Prehistoric Fisheries Research Articles

Deep antiquity of seagrasses supporting European eel fisheries in the western Baltic.

Protecting ocean habitats is critical for international efforts to mitigate climate impacts and ensure food security, but the ecological data upon which policy makers base conservation and restoration targets often reflect ecosystems that have already been deeply impacted by anthropogenic change. The archaeological record is a biomolecular archive offering a temporal scope that cannot be gathered from historical records or contemporary fieldwork. Insights from biogeochemical and osteometric analyses of fish bones, combined with context from contemporary field studies, show how prehistoric fisheries in the western Baltic relied on seagrass meadows. European eels (Anguilla anguilla) harvested by Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples over millennia showed a strong fidelity for eelgrass foraging habitats, an ecological relationship that remains largely overlooked today, demonstrating the value of protecting these habitats. These data open new windows onto ecosystem- and species-level behaviours, highlighting the need for wider incorporation of archaeological data in strategies for protecting our oceans.

WITHDRAWN: Prehistoric coastal fisheries on the Atacama Desert (Taltal, 25°S). A Trans-Holocene record of paleoceanographic and archaeological fish remains

Abstract The Humboldt Current System (HCS) is one of the most productive marine ecosystems on earth. Humans have inhabited the desert coast of Chile and Peru for the last 12,000 years and have consistently based their subsistence and economy on the marine resources obtained from this rich ecosystem. Archaeological evidence on prehistoric coastal fisheries from the southern coast of the Atacama Desert, shows a Trans-Holocene record on knowledgeable fishers that developed gear to catch species from a wide array of habitats. However, the Holocene was a period with important changes in climate and paleoceanographic conditions that should have played an important role modulating natural conditions of fish habitats. In addition, fishing gear used in the past along the Atacama Desert coast varied through time, providing us clues on changing fishing patterns through the Holocene. Hence, the objective of the study is to examine our understanding of prehistoric fisheries from the area of Taltal (25°S) together with our present knowledge of the environmental factors that modulated it. We present fish data from ten archaeological sites with occupations dated between 12,000 and 1500 cal yrs BP, and discuss patterns of fishing behavior and their relationship to paleoceanographic conditions and fishing gear throughout the Holocene. Our results suggest that fishing strategies used by past communities adapted and took advantage of the dynamics of marine and coastal habitats. Furthermore, Trachurus murphyi, a neritic species and a staple fishery, plays a key role to help us understanding changes in fishing activities throughout the Holocene.

The Prehistoric Fisheries of Akab Island (United Arab Emirates): New Insights into Coastal Subsistence during Neolithic in Eastern Arabia

The Neolithic period in Eastern Arabia (especially from 5500 to 3100 BC) is better understood due to recent excavations of stratified sites stretching from Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman. When oasis agriculture developed from the Bronze Age onwards, herding, shellfish gathering, and fishing became the primary modes of subsistence, and despite strong regional aridity, coastal shell middens provide the best preservation conditions in the Persian Gulf. Akab, one of the many Neolithic shell middens of the United Arab Emirates coastline, is situated in the Umm al-Quwain lagoon. This settlement is dated to the second part of the fifth millennium BC and has provided more than 37,000 fish remains, derived from over 50 fish species. Ichthyofaunal analysis underlines the predominance of coastal pelagics, such as kawakawas and trevallies, and the exploitation of several coastal fishes, mostly seabreams and emperors. Inhabitants fished over a wide aquatic territory, which included shallow-water biotopes, situated inside the lagoon, and the open sea. The associated fishing gear, composed of stone sinkers and shell fishhooks, indicates that nets and lines were used. Here, we review the seasonal organization of activities and mobility schemes from an archaeo-ichthyological perspective.

The Path towards Endangered Species: Prehistoric Fisheries in Southeastern Brazil.

