribbed boats covered with birch bark or animal skins has long been an open question in archaeology. The Duvenseer Moor could provide us with important answers here." According to Lübke, the discovery of such a boat would be the real jackpot.