[5/4/2006 2]
Unique archaeological find at Malmö Central Station
Close to the station hall at Malmö Central Station, an item of fishing gear known as a fish-trap has been found. It probably dates back to the Stone Age and in that case is around 8,000 years old. It is regarded as unique, as similar fishing gear has only been found at two other sites in Sweden.
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Archaeologist Daniel Serlander and the fish-trap. |
‘This is a dream find’, says archaeologist Daniel Serlander of Malmö Cultural Environment.
The actual detection of the fish-trap was also a lucky chance. Because it is made of wooden rods, an excavator could very easily have damaged it.
The fish-trap is about a metre long and consists of interwoven hazel twigs. At the moment only part of it is visible, but next week Malmö Cultural Environment will come and probably lift up the whole item together with the clay in which it is embedded. A more precise dating will then be possible.
The fish-trap had been lying about four metres below ground level for 8,000 years. At that time, the area would have been on the coast of a heavily forested Scania, and the climate would have been significantly warmer than today.
‘Presumably the fish-trap was torn away and drifted until it snagged on the sea bottom where it became covered in mud by the tides’, says Daniel Serlander.
Malmö Cultural Environment works with the Citytunnel project, documenting and taking control of any archaeological items found on the project’s various worksites.