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Ancient history

A skiing Sami woman or a goddess. Olaus Magnus (1553)

The first hints to the existence of skis are on4500 to 5000 year old rock drawings, e.g. at Rodoy in Norway (discovered 1933) or at Steinkjer (discovered 2001),which depict a man on skis holding a stick. The oldest known ski, Kalvtraskidan was found in 1924 in a mire near the village of Kalvträsk in the municipality of Skelleftea, Sweden, and has been carbon dated to roughly 3200 B.C. The earliest people to ski in Fennoscandia were the distant ancestors of modern day Sami. One of the earliest names used for the Sami was skridfinner/scricfinni/scritefinni/σκριϑίψινοι, which may be roughly translated as “skiing Sami”.

The word ski goes back to the Old Norse word skíð meaning “a stick of wood”. This word is now used in most languages in the world. Languages like English and French use the original spelling “ski”, and modify the pronunciation. Languages like Italian pronounce it exactly as in Norwegian, and modify the spelling: “sci”. German and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules; “Schier” (however there is a form- Ski) and “esquí”. Interestingly, many languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as “to ski” in English, “esquiar” in Spanish, “sciare” in Italian, or “schilaufen” (as above also Ski laufen or Ski fahren) in German which is not possible in Norwegian. In Swedish, a close relation to Norwegian, the word is “skidor” (pl.). However Finnish language has its own ancient words for skis and skiing. In Finnish ski is suksi and skiing is hiihtää. The original European skiers, the Sami, also have their own words for skis and skiing. For example, the Lule Sami word for ski is “sabek” and skis is “sabega”. Provided by Wikipedia. For additional information go to Wikipedia.