Where are the missing boatyards? Steaming pits as boat building sites in the Nordic Bronze Age

Abstract

Abstract The boat stands out as a prominent symbol of the Nordic Bronze Age, depicted at thousands of rock art sites and on several metal objects throughout Scandinavia. Paradoxically, direct evidence of these boats is scarce, and the locations where boats were constructed remain largely elusive. In this paper, we put forth the proposition that many ostensibly mislabelled cooking pits along the coast might actually be remnants of steaming pits employed in boat building. By drawing on analogous parallels from ethnography and examining three Bronze Age cases from the western coast of Sweden and Eastern Norway, we hypothesize that sizable pits near the sea, characterized by fire-cracked stones and charcoal, are indicative of prehistoric boat building sites. Additionally, these results align with a broader objective of our paper, aiming to challenge the prevailing terrestrial narrative in archaeology, which has impeded the interpretive potential for comprehending maritime societies throughout prehistory.