The Economics of Saltfish Production in the Aegean During the Classical and Hellenistic Periods

Despite a dearth of literary and archaeological evidence for the commercial production of salted fish or fish sauces in the Aegean during the Classical and Hellenistic periods it has been argued, based on a variety of proximate data, that such production must have been common. This paper suggests those arguments are probably wrong. It argues first that the absence of archaeological evidence for regional Aegean production and trade is itself not necessarily meaningful since a similar absence exists for the Black Sea region during the Classical and Hellenistic periods when commercial production and trade is otherwise well attested; in the Black Sea the most common varieties of saltfish were produced without the use of permanent installations such as salting vats and shipped not in amphoras but in large baskets, thereby leaving little trace in the archaeological record. Evidence for regional Aegean production is also, however, largely absent from the literary and epigraphic sources where a number of key pieces of evidence have been misinterpreted. The evidence suggests instead that commercial catches even of species well suited for preservation would have been marketed fresh. This can be explained in part by the fact that in the Aegean different environmental constraints obtained. More importantly, institutional factors often would have made the commercial production and trade of salted fish and fish sauces uneconomical. Even where local conditions of glut periodically prevailed the possibility of household production may have prevented the development of commercial production on any meaningful scale.     

Humans and marine resource interaction reappraised: Archaeofauna remains during the late Pleistocene and Holocene in Cantabrian Spain

The exploitation of marine resources in Prehistory has traditionally been regarded as insignificant, at least until the late Upper Pleistocene. However, in recent years the systematic study of archaeofaunal remains with a marine origin has widened our knowledge of the role they played among groups of hunter–gatherers in Europe. This paper analyses the available data about the evidence for the exploitation of the different marine resources (molluscs, birds, mammals, crustaceans, echinoderms and fish) that have been recorded at archaeological sites in Cantabrian Spain in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.With the information currently available, it is clear that although it is in the Mesolithic when archaeozoological remains with a marine origin are found most often, the exploitation of these resources in the region began in the Early Upper Palaeolithic.     

Subsistence variations and landscape use among maritime hunter-gatherers. A zooarchaeological analysis from the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego,Argentina)

Changes in the exploitation of resources among prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fishers of the Beagle Channel (Southern South America) are examined in this paper. Archaeological investigations show the prevalence of maritime hunter-gatherer organization throughout the occupation of the region (ca. 6400 BP – 19th century). Notwithstanding, variations in the exploitation of different kind of animal resources have been detected, and a concomitant reorientation in the landscape use is then inferred. Zooarchaeological evidence from five shellmiddens is analyzed here: evenness measures and relative abundance prey types are used to evaluate such adjustments. Results indicate the major utilization of coastal and terrestrial ecozones and the predominance in the exploitation of mammals (pinnipeds and guanacos) in ancient occupations. While, during the Late Holocene an expansion in ranges of maritime mobility for subsistence is detected, which was associated with an increase in the representation of birds and fish in the zooarchaeological record.     

Wild Food: Plants,Fish and Small Animals on the Menu for Early Holocene Populations at al-Khiday,Central Sudan

Al-Khiday, located on the bank of the White Nile in Sudan, offers an exceptionally preserved stratigraphic sequence, providing a unique opportunity to use organic residue analysis to investigate diet and subsistence during the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, a period of nearly 3500 years (7000–4500 cal BC). While the vast and diverse Mesolithic fish assemblage indicates a strong reliance on products from aquatic habitats, floodplains, vegetated marshes, and open water, results from the lipid residue analysis suggest that the fish were not cooked in ceramic pots, but consumed in other ways. Rather, pots were more specialized in processing plants, including wild grasses, leafy plants, and sedges. These results, confirmed by experimental analysis, provide, for the first time, direct chemical evidence for plant exploitation in the Khartoum Mesolithic. Non-ruminant fauna (e.g., warthog) and low lipid-yielding reptiles (e.g., Adanson’s mud turtle and Nile monitor lizard), found in significant numbers at al-Khiday, were likely also cooked in pots. There is little evidence for the processing of wild ruminants in the Mesolithic pots, suggesting either that ruminant species were not routinely hunted or that large wild fauna may have been cooked in different ways, possibly grilled over fires. These data suggest sophisticated economic strategies by sedentary people exploiting their ecological niche to the fullest. Pottery use changed considerably in the Early Neolithic, with ruminant products being more routinely processed in pots, and while the exploitation of domesticates cannot be confirmed by a small faunal assemblage, some dairying took place. The results provide valuable information on Early and Middle Holocene lifeways in central Sudan.

