According to present information, hunting traps were invented after the last Ice Age. Ice Age hunters are known to have used bogs and cliffs to surround prey, but constructed hunting traps from that period still remain to be found.



The earliest trap-related finds known from Finland are from Nuoliharju in Hyrynsalmi. They are pieces of charcoal from the bottom of a hunting pit and they have been dated over 10,000 years back in time, which is almost as old as the earliest known settlement of Finland. From the Komi Republic west of the Ural Mountains there are finds of set bows from ca. 7000 BC, which are probably the oldest known hunting traps. The bows had arcs approximately 3.5 metres long. Siberian peoples still used similar bows in the 19th century.

Except for hunting pits, there are no prehistoric traps from Finland, and hardly any have survived in all Europe. The traps were made at hunting sites in forests and they contained no stone or metal parts. They decayed in place without leaving traces and their later discovery is highly improbable.

The existence of hunting pits shows that the idea of hunting with traps was also known in Finland. The actual traps are quite simple in technique. Stone Age people were familiar with more complex technologies.

Trap types