The Herring Cask and its Sign System as Witnesses to a Growing Fishing Industry in Fifteenth-century Flanders

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ABSTRACT Archaeological research in the Low Countries regularly uncovers medieval herring casks. They usually show a wide range of marks and symbols. Herring casks are the bearers of a sign system that had relationships with other forms of writing that played a role in the management of a growing fishing industry and the food supply of the urbanised population. The signs on the casks are prominent witnesses to the important fourteenth- and fifteenth-century historical developments in the production and consumption of sea fish in the county of Flanders and the neighbouring regions. For historical research into the system of signs on the herring casks, I venture into the fields of not only maritime and economic history but also palaeography and semiotics, arguing that signs on the casks played a role in the scaling up and individualisation of the marine fishing economy and the conflict management it required.