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The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing

The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing. Dr. James Barrett McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Why Study the Early Development of Sea Fishing?. Implications for social and economic history Implications for historical ecology. Today’s Objectives.

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The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing

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  1. The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing Dr. James Barrett McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

  2. Why Study the Early Development of Sea Fishing? • Implications for social and economic history • Implications for historical ecology

  3. Today’s Objectives • To dispel two opposing popular misconceptions: ‘modernity’ and the ‘static past’ • To introduce the archaeological study of fishing • To illuminate the early growth of intensive sea fishing in Northern and Western Europe – focusing on cod as a case study • To introduce efforts to detect any associated early impacts on marine ecosystems

  4. In the Beginning … The Mesolithic

  5. Stable Carbon Isotopes Show Changing Dietary Importance of Marine Protein

  6. High Reliance on Marine Protein Doesn’t Reappear until the Middle Ages

  7. Scandinavia: The Exception to the Rule? • Catching and eating cod, herring and related species part of daily routine throughout prehistory

  8. Sea Fishing in Atlantic Scotland • Very little fishing before the Viking Age • Intensification in the 9th & 11th centuries

  9. Quoygrew Chronology Top of marine zone 11th – 12th century Base of marine zone 10th century Base of Viking Age midden

  10. The Fish Middens of Atlantic Scotland Robert’s Haven St Boniface Quoygrew

  11. Dried Cod Production Removing the anterior vertebrae Decapitation • Based on cut marks and element distributions • Similar cut marks occur on possible imported specimens around the Baltic and North Seas. ‘Stockfish’ trade?

  12. England • Very little sea fishing until near the end of the first millennium • Rapid expansion of cod and herring fishing within a few decades of AD 1000 – the fish event horizon • Continued intensification over the long term, with increasing diversity of species exploited and expansion to new fishing grounds (e.g. Iceland and Newfoundland)

  13. a)

  14. The York Sequence n=13517, derived from sieving only

  15. York: Butchered Cod Vertebrae • Transverse cuts: typically used as evidence of stockfish production, caused when severing the vertebral column to remove the head and anterior vertebrae

  16. Belgium: • 11th Century: Flatfish & Herring • 12th Century: Whiting & Haddock • 13th Century: Cod

  17. Ribe, Jutland, Denmark:Cod Size Distribution by Date

  18. Estonia: • 13th-14th Century: Cod • Eastern Sweden: • 8th Century: Herring • 13th Century: Cod • Poland: • 10th-11th Century: Herring • 13th-14th Century: Cod

  19. Cod Provenance: Control Samples • Possible to distinguish approximate location of catch using reliable stable isotope analyses

  20. Causal Variables • Temperature • Salinity • Length and type of food web in each area, and consequent trophic level of cod TL temp salinity salinity TL

  21. Cod Provenance: Target Samples • Arctic Norwegian cod at Hedeby (9th-11th century)? • Traded cod at Wharram Percy (13th century)? • Local dried cod production in the Baltic (15th century)

  22. Uppsala, Sweden:13th Century Vertebrae • All appear to be imports from Arctic Norway or the North Sea

  23. Uppsala, Sweden: 14th-15th Century • All but one specimen appear local

  24. Poland: 13th-14th Century Vertebrae • All appear to be imports, perhaps from Arctic Norway

  25. Poland: 14th-15th Century • All but one specimen appear local

  26. Estonia: Late 13th-14th Century • All appear to be imports, perhaps from the North Sea

  27. ‘Socio-economic’: The Viking Age diaspora Rapid urban expansion The development of long-range trade in staple goods (cf. ship capacities) Changes in Christian fasting practices (e.g. the Benedictine reform of c.970) ‘Environmental’: The Medieval Warm Period (increased agricultural production & population) Human impacts on freshwater ecosystems The MWP may also have increased cod & herring abundance in northern fishing grounds – a Butterfly Effect Commercial Fishing: Potential ‘Drivers’

  28. But can we detect the impact of this early commercial fishery on marine ecosystems?

  29. Bait Collection at Quoygrew, Orkney

  30. Robert’s Haven: Saithe

  31. Long Term Human Impacts?A North Sea Example S. North Sea Modern δ15N N. North Sea Modern δ15N • Downward shift in trophic level between past and present? • Eutrophication of S. North Sea evident in Middle Ages?

  32. Leverhulme Trust Historic Scotland British Academy Census of Marine Life English Heritage Heritage Lottery Fund History of Marine Animal Populations McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Society for Medieval Archaeology York Archaeological Trust Project collaborators: especially Jennifer Harland, Cluny Johnstone, Anton Ervynck, Michael Richards and Wim Van Neer Acknowledgements

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