Prehistoric fishing

The paper reviews fish remains retrieved in Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic sites from the Fucino basin. A general scarcity of fishes in many samples as well as an almost dominance of trout seems to have been caused by both natural and anthropic agents.

Ever since the discovery of the site of Lepenski Vir, it was recognized that fishing had an important role in the settling of the Danube Gorges in the Mesolithic. The importance of wild game hunting has also been confirmed by the analyses of animal bones and emphasized ever since the first published archaeozoological reports. The issue of the role of terrestrial vs. aquatic resources in the diet has been addressed from the perspective of stable isotope analysis, with somewhat contrasting results. The analyses of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios have suggested that the Mesolithic inhabitants of the Danube Gorges consumed considerable amounts of fish, with gradual broadening of the dietary spectrum to include terrestrial resources at the onset of the Neolithic (Bonsall et al. 1997; 2000; 2004; Grupe et al. 2003; Borić et al. 2004), whereas the analysis of sulphur (δ34S) isotope ratio has suggested that there have been significant inter- and intra-site variabilities in dietary practices (Nehlich et al. 2010). However, this issue had not so far been addressed in greater detail from an archaeozoological perspective, mainly due to great difficulties and biases in cross-referencing quantified mammal and fish remains, but also due to the fragmentary nature of faunal assemblages from some of the sites. Although the assessment of precise proportion of wild game meat vs. fish in the diet is elusive, particularly due to the differences in mammalian and fish skeletons, and biases affecting their survival and recovery, we attempted to tackle this issue by estimating their dietary contribution and nutritive potential on the basis of the sum of average weight of the minimum number of individuals for both mammals and fish. In addition, we estimated the proportion (size and number) of economically most important fish (cyprinids, Wels catfish and acipenserids) in the assemblages from the sites of Lepenski Vir, Vlasac and Padina. Even with methodological biases concerning recovery techniques employed during the old and new excavations, and different areas of the sites they have encompassed, we found that fish species composition on the three sites varied to some extent. Given the site locations, their short distance from one another and similar landscape and environmental conditions (vicinity of cataracts and large whirlpools), this propensity towards fishing particular kinds of fish could suggest that the sites functioned as specialized fishing centres, and held different species of fish in special regard.

Mockhorn Island in Northampton County, Virginia has an extensive late Quaternary geological and archaeological record. Investigations at 44NH440 and 44NH441 conducted throughout 2009 and 2010 on the island revealed evidence of drowned late prehistoric settlements. Excavations at 44NH440 exposed a drowned 1,500 year old midden area with evidence of prehistoric fishing. Excavations at 44NH441 documented a drowned 2,500 year old prehistoric house structure and an associated refuse area. In tandem with regional geologic evidence and sea level data, the island’s extensive archaeological record provides a more thorough understanding of the long-term human use of an Atlantic coastal island and the active role that marine transgression played on environmental and ecological change.

This study seeks to draw attention to the lack of knowledge of and the small amount of research dealing with archaeological cultural resources in Finnish wetlands, as well as to demonstrate its huge scientific and interpretative potential. To this end, the study presents a compilation of Finnish wetland archaeological sites, contextualizes and evaluates them with the help of archaeological, environmental, and ethnographic data, and offers an assessment of areas with the highest potential for encountering new sites. The scientific and interpretative potential of Finnish wetland archaeological resources is then illustrated with the help of two case studies representing stationary wooden fishing structures associated with Stone Age fishery sites. The prehistoric fishing theme involves a detailed examination of the fishing structure types and the estuary fishing methods, as well as their contextual circumstances, which provide an analytical framework explicating and illuminating this as yet unexplored archaeological evidence.  Finally, the study seeks to further our knowledge concerning the detection and prospection of archaeological sites situated in demanding wetland settings with the help of geophysical testing and trial excavations conducted within stationary wooden fishing structures.

The total number of wetland sites has multiplied in the course of this study, even though it is still very low when compared to the extensive area of Finnish wetlands. The areas with the highest wetland archaeological potential in Finland are located in river estuaries, coastal areas affected by strong isostatic rebound, and terrestrialized lakes. Today, stationary wooden structures associated with fishing sites represent the most typical wetland archaeological resource in Finland. The case studies described in this work demonstrate that these wooden archaeological remains yield valuable evidence for investigating fishing methods, technological adaptations, and modes of subsistence among prehistoric populations. The lack of viable techniques for the detection and prospection of sites has been hindering wetland archaeological research in Finland. The most crucial threats to the preservation of our organic archaeological resources situated in wetland landscapes are drainage, peat extraction, acidification, and climate change.

