Fish-Hooks

The authors present an early evidence for the use of complex fishing techniques for obtaining variable fish resources in prehistoric south-east Europe as recovered at the Neolithic site of Vinča – Belo Brdo in Serbia. In particular, a group of bone artefacts have been analysed through the application of an integrated approach combining technological, use-wear, and residue analyses as well as the comparisons with ethnographic artefacts. The results of the functional analysis indicate that these artefacts were parts of lure hooks, i.e. composite hooks, probably used to catch large predatory fish. On methodological grounds, the discussion proposed in this paper could be relevant for other case studies worldwide where one finds prehistoric communities with evidence of fishing activities.

In Arabia, the emergence of the first maritime societies of the early Holocene used to be a theme unexplored by archaeology. For the first time, a glimpse of these 9th and 8th millennium BCE communities living on the Omani shores of the Arabian Sea has recently been possible thanks to data from the Natif 2 cave. These hunter-gatherers were selectively foraging the shallow waters of the coast, where small pelagic fish (anchovies and sardines) are abundant and easily captured. Sharks, sometimes up to two metres long, were also taken. This scenario of fishing in shallow waters, clarified in the case of the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, appears to be unusual and original in Arabia. Around 6500 BCE, a major social and economic change occurred: the appearance of the first pastoral Neolithic societies. Arabia then developed an alternative subsistence model in comparison to those of the Levant and the Near East. On the coast, the most favourable areas saw the settlement and anchoring of human groups. This precocious Neolithic expansion also affected the large island of Masirah; by contrast, the small archipelago of the Kuria Muria was conquered and settled much later, at the turning point of the 4th and 5th millennia BCE. From the 6th millennium BCE on, the southeast Arabian coastline was covered by huge shell middens. The integration of these dwelling sites into the landscape was closely related to palaeo-local and micro-regional geographical conditions. Proximity to ancient estuaries, lagoons, and mangroves was a particularly condition sought by prehistoric populations, who had biotope symbiosis in mind. The site of Suwayh SWY-1 is emblematic of this attraction for coastal humid environments. From the 6th millennium BCE on the range of captured marine fauna appears to be much larger than that of previous times, and affected a huge range of fish species, some of them pelagic, tuna (Scombridae) in particular. Some dwelling sites such as Suwayh 1 seem to focus on specialized fishing, more particularly small and large-sized shark. In Arabia, sea mammals were at times the focus of extensive fishing: the dolphin, but also the dugong in the Arabo-Persian gulf. Arabian communities, however, did not hunt cetaceous mammals (whales), but collected their bones on the seashore. The earliest fishing expeditions for fine pearls in the Ancient World were carried out in the waters of the gulf and the Arabian Sea. These pearls became one of the constitutive elements of the cultural identity of the communities of Arabia. Coastal populations of the Arabian Peninsula also developed their own material culture, often made with materials from the sea: scrapers of Amiantis umbonella, chisels of Cypraecassis Rufa, containers of Lambis truncata sebae or Scapharca inflata, compensating for the lack of all kinds of pottery. During the 6th and 5th millennia BCE, shell work was at its peak in Eastern Arabia. A complete range of fishing hooks made of mother-of-pearl was produced using pearl oysters (Pinctada margaritifera). Some sites of the Gulf and the Arabian Sea were specialised in the production of personal ornaments, generally small discoid beads. The dwelling site of Ra’s Dah — on Masirah Island — that of Akab Island, and perhaps even al-Hallaniyah as well, manufactured a number of products whose volume exceeded the needs of the community. Between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, these coastal societies finally shared spiritual practices associating distinct marine animals: the sea turtle and the dugong.

