LEIZA, MONREPOS and Durham University
At the Ice Age site of Gönnersdorf near Neuwied am Rhein, researchers from the Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution MONREPOS, a facility of the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology (LEIZA), together with scientists from the University of Durham in England, have made a significant discovery. Using modern imaging methods, detailed engravings of fish on slate slabs became visible, overlaid with grid-like patterns.
These patterns are best interpreted as depictions of nets or fish traps and provide the first archaeological evidence of early fishing techniques in the late phase of the Late Paleolithic (ca. 20,000–14,500 BC). The engravings add practical and symbolic elements to the known repertoire of Ice Age art and indicate that fishing also had a social component in the life of the hunter-gatherer societies of that time.
A slate slab with engravings of fishing on. (© Robitaille et al., 2024/PLOS ONE)
Gönnersdorf: A Window into Ice Age Life
The Ice Age site of Neuwied-Gönnersdorf is one of the most important and richest late Ice Age sites in Europe and contains artistic treasures from prehistoric times. Hundreds of mostly small, flat slate slabs show images of prey such as wild horses, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer and mammoths – animals that were crucial to the survival of the late Ice Age people who inhabited the camp site 15,800 years ago.
In addition to these detailed images, several hundred engravings of highly stylized…
