Exploring the Role of Pinnipeds in the Human Colonization of the Seascapes of Patagonia and Scandinavia

Abstract

Pinnipeds (seals) were probably important pull factors for the earliest marine foragers in the seascapes of Patagonia and Scandinavia in the early Holocene. Important reasons for this may be that 1) pinnipeds could be hunted on shores (or sea-ice) with more or less the same methods and equipment as terrestrial animals, 2) pinnipeds represented a similar resource as the terrestrial mega-fauna, with a familiar combination of meat, bone, skin, blood, sinews, and fat, and 3) the characteristics pinnipeds evoluted for a life in the water left them quite vulnerable on land. Their senses and locomotion are inferior to terrestrial animals ? a weakness that human predators are always ready to exploit. In this paper we will explore the nature of pinnipeds, their habitats and behavior, and discuss how pinnipeds might have related to and influenced the early development of marine foraging systems ? technology, logistics, and settlement structure. The timing, circumstances, cultural dynamics and species of pinnipeds involved in the Scandinavian and the Patagonian case differ. However, the two processes towards marine adaptation also have instructive parallels.