ZooMS, radiocarbon dating, and techno-typological re-assessment casts doubt on the supposed Late Glacial Husum LA11 skin boat fragment

Abstract

In 1904 a large antler fragment was dredged from Husum Harbour, Germany. Based on the original morphological assessment, the artefact was considered a fragment of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler. This species disappeared from northern Germany around the end of the Preboreal Oscillation (9250 BCE). However, the majority of finds from the site were associated with the much later Ertebølle period (5100–4100 BCE). In the 1980s D. Ellmers suggested that it was part of the frame of a Final Palaeolithic skin boat (∼umiak). As such it was considered evidence of early seafaring and found its way into maritime archaeology. Here we present a typological re-determination of the antler as bâton percé as well as new radiocarbon dates and species identification using ZooMS. We show that the antler dates to the Ertebølle period, making it coeval with the finds associated with it. Further, we show that the antler did not come from a reindeer but rather from a red deer (Cervus elaphus). The former hypothesis that it was part of a Final Palaeolithic skin boat frame can then be rejected.