www.ssoar.info Ancient sea marks: a social history from a North European perspective Westerdahl, Christer Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Westerdahl, C. (2010). Ancient sea marks: a social history from a North European perspective. Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 33, 71-155. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-65969-1 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Weiterverbreitung - keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Redistribution - no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, non- Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, transferable, individual and limited right to using this document. persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses This document is solely intended for your personal, non- Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für commercial use. 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Westerdahl_Buch neues Layout 19.04.11 16:36 Seite 71 SOZIALGESCHICHTE DER SCHIFFFAHRT ̈ CHRISTER WESTERDAHL Ancient Sea Marks A Social History from a North European Perspective He glimpsed a strand of foggy streak It was not the flying skies he saw It was mountains with crags and gorges But high over all the ridges lay The Saddle of Imenes broad and blue Then he felt where he was.1 Introduction The background of this study is mainly my field work in Norrland, Sweden 1975–82 and in Vest-Agder, South Norway 2003–05.2 Already at the start sea marks were considered an impor- tant part of the maritime cultural landscape, especially if this was defined mostly as a “network of routes and harbours.”3 My purpose in researching Norrland was above all to sketch a picture of medieval conditions, where place names had an important role.4 I made no systematic doc u - mentation of the existing sea marks, however. In Vest-Agder documentation was my main goal, although only on a tiny stretch of coast. To some extent then it may be said that these two field works complemented each other.5 It appears that there are in history such striking cultural simi- larities between the Nordic countries, that any study on maritime matters must take into account the whole area. This is at least partly due to similar natural conditions in Sweden, Norway and Finland in terms of navigation in archipelagos and indented coastlines.6 In Denmark natural conditions are different and more similar to those of the continent. This may show to some extent in the practicalities of the sea. But Denmark has been decisive, often as a prototype, in creating a general Nordic cultural identity, which is far more important. As we shall see later the main impetus for marking the routes and approaches to harbours came to the entire area from the outside. If the coasts faced the Baltic this originated in Germany, if they faced the North Sea, in Holland. The British Isles should not be forgotten, but their sea mark system was slightly different, and came a little later.7 Most studies, however, even though seldom treating only sea marks, have used a largely straightforward, evolutionary and functionalist perspective, which partly obscures social and cognitive considerations. Other questions, such as those of cognition, symbols, power and dominance, have largely been neglected. Most authors who have written about the history of sea mark systems seem also to underestimate the discontinuities apparent over time. Apart from the Westerdahl_Buch neues Layout 19.04.11 16:36 Seite 72 72 Fig.1The inventories in South Norway and in Norrland, Sweden consisted partly of interviews with local people. A glimpse of field work in Vest- Agder. (Photo: Christer Westerdahl, 2004) obvious motive, to aid in navigation, why were sea marks erected? What was their position in society? Was the sea mark system initiated on a local, regional or “state” community level? The overwhelming majority of present-day sea marks dates from the most recent centuries. Why do we find so few remains of ancient sea marks? Why do we sometimes find only place names in - dicating sea marks? I will attempt to answer some of these major questions in this text. What is the definition of a sea mark? I quote: “As a purely visual aid, a sea mark is defined in the International Dictionary of Aids to Marine Navigation as ‘an artificial or natural object of easily recognizable shape or colour or both, situated in such a position that it may be identified on a chart or related to a known navigational instruction.’”8 But during the centuries under study there were few charts or formal navigational instructions. The definition should here rather read, as is further expressed in the quoted passage, “identified by a person familiar with the coast and having past navigational experience.” In any case, the remainder of the definition applies as in the past not only to constructed sea marks: an exceedingly important point. The definition can be broad. Here I will introduce not only the exceedingly important natural but also the more neglected verbal or cognitive sea marks. Sea marks are of two types: those which warn sailors of shoals and banks near the coastline and those which show the sailors where they are on that coast. The latter would mean that the sailors are aided by them to find the direction to sail and also to know how far they have come. In recent times sea marks have been expected to be placed so densely that your exact position can be estimated correctly even in a dense fog or if you have temporarily lost your way. This presupposes a coherent international system of form, size and colour, and of course, access to charts, compasses etc., none of which was possible in former days however: most sailors even did without a compass. Sailors were met with the same dangers as they are today. This means that the reference to fog and difficult sighting is particularly relevant in judging the need for sea marks in general. In order to navigate in a fog that only covers the lower parts of the coast you have to align to the tops of hills and mountains protruding above the mist. Certain of these areas may have been given a recognizable cairn or beacon visible from a great distance (Norweg. overlandsmerker). Another possibility is that other constructions or buildings, such as windmills, towers and Westerdahl_Buch neues Layout 19.04.11 16:36 Seite 73 73 churches (below), may serve the same function. But you have to know how to distinguish between them. If there are very few this may not be a problem at all, but if there are many you have to be familiar with each one to use them with success. The fog may be covering the tops, but the lower coast may be visible. In that case the need arises for sea marks recognizable in the same way on islands, spits of land, or in the water beside the safest route, etc. (Norweg. underlandsmerker). Fogs and mists are typical of the North, but extremely rare in the Mediterranean. This is an important difference with implications for the need, occurrence and location of constructed sea marks. We have now so far thought of how to approach the coast, to find a harbour, but the same needs and possibilities are found sailing along the coast or between coasts. If the coast is only a contour at the horizon no visible sea marks exist, and you are bound to navigate according to your memory of the contours that you have seen before. This may all appear elementary but we must emphasize two consequences for the further treatment of this subject. Local experienced people had little need of constructed sea marks. They navigated according to memory. The sea marks fulfilled an obvious need only to foreigners. But even then strangers needed supplementary guidance while using them, because there was no standard established in the past defining what the sea marks actually meant. Were you supposed to pass this or that cairn or barrel to port or to starboard? What was marked, the route to a harbour or just the way to an inner route in the archipelago? In fact, it seems that even with a developed system of sea marks there was and is an inevitable need of pilots. And with reliable and experienced pilots there may be no need for sea marks at all. Thus there appears to be either a connection or an opposition between sea marks and pilotage, quite apart from the fact that the pilots usually in later times were responsible for the upkeep of sea marks. This connection might have meant that in certain areas they eliminated each other: if there were a lot of pilots few sea marks, if many sea marks few pilots. Such considerations are more or less theoretical, but they have to be borne in mind when assessing the emergence of sea marks in the distant past.