Fishery in prehistoric and medieval Tallinn,Estonia

During archaeological excavations in central Tallinn, Estonia, many fish bones were collected among other archaeological finds. As these were salvage excavations conducted under limited time and cost restraints, only a very small part of the removed soil could be examined for fish bones. In such hasty conditions, the only option was to take soil samples from selected areas and carry out water sieving in the laboratory. This procedure resulted in the recovery of a variety of fish remains. Also, a previous conclusion that only large fish were captured is re-evaluated. This paper focuses on two recently excavated medieval sites in Tallinn: Tartu Road 1 and Vabaduse Square. In Vabaduse Square, a Late Neolithic settlement was also discovered under the medieval layers. The analysis of the three different assemblages of fish bones from the two sites, which were collected by somewhat different methods, contributes to our knowledge on fishing and fish consumption in Tallinn's past.     

On the flow characteristics of the conical Minoan pipes used in water supply systems,via computational fluid dynamics simulations

The Minoan Terracotta pipes with their conical shape were widely used in the water distribution system in the ancient Minoan civilization. They remain one of the brightest achievements of the Minoan tribe in water supply technology and raise admiration as well as many questions about the technological advancements of antiquity, that are yet to be understood. The present work aims at answering the following questions: a) what inspired the Minoans to manufacture pipes with such a peculiar shape, that differs greatly not only from later pipe designs of antiquity, but also from contemporary cylindrical pipes and b) why was the design of those pipes abandoned after the fall of the Minoan civilization? It tries to address these questions by investigating the flow physics and dynamics that take place in such pipes, adopting advanced numerical and computational methods. The time-averaged Navier–Stokes equations along with the k − ? turbulence model are solved for a variety of geometrical parameters, pipe orientations and flow rates, in order to produce a comparative picture of the hydraulic efficiency of the conical Minoan pipes. The flow field is visualized and critical flow parameters, such as the head loss, the velocity magnitude and turbulence intensity, are calculated. These calculations show clearly that the conical Minoan pipes exhibit significantly higher pressure drops along their length compared to an equivalent straight pipe. In their widest part an extended recirculation appears, which could wash out impurities that may be present in the water, which at the same time cannot be deposited on the pipe wall. This evidence proves that the Minoan pipes are energetically expensive to operate and consequently their replacing by cylindrical pipes was inevitable. Therefore, it seems that the main advantage and purpose of the particular geometry was that they could be easily connected on site, forming long straight or slowly bending lines without having to add straight or many different fittings in between.     

Reviving Community Spirit: Furthering the Sustainable, Historical and Economic Role of Fish Weirs and Traps

Stone wall fish weirs and traps were once an important means for inland and coastal communities to catch fish. In many places the weirs and traps have been left to deteriorate and other more productive but less sustainable practices have taken their place. It was considered that they have fulfilled their historical and economic role and it was the loss of community spirit that has contributed to their decline. A recent survey in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia found a diverse and extensive number of fish weirs and traps, and a community keen to restore and reinvigorate their associated cultural practices and community spirit. The paper draws on comparative data from other places of the world to investigate weirs and traps, and to see if a similar revival could be observed. Of importance was a need to highlight the value of pursuing this type of research for contemporary communities and maritime archaeological practitioners in the current international management framework for underwater cultural heritage.     

From the Waters to the Plate to the Latrine: Fish and Seafood from the Cardo V Sewer,Herculaneum

The excavation of an ancient sewer in the town of Herculaneum, Italy, provided the opportunity to study Roman diet in the Bay of Naples, including the marine component. The sewer served an apartment block which was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and retained human and kitchen waste of the non-élite individuals living above. The remains showed a high degree of dietary diversity with around 70 fish, 48 marine mollusc and three marine arthropod taxa being identified. The fish were mostly small individuals which were probably netted in fairly shallow, coastal waters. The marine invertebrates included species of sandy shores, rocks and the sea bed but the majority could have been collected very close to the water’s edge. Both the fish and the shellfish would have been available locally in large quantities and probably represented cheap and nutritious dietary fare. Some of the consumed fish was probably salted (salsamenta) or fermented (as fish sauces such as garum), but it is thought that most of the fish and shellfish originated in the Bay of Naples and would have been purchased fresh. The difficulty of identifying preserved fish within the mixed sewer assemblage is discussed.     

An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies

An adult male buried in the late 1600s or early 1700s and excavated from a plantation slave cemetery in Barbados had the cemetery's richest assortment of grave goods: an iron knife, several types of metal jewelry, an earthenware pipe, and a necklace of money cowries, fish vertebrae, dog canine teeth, European glass beads, and a large carnelian bead probably from India. Most of these artifacts are unique to New World African descendant sites. The individual was probably an African-type diviner/healer whose high status in the slave community is reflected in his relatively elaborate artifact inventory.     