     

Evaluating Fish and Meat Salting at Prehistoric Zhongba,China

Abstract

Cultural deposits at Zhongba, one of the most important archaeological sites in the Three Gorges Dam reservoir area in central China, provide a comprehensive perspective on diachronic changes from the late Neolithic through the end of the Bronze Age, or from ca. 2500 to 200 B.C. (calibrated radiocarbon years). Excavations produced large quantities of pottery, stone tools, small finds, and animal bones, which document the changes in the organization of specialized salt production and associated activities. The occurrence of large numbers of animal bones at a salt production site suggests that the salting of fish and mammal meat may have taken place there. This study provides one of the first detailed discussions of a faunal assemblage from this region of the world, allowing for preliminary tests of the “preservation hypothesis” through analyses of prevalence, diversity, and part representation of various taxa. Some, but not all, of the expected patterns consistent with the hypothesis of fish and meat salting were identified. It is clear that the increase in the importance of fish and in the diversity of mammals at Zhongba coincides with the increase in the scale of salt production.     

Variable Ovicaprid Diet and Faecal Spherulite Production at Amara West,Sudan

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of integrated geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses of desiccated and charred ovicaprid dung pellets from the New Kingdom pharaonic settlement of Amara West (Sudan). These analyses reveal diagnostic phytolithic evidence for considerable variations in plant diet amongst the site’s ovicaprid population. These data shed light on aspects of ancient animal husbandry practice, the settlement’s subsistence economy and residents’ exploitation of natural resources. We also observe that specific phytolith types correlate with the presence (and quantity) or absence of calcium carbonate faecal spherulites in analysed dung pellets. This evidence, augmented by experimental analysis of analogous modern plant material, suggests that dietary Ca intake is implicated in faecal spherulite crystallization within the ovicaprid digestive system.     

Landscape Construction and Long-Term Economic Practices: an Example from the Spanish Mediterranean Uplands Through Rock Art Archaeology

We argue in this paper that Levantine rock art in the Spanish Mediterranean basin allows us to ‘map’ the economic landscape of its makers. Rock art would be the ‘monumental’ side of a dual process of landscape construction: on the one hand, rock art is the first ‘cultural’ action on the landscape beginning in the Early Neolithic; on the other hand, the first evidence of active modification of the Mediterranean vegetation comes from this period. But this evidence as well as other kinds of archaeological remains are still relatively scarce in the uplands; rock art is therefore the most complete type of evidence we can use to support an early use of the Mediterranean upland environment. We use statistical and geographical analysis, together with archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources and pollen data, in order to support the idea of early use and exploitation of the Mediterranean uplands since the Neolithic, and into contemporary times.     

Fishing Booths and Fishing Strategies in Medieval Iceland: an Archaeofauna from the of Akurvík,North-West Iceland

Abstract

Excavations in 1990 in North-West Iceland documented a stratified series of small turf structures and associated midden deposits at the eroding beach at Akurvík which date from the 11th–13th to the 15th–16th centuries AD. The site reflects a long series of small discontinuous occupations, probably associated with seasonal fishing. The shell sand matrix had allowed excellent organic preservation and an archaeofauna of over 100,000 identifiable fragments was recovered. The collections are dominated by fish, mainly Atlantic cod, but substantial amounts of whale bone suggest extensive exploitation of strandings or active whaling. This paper briefly summarizes the excavation results, presents a zooarchaeological analysis of the two largest radiocarbon dated contexts, and places the Akurvík collections in the wider context of intra-Icelandic and inter-regional trade in preserved fish. Analysis of the Akurvík collection and comparison with other Icelandic collections from both inland and coastal sites dating from 9th to 19th centuries AD both reinforces evidence for an early, pre-Hanseatic internal Icelandic fish trade and supports historical documentation of Icelandic participation in the growing international fish trade of the late Middle Ages.     