En este trabajo presentamos un estado de la cuestión sobre los anzuelos de pesca en la península ibérica. Para ello realizaremos un análisis diacrónico desde las primeras evidencias que se conocen en el registro arqueológico prehistórico hasta época medieval. Se tratará de anali-zar cómo ha sido su evolución a lo largo de la historia, definiéndose los principales hitos tecnológicos que han ido produciéndose hasta llegar a configurarse el modelo de anzuelo que conocemos en la actualidad, y conside-rándose, al mismo tiempo, cuáles son aquellos rasgos morfo-tipológicos que han perdurado/desaparecido y cuáles han sido transformados/sustituidos. Todo ello nos permitirá valorar aspectos históricos de gran importancia como pueden ser el origen geográfico de las innovaciones y su difusión a escala atlántico-mediterránea a través de posibles fenómenos de interacción cultural. Palabras claves. Anzuelo; hueso; metal; sistema de suje-ción del sedal; arpón. Abstract In this work we introduce a state of the question about fish hooks in the Iberian Peninsula. In order to do so, we will carry out a diachronic analysis from the first evidences known in the prehistoric archeological record until the Medieval time. We will attempt to analyze how they have evolved throughout history, defining the main technological milestones that have been occurring until it turns into the fish hook model we know now. At the same time, we will consider which morphotypological characteristics have persisted/disappeared and which ones have been transformed/replaced. Taking all this into account, we will assess very important historical aspects, like the geographical origin of innovations and their dissemination in the Atlantic and Mediterranean areas thanks to possible cultural. Cómo citar este artículo / How to cite this article: Vargas Girón, J. M. (2020). Orígenes y desarrollo de los anzuelos de pesca en la península ibérica. De la prehistoria a la Edad Media. Lucentum, XXXIX, 87-112. https://doi.

The huge scientific and interpretive value of wetland archaeological sites has been well demonstrated in several studies. The management of the archaeological resource of wetland landscapes is problematic, however, and there is an urgent need for noninvasive techniques to detect waterlogged organic archaeological remains. Stationary wooden fishing structures associated with fishing sites constitute an important wetland archaeological resource in northern Europe. In Finland, similar wooden constructions have been used for fishing from prehistory to the early modern era. The discovery of sites has been accidental, because the waterlogged organic remains have been considered invisible to conventional geoprospection techniques. Because of this, a small
project was launched at Lamminoja, northwest Finland, in order to investigate whether it would be possible to improve our chances to detect fishery sites in demanding wetland habitats. New information was obtained through geophysical prospection, trial excavations, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating. Geophysical testing was hampered by several factors, including complex sediments affected by modern drainage. New information was obtained, however, on the composition, age, and spatial distribution of the wooden fishing structures preserved in peat over 5000 years.

The paper represents the collection of clay net sinkers from Late Chalcolitic site Telish-Redutite, Central North Bulgaria: technology and morphology of the finds, their function and a comparison with other Late Chalcolithic sites from Bulgaria.

The identification and analysis of 1583 bones from colonisation (~2700 cal BP) to late period (post-800 cal BP) cultural layers from archaeological site AS-13–41 on Ofu Island, American Samoa are reported. The assemblage is dominated by fish (~91 per cent; NISP = 1435, MNI = 162) with bones of human, Green Sea Turtle, sea birds (shearwaters and petrels) and a terrestrial bird (Buff-Banded Rail), as well as the commensals Pacific Rat, chicken (Red Junglefowl) and pig. We report here the first prehistoric records of Pacific Flying Fox (Pteropus tonganus) and the endemic Tooth-Billed Pigeon (Manumea, Didunculus strigirostris) from colonisation layers and two pelagic fish species only recorded from late pre-historic deposits: Mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) and flying fish (Exocoetidae). These and numerous genus-level fish identifications of surgeonfish (Acanthuridae), squirrelfish and soldierfish (Holocentridae), snapper (Lutjanidae) and parrotfish (Scaridae) are additional new fish records for Samoan...

This paper presents the first study of Late Chalcolithic (sec. half of V mill. BC) harpoons from Bulgaria. Three main types are defined and each type is divided into three subtypes according to the share of barbed zone. The main result is the differentiation of two regional groups - Northern and Southern.

Freshwater reservoir offsets (FROs) occur when AMS dates on charred, encrusted food residues on pottery predate a pot's chronological context because of the presence of ancient carbon from aquatic resources such as fish. Research over the past two decades has demonstrated that FROs vary widely within and between water bodies and between fish in those water bodies. Lipid analyses have identified aquatic biomarkers that can be extracted from cooking residues as potential evidence for FROs. However, lacking has been efforts to determine empirically how much fish with FROs needs to be cooked in a pot with other resources to result in significant FRO on encrusted cooking residue and what percentage of fish C in a residue is needed to result in the recovery of aquatic biomarkers. Here we provide preliminary assessments of both issues. Our results indicate that in historically-contingent, high alkalinity environments <20% C from fish may result in a statistically significant FRO, but that biomarkers for aquatic resources may be present in the absence of a significant FRO.

