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Headline: What an anchor! Archaeologists uncover 'oldest' Stone Age ship securer
Caption: **VIDEO AVAILABLE: CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE** BY MARK WORGAN Archaeologists investigating a Stone Age greenstone quarry off the coast of western Norway have recovered what they believe may be the world’s oldest boat anchor. The stone, which has a distinctive groove, was found underwater at Hespriholmen, a small island off Bømlo on Norway's west coast. Researchers believe it may have been used by Stone Age people to secure their boats while they worked at the quarry. If the interpretation is correct, the find could be the oldest known anchor in the world. Hespriholmen is one of the most significant Stone Age archaeological sites in western Norway. For at least 4,000 years, people travelled about 5km across open water to reach the island, where they extracted greenstone. The material was transported to specialist workshop sites, where it was first shaped into axe blanks before being carefully worked and polished into finished tools. Tens of thousands of greenstone axes have been discovered at Stone Age settlements stretching from the Sognefjord to Lista. Archaeologists at the University Museum of Bergen first became aware of the quarry in 1923. The island contains several large notches where greenstone deposits were extracted. However, the full scale of the operation has remained uncertain. Tonnes of greenstone waste have been found at workshop settlements, and estimates of the volume extracted from Hespriholmen have ranged from 70 to 1,000 cubic metres. The most recent calculation, published in 1987, put the figure at about 430 cubic metres, extracted between approximately 7000BC and 3000BC. Much of the quarry's history lies beneath the water. Large deposits of discarded stone surround the island, where waste material was thrown into the sea during extraction. However, rough seas and depths of between 15m and 30m have made the area difficult to investigate. In 2025, researchers carried out a new survey using technology developed by Norwegian company NORBIT. The system combined an underwater multibeam echo sounder with above-water LiDAR technology. The lightweight, portable equipment was operated from a boat belonging to Stavanger Maritime Museum. The survey produced a detailed 3D model of the island's quarry and the underwater deposits of discarded material. It has provided archaeologists with a new way to estimate the volume of stone extracted and investigate what remains beneath the sea. In 2026, archaeologists from Bergen Maritime Museum, the University Museum of Bergen, the Norwegian Maritime Museum and Stavanger Maritime Museum returned to the island with the new models and maps. Divers documented large quantities of hammerstones – heavy stones used to break greenstone away from the quarry face. Several dozen were recorded in the surveyed areas alone. Many had broken apart during the extraction process before being discarded in the sea. The team also identified underwater waste deposits in areas where there are no visible quarry faces above the surface, suggesting the site may have been considerably larger than previously thought. But the most significant discovery was made in a different part of the underwater investigation. The 2025 survey had identified a stone with a clearly defined groove among the waste deposits of the main quarry, at a depth of about 20m. Researchers initially thought it might have been a fishing weight or an anchor. Using the detailed survey maps, divers relocated the stone in 2026. They secured a rope around it and lifted it into their boat. The object weighs 34.1kg and measures 36cm at its widest point. Archaeologists believe it was used as an anchor by people who brought boats alongside the island while working at the quarry. Its shape appears well suited to the purpose: a single rope could be secured in the groove and used to lift the stone back to the surface. Although it resembles a fishing weight, researchers say it is too large and heavy to have been used with a net, longline or handline. Its weight is comparable to simple stone anchors found in the Mediterranean, which typically weigh between 5kg and 70kg. The oldest securely dated stone anchors currently known come from the Bronze Age. They have been recovered from the seabed, ancient harbours and shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean. Italian underwater archaeologist Mario Galasso has noted that similar stones have continued to be used as mooring weights for small boats into modern times. For that reason, such objects can only be confidently identified as prehistoric anchors when they are found in a secure archaeological context underwater. The Hespriholmen stone was lying exposed on the surface of the quarry deposits, meaning it could potentially have been deposited there at a later date. However, researchers say there are no known archaeological sites or traces of later human activity in the immediate area. They therefore consider it highly likely that the stone dates from the same period as the quarry. No comparable stones have previously been discovered in Norway. If the interpretation is confirmed, the find would represent the oldest known anchor in the country and could potentially be the oldest of its kind anywhere in the world. The discovery also offers further insight into the maritime skills of Norway's prehistoric communities. By the Mesolithic period, people had already developed the ability to travel, hunt and fish in open water. Harpoons, fish hooks, small fishing weights and fish bones recovered from Stone Age settlements across Norway indicate that communities fished in deep water. An anchor would fit into this picture of increasingly sophisticated seafaring activity. However, archaeologists still lack direct evidence showing what types of boats these communities used. Researchers will continue investigating the stone, the extent of the quarry and the archaeological material preserved in the underwater deposits. They plan to return to Hespriholmen as early as this winter, when underwater visibility is expected to be good, to extend the survey of the site. The investigations are funded through internal research grants from the University of Bergen and an IRMAS grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture.
Keywords: feature,photo,archaeology,anchor
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