Evig eies kun det tapte - med alle sine hemmeligheter. Refleksjoner rundt en gjenstand av kleberstein funnet ved Håelva på Jæren

Abstract

A polished, dark-green soapstone artefact, found by accident at Njærheim beside the estuary of the River Hå in the Jæren district of Southwest Norway in the 1980-ies, is described and discussed. It is 128 mm long, weighs about 1,1 kg, and is almost entirely ornamented by fish-like and geometrical patterns incised as thin lines. Despite a lack of comparable objects, it is interpreted as a sinker used in passive net-fishing or fish-trapping in a marine or brackish environment, probably during the Middle Neolithic period (MN – ca. 4500 uncal. y. BP) when a combination of isostatic rebound and eustatic sea-level rise formed the maximum of the twin-peaked Tapes transgression. However, an a even earlier date (EN or LM) cannot be ruled out. The economic and sociocultural importance of the River Hå for local and regional prehistoric fisher/hunter groups is emphasized, as is the universal role of major river estuaries in northern Europe as highly productive ecological niches during most of the Stone Age.