Marine resource intensification in Viking Age Europe: the molluscan evidence from Quoygrew,Orkney

This paper addresses whether molluscan evidence from Orkney can shed light on the hypothesis that there was a trend towards the intensification of marine resource use at the end of the first millennium AD. The stratified middens of Quoygrew, which date from approximately the 10th to the 13th centuries, are shown to contain predominantly limpets, which may have been used for baiting fish. From metrical data it is shown that these limpets reduce in size through time. In order to test whether this observation is related to intensification in exploitation, analysis of limpet shoreline location was carried out. In addition, age data were used to demonstrate a lowering of average age which suggests intensification in gathering rather than environmental influences, particularly during the 11th–12th centuries at this site.     

Monastic diet in Late Antique Egypt: zooarchaeological finds from Kom el-Nana and Tell el-Amarna,Middle Egypt

Abstract

Contemporary literature suggests that meat and fish were not common fare of monastic communities in Egypt during the Late Antique Period (AD 330 to 642). A sizeable assemblage of fishbone from the Monastery at Kom el-Nana has allowed, in conjunction with other zooarchaeological material, a reappraisal of this assumption. In addition, comparative data from the adjacent Pharaonic site at Tell el-Amarna have highlighted distinct cultural differences in the utilisation of the mammal, bird and especially the fish remains between the sites. The difference in size of the catfish Synodontis schall demonstrates that in contrast to the ancient Egyptians the monks were targeting very small fish, most likely for salting in ceramic vessels.     

The restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market

This article discusses how cultural, technological and social factors contribute to the restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market and production systems. The analytical principles used are institutional, evolutionary socio-economic theories on spatial, technological and social change. A major focus of the analysis is the use of production chain theory to analyze the Spanish salted fish market. The main issue is whether Spain, as a traditional salted fish consumer market, is more influenced by technology and supplier strategies than by cultural aspects and consumer traditions. The strategies of Icelandic salted fish suppliers, better preservation systems and new salting methods seem to have influenced the restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market more than cultural factors. Nevertheless, without the Spanish tradition of salted fish, the new light salted fillets and desalted products most likely would not have been accepted by consumers. In addition, the Icelandic influence proves the strength of national Icelandic production systems.     

Animal Exploitation in the Early Prehistory of the Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands were the last large islands in the Mediterranean to be settled, with colonization not occurring until the third millennium cal BC. The richest assemblages of zooarchaeological data for reconstructing patterns of animal exploitation and management come from Mallorca, Menorca, and Formentera and date to the late third and second millennia cal BC. In this article, I consider these exploitation and management strategies from the perspective of human ecodynamics. In general, the early settlers of the Balearic Islands adopted economic strategies which remained very conservative throughout the Early and Mid Bronze Age (i.e., 2500/2300–1200 cal BC). On Mallorca and Menorca, animal resources were derived mainly from domesticated fauna, with the evidence supporting a mixed-farming model wherein cultivation is complemented by small-scale and relatively unspecialized animal husbandry. In contrast, on Formentera there is a diversification of the faunal economy, with fish and wild birds providing an important contribution to the diet; this probably relates to the extreme marginality of the Formenteran environment. This case of initial human settlement and flexible adaptation to the Balearics highlights one of the core aspects of human ecodynamics: the ability for colonizing populations to both uniquely respond to and affect ecological conditions in island environments.     