半坡“人面衔鱼”图案再分析

半坡"人面衔鱼"图案表现的是一条俯视视角下的鱼,而非戴有装饰的人,应定名为"人面鱼"纹。对观者来说,它是"对视"和"远观"两种视角的结合,其设计目的在于通过二维的方式表现三维场景。参考玛雅文明关于地下水世界和人化鱼重生的观念,依据此类图形的出土情境,我们推测它很可能表达了半坡人群希望部分死者能够转化为鱼,穿过象征死亡的水域,进而重生或转世的愿望。     

English Clay Tobacco Pipes bearing the Royal Arms from Williamsburg,Virginia

Abstract

The heraldic changes in the royal coat of arms between 1688 and 1801 are noted. Tobacco pipes from Williamsburg bearing these arms during the early Hanoverian period are described. They are principally found on tavern sites, but the reason for this is uncertain. The pipes are of British manufacture and possible pipe-makers are discussed. A photographic technique using a rotating stand enables all the pipe bowl to be illustrated on one photograph.     

The Role of Ancient Fishing on the Desert Coast of Patagonia,Argentina

ABSTRACT

This article explores latitudinal and chronological variations in the exploitation of marine fish by the hunter-gatherers who occupied the Atlantic coast of continental Patagonia, Argentina, since the mid-Holocene. Results indicate a spatial gradient in the importance of fish. A significant reduction in the frequency of fish remains in the archaeological sites occurs at higher latitudes. The chronological trends identified also suggest differences between the assemblages of the northern and southern coasts of this long littoral area. The results obtained are further discussed in relation to identified environmental and cultural variation.     

Fish and crayfish from the Washpool Midden site,New Zealand: Their use in determining season of occupation and prehistoric fishing methods

A method is suggested whereby modern ecological information on fish behaviour and distribution, together with commercial catch figures, may be used to assess season of occupation of archaeological sites. Monthly catch probabilities for each species are scaled by minimum numbers from prehistoric osteological assemblages to yield an overall likelihood of the fish being caught at different months of the year. A test case on two assemblages from Palliser Bay, New Zealand, suggested year-round habitation, and this was consistent with individual qualitative seasonal markers. The fishbone evidence can also be used to comment on aspects of prehistoric technology connected with marine foods, such as the use of canoes, baited traps, long line hauling, rock fishing and seine netting. In addition, the fish information substantiated subtle environmental changes which are believed to have taken place in this region.     

Continental excursion, 1928, of the Glasgow university school of geography

An assessment is made of developments in agriculture and fish farming within the Integrated Development Programme (I.D.P.) for the Western Isles. The five‐year I.D.P., which was launched in 1982, was partly funded by the E.E.C. The extent of investment in agriculture and fish farming is reviewed. The growth of employment and output in fish farming is reported, and various agricultural indicators such as trends in livestock numbers and performance are assessed. Various conclusions and lessons that can be drawn from the experience of the Western Isles I.D.P. are discussed. The paper is a summary of a detailed assessment recently carried out by the author for the Highlands and Islands Development Board.     

Dating the Domestic Ceramics and Pipe Smoking Related Artifacts from Casselden Place, Melbourne, Australia

This paper compares the dates of manufacture obtained for the domestic ceramic and pipe smoking related artifact assemblages from Casselden Place, Melbourne. It has previously been argued that ceramic items, because of their potentially long use-lives, may be deposited many years after their date of manufacture and purchase. This is in contrast to pipe smoking related items, which tend to have very short use-lives. However, the results presented here demonstrate that there is no significant evidence for a time lag between the date of manufacture of the ceramic items and their incorporation into the archaeological record at Casselden Place.     

Salt and Fish Processing in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Brief Survey

The demand for salt generated by the dietary and domestic needs of most Greek city-states could be usually fulfilled by local resources given the general abundance of salt along the coasts of the ancient Mediterranean. The extremely rare references to interregional salt trade in literary and documentary sources corroborate this idea. As a bulky commodity with little economic value, salt was too expensive to be transported over long distances and was more conveniently obtainable from local resources. However, the situation was different when large-scale fish processing centers entered into the equation. The production and widespread distribution of processed fish required a steady supply of both fish and salt. Salt only was able to transform fish—which is otherwise extremely perishable—into a durable commodity, easy to store and trade. The strategic importance that salt assumed at these centers transformed its economic significance and made interregional trade both convenient and profitable. Also, it was through the medium of processed fish that the surplus of salt production available in certain regions was redistributed across the Mediterranean and came to play an important, albeit indirect, role in interregional trade.     

