It is an enormous silhouette, lurking in the icy waters of Øygarden, which ended up revealing its secrets. It all started with a simple sonar survey near Bergen: beneath the surface, a geometric shape more than 25 meters long intrigued researchers. To get to the bottom of it, we literally had to break the ice. In the middle of January, divers immersed themselves under a layer of ice to document what experts are already calling a major discovery for underwater archaeology.
The observation is clear: there is nothing natural about this structure. It was built by humans, probably by dropping blocks of stone from boats to form a barrier on the seabed. ‘The newly discovered underwater archaeological site is very unusual’enthused marine archaeologist Elling Utvik Wammer to the scientific media Forskning. This “wall” was not there to defend a coast, but to trap sea giants.
The operation of this structure is reminiscent of that of fishing dams used in rivers, but on a much more spectacular scale. According to experts from IRMAS (an interregional archaeological cooperation), these devices were used to force the whales towards a closed bay: one entrance was blocked by a barrier weighted with stones, the other by a net. Once the animals were pushed into this narrow corridor, retreat became impossible and the trapped whales became the vital resource of local communities.
This discovery, reported in particular by The Debrief, echoes Scandinavian stories more than 1,100 years old. Texts such as the Gulating Law already mention these hunting techniques, but material evidence remained rare, often erased by erosion or rising sea levels. In Grindasundet, on the contrary, this “whale trap” seems to have survived the centuries, partly preserved by the cold waters off the coast of Norway.
A legacy carved in stone
Beyond the technical prowess, a whole part of the medieval coastal economy is resurfacing. At the time, a single whale represented a real fortune: abundant meat for the winter, fat transformed into oil for lighting and heating, and bones used in crafts or construction. Fat processing pits have also been unearthed on land nearby, which confirms that it was an organized, almost proto-industrial activity on a medieval scale.
“For many generations, people continued to trap whales in the bay”explains Elling Utvik Wammer, recalling that this practice continued until relatively recent times. The Grindasundet trap is therefore not an isolated vestige, but the trace of intensive – if not “sustainable” in the modern sense – exploitation of marine resources by local populations over several centuries.
Today, thanks to modern technologies, the team of researchers was able to model the site in 3D from thousands of photos taken underwater. These images reveal that each alignment, each pile of stones, is part of a coherent architecture, designed to channel animals weighing several tons. A leap into the past which allows us to better understand how the navigators of yesteryear arranged their environment, without the sophisticated tools of today but with impressive ingenuity.
Archaeologists are planning new field campaigns starting this summer to explore the surrounding area. If a trap of this magnitude exists here, it is likely that other comparable installations still lie dormant beneath the waters off the Norwegian coast.
