Long before crops were planted or livestock were kept, people living in what is now southern Norway were already making lasting changes to the natural world around them. High in the mountains, where lakes lay beyond the reach of naturally migrating fish, communities appear to have carried brown trout into isolated waters and created places where they could reliably catch them. New archaeological evidence suggests this practice was already taking place around 7,000 years ago. Researchers believe these early interventions required careful planning, detailed knowledge of local waterways and cooperation between communities to transport live fish successfully. The discovery offers a glimpse into a period when hunting, fishing and gathering remained the foundation of daily life, yet people were already altering landscapes in deliberate ways that would continue to shape local ecosystems for thousands of years.
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