Archaeological investigations at the Misery Acres Site (33Ot263), located on Middle Bass Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, have identified a small, short-term fishing camp occupied during the Riviere au Vase Phase (ca. A.D. 750-1000) of the Western Basin Tradition.  An undisturbed (i.e., unplowed) setting, coupled with a significant intrasite spatial patterning, provided researchers with a unique opportunity to examine various levels of site dynamics including structure, function, and duration.  This paper presents the results of archaeological research at Misery Acres and compares the site with existing cultural models for the western Lake Erie region.

Evidence related to fishing between sambaquian populations and taquara-itararé culture in Babitonga Bay is very old, it can be said that since its first publication in the nineteenth century, there is mention of the traces related to this practice, since these sites are consisting mainly of animal remains obtained by fishing techniques. Only from the 1990s onwards, systematic studies focusing on faunal remains and based on zooarcheology began to be made, allowing the qualitative and quantitative progress to be made. These studies made it possible to better understand the role of fish in relation to other marine resources, the preferences between the species caught, the inferences about
the environments frequented and the equipment used as well as the relationships of fishing practices between these different cultures. It can be said that it was this bias that can contribute to the brilliant initiative of creating a collaborative network of studies on the subject as well as to base conservation studies on the marine fauna of Babitonga Bay.

Complex research on various barbed points from early Mesolithic sites in the Volga-Oka interfluve showed that
they were the heads of different categories of hunting weapons, mostly projectiles. Analyses of their shape, size and use-wear traces made it possible to single out arrowheads, javelin or leister points, throwing and thrusting spearheads and harpoons. The earliest of them emerge in the first half of the Preboreal period, but the full flourishing of various categories of barbed weapons is observed during the late Preboreal to early Boreal periods and later. Some types and variants are numerous and have a long history, while others are represented only by single finds. The former represent more or less standard mass products, while the latter can be treated as experimental artefacts which played no significant role. Together with other types of bone and antler hunting weapons barbed projectile points played an important role in subsistence strategies of the Early Mesolithic population of the Volga-Oka interfluve and their adaptation to the forest environment during the early Holocene.

Whereas the significance of fishing is well documented at a number of Mesolithic and Early Neolithic (c. 9500 - 5500 cal BC) sites in the Danube Gorges (the Danube stretch between present-day Serbia and Romania) and is corroborated by archaeozoological, isotopic and archaeological evidence, this important activity has received less attention in the study of surrounding areas. The issue of determining the role of fishing is particularly relevant for the understanding of transitions from foraging to first food producing economies in the North-Central Balkans, the latter commonly associated with the Starčevo-Körös-Criş cultural complex (c. 6200 - 5500 cal BC). Existing data on isotopic dietary signatures of human remains from Early Neolithic Starčevo-Körös-Criş sites signal a more terrestrial diet (Whittle et al. 2002; 2005), however archaeozoological data from several Körös sites in Hungary (Bartosiewicz et al. 2012) suggest that the role of fishing, in addition to being obscured by inadequate recovery techniques, would have varied greatly depending on site location and other socio-economic factors. In this paper, we present and discuss the results of the analysis of fish remains from the eponimous, Early Neolithic site of Starčevo-Grad in Serbia. The site is situated on the former bank of the Danube at the edge of its floodplan, little over a 100 km upstream from the Danube Gorges as the crow flies. The faunal remains collected over the course of 1932 and 1969-1970 excavation campaigns (originating from both domestic and wild animals, waterfowl and fishes) were previously published by Clason (1980), and are indicative of a both stock-breeding and a hunting/fishing economy. The fish remains, albeit few, were collected mostly by hand; and the role of fishing was probably more substantial. The occurrence of large fish hooks and fishing net weights speak in favour of such hypothesis, as well as the environment of the site, which was located in the very proximity of the river. In addition to the re-analysis of the remains from older excavations of Starčevo-Grad, our study also included the analysis of fish remains collected during 2003-2008 excavation campaigns. The aim of this paper, as well as future analyses of Early Neolithic faunal assemblages is to problematize the presumed dichotomy between Mesolithic and Early Neolithic subsistence strategies and to assess the role of fishing at the advent of food producing economies in the Central Balkans.

This paper critiques the emphasis placed on the economics of fishing in the northern Midlands of Ireland, where a number of Late Mesolithic finds and sites have been recorded at the point where the River Inny enters or exits the lakes connected to it. In the past, seasonality, site function and site classifications have dominated narratives on this region, and can be seen as an endemic part of Irish Mesolithic research at large. As a result, other socially grounded discourses have been overshadowed by a preoccupation with resources found in this area – in particular fish and chert – and the sustainability of this wetland environment for hunter-gatherer populations. This discussion reconsiders evidence of fishing during the Irish Mesolithic, by exploring various spatial and temporal patterns that can be discerned from previously recorded sites. By redirecting the emphasis from the consumption of fish onto the act of fishing, it aims to highlight the variety of ways a shift in analytical perspective can bring new and necessary insights into hunter-gatherer perceptions of time and place.