En Arabie, l’émergence des premières sociétés maritimes de l’Holocène ancien est encore une thématique inexplorée par l’archéologie. Ces communautés, des IXe-VIIIe millénaires avant notre ère, viennent d’être entrevues pour la première fois sur les rivages omanais de la mer d’Arabie, dans la grotte de Natif 2. Ces chasseurs-collecteurs opèrent un prélèvement dans les eaux peu profondes du rivage, où de petits poissons pélagiques (anchois, sardines) sont abondants et faciles à attraper. Les squales, parfois de plus de deux mètres sont aussi capturés. Ce scénario de pêche en eau peu profonde mis en évidence pour cette période ancienne, s’avère aujourd’hui original en Arabie. Vers 6500 avant notre ère s’opère un changement socioéconomique majeur : l’apparition des premières sociétés pastorales néolithiques. L’Arabie développe alors un modèle alternatif à ceux du Levant et du Proche-Orient. Sur le littoral, les zones les plus propices voient l’établissement, puis l’ancrage, de groupes humains. Cette expansion néolithique précoce touche aussi la grande île de Masirah, en revanche, le petit archipel des Kuria Muria n’est conquis que bien plus tard, au tournant des Ve-IVe millénaires avant notre ère. Dès le VIe millénaire le littoral de l’Arabie du sud-est se couvre de puissants amas coquilliers. L’implantation de ces habitats est étroitement liée aux conditions paléogéographiques locales et micro-régionales. La proximité des anciens estuaires, lagunes et mangroves est particulièrement recherchée par les populations préhistoriques, dans une optique de complémentarité des biotopes. Le site de Suwayh SWY-1 est emblématique de cet attrait pour les milieux humides côtiers. Dès le VIe millénaire avant notre ère, le spectre de la faune marine capturée s’avère bien plus large que précédemment et touche une vaste gamme de poissons dont certains pélagiques, notamment le thon (Scombridae). Certains habitats comme Suwayh 1 semblent s’orienter vers une pêche spécialisée, celle du requin, de petites ou de grandes dimensions. En Arabie, les mammifères marins sont l’objet d’une pêche parfois assidue : le dauphin, mais aussi le dugong dans le golfe Arabo-persique. En revanche, les communautés d’Arabie ne chassent pas les grands cétacés, mais collectent leurs ossements sur les rivages
Les toutes premières pêches aux perles fines dans l’Ancien Monde sont pratiquées dans les eaux du golfe et de la mer d’Arabie. Ces perles deviennent un des éléments constitutifs de l’identité culturelle des communautés d’Arabie. Les populations côtières omanaises développent aussi une culture matérielle propre, souvent dans des matériaux marins : racloir en Amiantis umbonella, ciseau en Cypraecassis Rufa, contenants en Lambis truncata sebae ou Scapharca inflata palliant l’absence de toute céramique. Au cours des VIe -IVe
millénaires, le travail de la coquille marine est à son apogée en Arabie orientale. Toute une gamme d’hameçons en nacre est produite à partir de la nacre de l’huître perlière (Pinctada margaritifera). Certains sites du golfe et de la mer d’Arabie s’orientent vers la production de parures, généralement de petites perles discoïdes. L’habitat de Ra’s Dah – île de Masirah – celui de l’île d’Akab et peut-être d’al-Hallaniyah réalisent un nombre de produits dont le volume excède les besoins de la communauté. Entre golfe et océan Indien, ces sociétés littorales partagent enfin des pratiques d’ordre spirituel associant certains animaux marins : la tortue marine et le dugong.

Excavations at the Prehistoric site Ras Al-Hamra RH-5, located on a large promontory in the Qurum area of Muscat, have been conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Oman with support from the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. The site was dated from the late fifth to the end of the fourth millennia BC, and it was made of an accumulation of superimposed food discards deriving from continuous and repeated subsistence activities such as fishing, collecting shells, hunting and herding. Dwellings and household installations, including objects of daily use and ornaments, have also been found throughout the occupation sequence. Excavations at RH-5 yielded unprecedented data on the economic and social dynamics of Neolithic societies in eastern Arabia. The exploitation of the different ecological niches annually supplied all the necessary for a sedentary human attendance. The lifestyle of fisher-gatherers communities during the Middle Holocene represents a fundamental step of the neolithization process in Oman.

The technology of shell fish-hooks and line fishing is well attested in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean during the Neolithic period (fifth–fourth millennium BC). Their presence in the coastal area of the Arabian Gulf is now confirmed by new findings from Akab (Umm al-Qaiwain) and Shimal (Ra’s al-Khaimah) in the United Arab Emirates.

"Fishing played a fundamental role in the subsistence economy
of the Mesolithic and Neolithic inhabitants of Zamostje 2, a site
located on the Russian plain (Sergiev Possad, Moscow). The
abundant ichtiofaunal remains and the tools found at the site
(harpoons, needle nets, fishhooks and scaling knives) corroborate
this importance. In this article, we focus on the consumption
of fishhooks through an analysis of the usewear observed on their
surfaces. We compare the usewear observed on the archaeological
fishhooks with that seen on experimental fishhooks used to capture
fish species. We show how some attributes (disposition, quantity
and hardness of the fish teeth) influence the nature of the usewear,
especially the striations, formed on the surfaces of the fishhooks."