New Evidence for Fish Processing in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean: Formalised Epinephelus Butchery in Fifth Century bc Kinet Höyük,Turkey

Archaeological evidence for fish preparation in the Eastern Mediterranean is scarce. A Late fifth century deposit at Kinet Höyük provides tangible evidence for the systematic butchering of large individuals of Epinephelus (groupers), and possibly of Mugilidae (mullets), and Clarias gariepinus (African catfish). Butchery marks on head and proximal trunk regions of groupers follow a consistent pattern, indicating the processing of large fish heads for, apparently, local redistribution and consumption at the settlement. Although elements of the vertebral column remaining between the atlas and the ultimate vertebra are virtually absent in the assemblage associated with these butchered fish remains, this differential representation of elements does not appear to be an unequivocal reflection of fish processing techniques and subsequent trade. The insufficiency of research on ancient fisheries and fishing in the Eastern Mediterranean poses an obstacle to contextualise this deposit within a general historical and archaeological framework. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding the variability in freshwater radiocarbon reservoir offsets: a cautionary tale

Freshwater resources in past diets can lead to inaccuracies when attempts are made to ascertain their radiocarbon ages or those of the consumers. Radiocarbon reservoir effects may lead to significant age offsets when the bones or other tissues of these consumers are radiocarbon dated. A number of recent studies have investigated freshwater reservoir offsets. However no study thus far has satisfactorily obtained a ubiquitous freshwater reservoir correction due to variability in the ecosystems analysed. This study tests the possibility of predicting freshwater reservoir effects from the carbonate alkalinity of the water with measurements on modern fish bone and water samples. A predictive capability would be especially valuable in the absence of well-preserved archaeological fish bone. We surveyed samples from lakes and rivers in varying geological settings in Britain and Ireland. Modern fish bone and water samples were analysed to investigate modern radiocarbon offsets from the atmosphere. Archaeological fish bone was also analysed to examine past reservoir offsets at selected sites. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values were measured to aid in interpretation of any variability in the offsets. Large freshwater reservoir offsets were measured in some modern and archaeological samples (maximum offset = 1638 ¹⁴C years). The freshwater reservoir offsets in the fish bone were highly correlated with alkalinity of water in modern lake sites analysed. However, a high amount of variation within and between fish species was also evident in the results, precluding the possibility of providing regional corrections for freshwater reservoir offsets from alkalinity although this still may provide a general guideline. The variability is thought to be due to differences in the diet of individual fish.     

Women's Gift‐Fish and Sociality in the Torres Strait,Australia

This paper argues that women's everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strait) can be understood as a form of moral transaction. Gift‐fish are shown to be ‘socially entangled’, a fundamental mode of expressing kin relatedness as well as providing an indication of the current state of such relations. Fish distribution is portrayed locally as both an instance of generosity and of obligation, demonstrating a person's desire to engage in socially valued behaviour or correct their past failings. Importantly, I suggest that fish‐giving (and receiving) has a distinctly generational character, carrying different emphases across one's life‐span. The paper reflects on the tensions involved in strategic efforts by women to reconcile their limited capacity to meet expectations from a wide range of kin and neighbours, while affirming idealised visions of communally shared moral values.     

Ordovician acritarchs from the Canning Basin,Western Australia

A left mandibular toothplate of a chimaeroid fish collected from the Toolebuc Formation (Early Cretaceous, Albian), central Queensland is described. Comparisons with other chimaeroid genera show the toothplate to be sufficiently distinct to warrant the erection of a new genus. Ptyktoptychion tayyo gen. et sp. nov. is distinguished by the size and shape of its three tritors, the form of the symphysial facet and the overall shape of the toothplate.     

Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi,a lungfish from Redbank Plains,an Eocene locality in southeast Queensland,Australia

Kemp, A., December 2017. Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi, a lungfish from Redbank Plains, an Eocene locality in southeast Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 42, 306–311. ISSN 0311-5518

Few Cenozoic lungfish fossils consist of articulated, associated bones and tooth plates. Mioceratodus gregoryi from the Paleogene (Eocene) deposit of the Redbank Plains Formation in southeast Queensland is unusual in this respect because the fossil includes tooth plates and elements of the skull. An analysis of the material and reconstruction of the skull and associated skeletal material provides new insights into the fish and its environment. The fish has a mandible with a wide separation between the lower tooth-bearing bones, and a strong ceratohyal bone. This suggests that, like the extant Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, the fossil fish had a moveable basihyal that could be inserted between the prearticular bones to seal the oral cavity. This would have allowed the fish to draw food, air and water into the mouth, and dig holes by sucking mud into the oral cavity and blowing it out again, all useful attributes for a fish that lived in a shallow freshwater lake. The living Australian lungfish has similar structures in the mandible and hyoid apparatus, and performs comparable actions. The occipital ribs, also preserved in the Redbank Plains fossil, are embedded in hypaxial muscles and not moveable. It is unlikely that these ribs have any influence on the suctorial process in these two species.

