Traces of 18th-Century Whale Trap Found in Norwegian Waters

TELAVÅG, NORWAY—According to a Science Norway report, a large band of rocks stretching for more than 82 feet has been found at the bottom of the Grindasundet strait off the western coast of Norway. Sixteenth-century sources record that a gate for trapping whales once stood in the bay, but this hunting practice has been dated to the medieval period. Such traps were used to catch minke whales, which were then killed with arrows fired with crossbows. The band of rocks in Grindasundet strait, which is nearly 200 feet wide and 50 feet deep, are thought to have been left behind in the eighteenth century during an attempt to build a stone wall to replace one made of timber and rope weighted with stones. The wooden wall required a great deal of maintenance work, but building a wall with stones became “too large an undertaking,” according to a record made by a priest named Andreas Christie. “It would have required enormous amounts of rock,” commented marine archaeologist Elling Utvik Wammer of the Norwegian Maritime Museum. He suggests that people carried rocks to the site in boats and then dumped them over the side. “It shows how much effort people were willing to invest to avoid building the [wooden] barrier. It also reflects how much work the barrier itself must have required, which in turn says something about how important whaling must have been,” Wammer explained. To read about medieval structures unearthed in Oslo, go to "Royal Wharf."