Embodied cosmopolitanisms: the subjective mobility of migrants working in the global sex industry

Anti-trafficking rhetoric and policies emphasise the extent of exploitation and coercion of female migrant sex workers and obfuscate the shared ambivalences and contradictions experienced by migrant female sex workers and their male agents and partners. By engaging in the global sex industry, both young men and women negotiate their aspiration to cosmopolitan late modern lifestyles against the prevalence of essentialist patriarchal gender values and sexual mores at home. In the process, established gender normativities, legitimising women's subjection to men, are both reproduced and challenged. The evidence informing this article shows that a minority of women are coerced into the sex industry. There is a direct link between the adherence to essentialist gender/sexual roles and the recourse to violence and exploitation, because migrants' prolonged involvement in the sex industry coincides with the adherence to more cosmopolitan gender/sexual roles, translating into less authoritarian and violent discourses and practices. Hegemonic understandings of migrants' involvement in the global sex industry in terms of ‘trafficking’ erase these important dynamics and dimensions, which underpin intricate feelings and experiences of advantage, disadvantage and exploitation. By failing to engage with the meanings that migrants working in the sex industry ascribe to their working and personal lives, the (anti)trafficking logic of ‘humanitarian intervention’ enforces forms of solidarity and support that appeal to the minority and harm the majority of the people they are supposed to ‘rescue’.     

A bone grease processing station at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village: Archaeological evidence for the exploitation of bone fats

Recent excavations at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, an Initial Middle Missouri site in Mitchell, South Dakota have revealed a large, clay-lined feature filled with fractured and fragmented bison bones. Fracture and fragmentation analysis, along with taphonomic evidence, suggests that the bones preserved within the feature represent evidence of prehistoric bone marrow and bone grease exploitation. Further, the character of the feature suggests that it served as a bone grease processing station. Bone fat exploitation is an activity that is frequently cited as a causal explanation for the nature of many fractured and fragmented bone assemblages in prehistory, and zooarchaeological assemblages have frequently been studied as evidence of bone fat exploitation. The Mitchell example provides some of the first direct, in-situ archaeological evidence of a bone grease processing feature, and this interpretation is sustained by substantial analytical evidence suggesting bone fat exploitation. This new evidence provides a clearer concept of the nature of bone fat exploitation in prehistory as well as an indication of the scale and degree to which bone grease exploitation occurred at the Mitchell site. Finally, this research demonstrates the importance of careful zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis for the interpretation of both artifactual remains as well as archaeological features.     

The use of Animals at Roman Roadside Settlements in Britain: Contextualizing some new Results from Ware,Hertfordshire

Recent analysis of a large faunal assemblage from a Roman roadside settlement at Ware, Hertfordshire has indicated potentially strong links between the nature of animal exploitation on site and its location on Ermine Street. Animal husbandry was focused on the production of cattle and sheep, both of which had experienced stock ‘improvement’ by the late Roman period. Relatively high proportions of horse, and the presence of young horses, suggest the importance of this animal and the potential for its local breeding; the site could have acted as a station for changing or selling horses. The presence of marine fish and black rat also indicate clear links to the wider trade network. This was not an isolated settlement, outside the sphere of Roman influence, as rural Roman sites are often considered to be, but well‐connected to wider economic networks. This paper places these new results in context, by providing a review of faunal assemblages from Roman roadside settlements across Britain. The review indicates that most of the characteristics of animal exploitation at Ware are shared with other roadside settlement sites, though interesting differences also emerge.     

Archaeological evidence of fish in the diet of the garrison at the Berry Head Forts,Brixham (Torbay) 1794–1817, with special reference to European hake Merluccius merluccius

Abstract

Post-excavation analysis of animal bones recovered from late 18th-/19th-century military refuse deposits within the Berry Head Forts (Torbay, Devon, UK) has provided evidence for the inclusion of fresh fish in the garrison’s diet. European hake was the principal fish in the food rations of the ordinary soldiers whilst more expensive fish, notably turbot, sole and John Dory, was only eaten in the officers’ messes. Reconstructed lengths of the hake in the archaeological assemblage formed a distribution pattern very different from that plotted from data on modern trawler-caught hake, showing how much post-industrial commercial fishing activity has profoundly altered the age/size structure of modern hake stocks.     

