History of Hunting and Fishing

Hunting and fishing are constant elements throughout human history and this is even more true of the Scandinavian and Baltic regions than of most other areas in Europe. Here, the exploitation of wild game resources continued for a much longer time prior to the transition to domestic animal husbandry. The source material that allows us to understand pre-modern hunting as a source of both food and raw-materials is very diverse. The ZBSA therefore brings together the natural sciences and, especially, various disciplines from the arts and humanities.

Having already proved that this concept is quite successful, we will continue this interdisciplinary cooperation with external scholars in researching the history of hunting in northern Central Europe and the Scandinavian and Baltic regions from the late Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. Some of our projects deal exclusively with hunting-and-fishing narratives, other projects are mainly located within other Research Priority programmes but also provide essential information on the subject.

This Research Priority is assigned to the Strategic Research Area Man and Environment.  

• Bear and human: facets of a multi-layered relationship (Bär und Mensch)
• Bestie und Mensch
• Forschungen zur Geschichte der Jagd
• Landschaft und Fauna Ost- und Mitteleuropas im Kontext von vorgeschichtlichem Kulturtransfer und sozioökonomischer Entwicklung
• Late Glacial reindeer migrations in Northwest Europe
• Raptor on the fist – falconry, its imagery and similar motifs throughout the millennia on a global scale
• Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte der Falknerei
• Untersuchungen zur Tiernutzung im südwestlichen Ostseeraum während des 1. Jahrtausends n. Chr.