Finns 'were first ice skaters'
Ice skating began in Finland in 3,000BC, researchers claim
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Monday, 24, Dec 2007 08:44
While ice skating may now simply be a festive activity for many, thousands of years ago skates were vital for daily journeys, new research has shown.
Dr Federico Formenti and Professor Alberto Minetti from the University of Oxford believe ice skates are the oldest human-powered means of transport, dating back to 3,000 BC.
Writing in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London they say there is substantial evidence that ice skating began in southern Finland, where the number of lakes within 100sqkm is the highest in the world.
"In central and northern Europe, five thousand years ago people struggled to survive the severe winter conditions and it seems unlikely that ice skating developed as a hobby," said Dr Formenti.
"As happened later for skis and bicycles, I am convinced that we first made ice skates in order to limit the energy required for our daily journeys."
To test this theory, the researchers asked volunteers to use ice skates made from animal bones – as they would have thousands of years ago – on an ice rink by the Alps.
Calculations of energy consumption over 240 10km journeys showed that in winter the use of bone skates would have limited the energy requirements of Finnish people by ten per cent.
In other north European countries, the researchers argue, the advantage given by the use of the skates would only be about one per cent.