Late Upper Palaeolithic fishing in the Fucino Basin,central Italy,a detailed analysis of the remains from Grotta di Pozzo

Abstract

Fish remains have been recovered from seven Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Fucino Basin, central Italy. Analyses of fish remains from one of these sites, Grotta di Pozzo, are presented here and discussed in relation to previous research on fish remains from other Fucino Basin sites. It is recognised that in previous studies little consideration has been given to identifying, or confirming accumulation agent(s) for fish remains. Three potential non-human accumulation agents are identified and considered in detail, but these do not explain the element representation patterns for fish remains recovered at Grotta di Pozzo. As such, it is likely that the fish bones from this site do represent the remains of human activity. Given this interpretation, the assemblage characteristics suggest that Grotta di Pozzo represents a site used for exploitation and processing of fish for transportation for later consumption, most likely on a seasonal basis. Further work on the fish from other Fucino Basin sites is needed to reliably rule out non-human deposition and increase understanding of fishing strategies in the Fucino Basin during the late Glacial period.     

Fish communities and populations during the post-Saladoid period (AD 600/800–1500), Anguilla,Lesser Antilles

Analysis of vertebrate remains from two archaeological sites indicates human exploitation did not adversely impact fish populations and fish communities during the post-Saladoid period (AD 600/800–1500) on Anguilla, northern Lesser Antilles. Barnes Bay (AL-14-BB) and Sandy Ground (AL-03-SG) are contemporaneous, large village sites located within 10 km of one another in similar terrestrial and adjacent marine environments. Despite substantial human population growth and increasing social complexity by AD 1000, residents at these sites exploited the same marine fishes and captured similar relative frequencies of fish families throughout the occupational sequence. No evidence of overfishing is found, either as a decline in the mean size of members of three fish families or in the ranges of size of these families through time. Evidence of a greater use of some members of a fourth family is found at Sandy Ground during the later post-Saladoid. It is likely that economic or social factors, rather than environmental change, contributed to this increase. By identifying specific locations where human over-exploitation did or did not impact fisheries, we may begin to distinguish patterns and characteristics which led to unsustainable fishing in the past at other sites, or in other circumstances.     

Jumping Fish: Engendering Contestation and Development on the Waterways of the Aramia River in Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT Set in the Aramia River basin, this article explores the intimate and interactive relationship between communities in Western Province, Papua New Guinea, and the water that dominates the environment in which they live. Located amongst tidal rivers, creeks and lagoons, Gogodala villages sit high on ‘islands’ of land. In this environment, water is the site of seasonal change and the space of movement. The Aramia River is synonymous with an ancestral figure called Sawiya who travelled in her canoe, naming, creating and populating the water and land of the area. As the ‘mother of all fish’, Sawiya controls the movement and abundance of fish and other aquatic resources. Water is embodied in Sawiya, whose capacities to both nourish and punish are the basis of seasonal variations in fish, and in the colour and clarity of water in the local lagoons and rivers. Set against the backdrop of the Ok Tedi Mine and recent logging operations on the Aramia, the article explores some of the ways in which water and its resources are defined and experienced in this rural community and the impact this may have on the exploitation and development of natural resources in PNG.     

The Exploitation of Carnivores and Other Fur-bearing Mammals during the North-western European Late and Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic

The exploitation of large mammals, particularly large herbivores, has dominated perceptions of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic subsistence behaviour in north-western Europe. This paper critically reviews the evidence for the exploitation of a complementary resource which has received little attention within the archaeological literature — carnivores and other fur-bearing mammals. Evidence for exploitation of individual species is described and discussed. A model is then developed to explain the apparent expansion of the subsistence base to include a wide range of fur-bearing mammals during the Lateglacial and Mesolithic. This paper concludes by arguing that although the use of carnivore meat and pelts cannot be viewed as a dominant trend in European hunter-gatherer subsistence practices, their contribution to hunter-gatherer economies cannot be ignored.