Anne Kemp [a.kemp@griffith.edu.au] Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia.     

Oxygen and strontium isotopes as provenance indicators of fish at archaeological sites: the case study of Sagalassos,SW Turkey

In this paper, we investigate the potential use of oxygen and strontium isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O_p and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) measured in archaeological fish enamel as provenance indicators. δ¹⁸O_p and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr were measured in a suite of archaeological carp remains recovered from the Anatolian townsite of Sagalassos dated to the Early Byzantine period (AD 450–650) and compared to that of modern fish, river and lake waters from the Anatolian region. We used sequential leaches in weak acetic acid to remove diagenetic Sr from fossil tooth enamel, monitoring the effectiveness of this approach by measuring the Sr/Ca ratios of the leachates via an isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry method (ID-TIMS). δ¹⁸O_p values mostly excluded a riverine origin. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of one fish overlapped with the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signatures of two lakes in the Anatolian region, and at least one lake (Gölcük) could be removed as a candidate owing to a very distinctive ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signature not found in any of the fish remains. Most of the tooth samples analyzed could not be assigned a precise geographical origin since the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios measured in enamel did not match that of any of the local lakes selected as potential origin. This result suggests that carp may have originated from lakes that have not yet been sampled, although this conclusion is not supported by other archaeological evidence. Alternatively, the lack of correspondence between lakes and fish Sr isotope ratios highlights several possible sources of uncertainties including spatial heterogeneity in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio within a lake, the contribution of dietary strontium to the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of fish tooth enamel, and post-mortem alteration of the tooth Sr isotope signal during fossilization. In spite of the high precision of the strontium isotope analyses and the wide range of variation in the surface waters of the Anatolian lakes and rivers, this method may remain limited to distinguishing between lakes situated in regions of bedrock of very distinct age and geology until these sources of uncertainty are more fully investigated.     

The Malham Pipe: A Reassessment of Its Context,Dating and Significance

The Malham Pipe is a musical instrument formed from the tibia of a sheep, and was discovered in 1950 among artefacts revealed during the excavation of a Bronze Age burial mound at Seaty Hill on Malham Moor in the Yorkshire Dales. On the basis of associated finds the pipe was dated originally to the Iron Age, and in a study published in 1952 the musical properties of the pipe were examined physically at a level of detail that set a benchmark for the characterization of other such objects discovered subsequently. However, in the intervening period the dating of the pipe has been questioned. In this paper, following a detailed reappraisal of the Seaty Hill finds and dating evidence, including burial practice and settlement remains in the locality, and their wider historical context, we have concluded that the Malham Pipe is of post-Roman date. We believe, therefore, that although the Malham Pipe may no longer be claimed to be the earliest known duct flute found in the British Isles, nevertheless it appears to be the first recorded bone flute found in a post-Roman (Anglo-Saxon) burial context.     

Stable isotope analysis of prehistoric populations from the cemeteries of the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin,Ukraine

This paper presents the results of new stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) analysis of human, faunal and fish remains from thirteen cemeteries from the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin, Ukraine. The results are integrated with earlier analyses, undertaken solely on human samples, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of subsistence across the Upper Palaeolithic through to Eneolithic periods in this region. This is the first time that a combined sample of human, faunal and fish remains has been studied in order to interpret subsistence strategies across these periods in Ukraine. The total dataset comprises 113 samples of human, faunal and fish remains, 59 of which include new analyses of faunal and fish remains that have not previously been made available for study (Table 1). The analysis of the faunal and fish remains allows for a consideration of trophic levels which indicates that the consumption of freshwater fish occurs from the Epipalaeolithic period onwards. Whilst the majority of the cemeteries and the individuals therein cluster in relatively tight groups, there is a significant offset between the human and faunal samples due to the consumption of freshwater resources. The fish samples analysed in the study appear to exhibit a relatively random distribution when compared to the other samples analysed. In general, freshwater resources remain significant through until the end of the Neolithic period and into the Eneolithic period at the sites investigated.