Brazilian shellmounds are archaeological sites with a high concentration of marine faunal remains. There are more than 2000 sites along the coast of Brazil that range in age from 8,720 to 985 cal BP. Here, we studied the ichthyoarchaeological remains (i.e., cranial/postcranial bones, otoliths, and teeth, among others) at 13 shellmounds on the southern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which are located in coastal landscapes, including a sandy plain with coastal lagoons, rocky islands, islets and rocky bays. We identified patterns of similarity between shellmounds based on fish diversity, the ages of the assemblages, littoral geomorphology and prehistoric fisheries. Our new radiocarbon dating, based on otolith samples, was used for fishery characterization over time. A taxonomical study of the ichthyoarchaeological remains includes a diversity of 97 marine species, representing 37% of all modern species (i.e., 265 spp.) that have been documented along the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. This high fish diversity recovered from the shellmounds is clear evidence of well-developed prehistoric fishery activity that targeted sharks, rays and finfishes in a productive area influenced by coastal marine upwelling. The presence of adult and neonate shark, especially oceanic species, is here interpreted as evidence of prehistoric fisheries capacity for exploitation and possibly overexploitation in nursery areas. Various tools and strategies were used to capture finfish in seasonal fisheries, over rocky reef bottoms and in sandy littoral environments. Massive catches of whitemouth croaker, main target dermersal species of South Atlantic coast, show evidence of a reduction in body size of approximately 28% compared with modern fisheries. Fishery activity involving vulnerable species, especially in nursery areas, could mark the beginning of fish depletion along the southeastern Brazilian coast and the collapse of natural fish populations.

The archaeology of fish and fishing on the central coast of California: The case for an under-exploited resource

Decades of systematic archaeological investigations highlight the importance of fish and fishing for prehistoric people along the central coast of California, but to date temporal and spatial trends remain unsynthesized. An evaluation of 202,177 fish remains from 86 sites on the central coast of California yielded a sample of 75,532 NISP from temporally and methodologically controlled contexts. Seventy-nine temporal components demonstrate a 10,000-year history of fishing within estuaries, along the open rocky coast, and on the Monterey Peninsula. Fishes within six taxa dominate the record throughout including New World silversides, small surfperches, and members of the herring family which almost certainly were caught with nets, and rockfish and cabezon which were amenable to individual hook and line capture. The persistent dominance of these fishes suggests that nets and hooks/gorges were employed throughout the sequence along with watercraft. Only very modest changes are apparent between 10,000 and 300years ago, suggesting continuous harvest of a relatively productive, stable resource that was too abundant to be seriously impacted by pre-European harvesting practices. There is no evidence for gradual or incremental intensification in fishing, rather there are three intervals of change in fish remains and inferred fishing practices that reflect changes in human population and/or environment. There is no compelling evidence for depression of the prehistoric fishery and the record seems to reflect epiphenomenal sustainability related to low human populations and a highly productive, upwelling-fueled, under-exploited fishery. Comparison of the prehistoric record with enormous yields recorded historically further supports this conclusion.

Subneolithic Fishery in the Iijoki River Estuary, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland

A wetland site discovered accidentally in the western part of the Kierikki area in Yli-Ii, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland, surprised archaeologists in the mid 1990s by its size and the rare degree of preservation of the organic finds. A number of wooden objects had already been found during the draining of the present-day peatland agricultural field in the 1950s, but the age and the full scientific value of the prehistoric fishery were only recognized later. Since none of the wooden structures were intact, it has been challenging to reconstruct the Stone Age fishing methods in detail, but most of the finds point to ethnographically recognisable fish weir with lath screen traps set in shallow water. All of the radiocarbon samples returned Middle Subneolithic (nonagricultural Neolithic) dates ranging between 3934–2679 cal BC (2σ), but the relative dendrochronological dates indicate a distinct activity phase of only 19 years. The site is still in the process of being destroyed due to the progressive lowering of the water table. After a few decades, or a century at the most, a significant portion of the wooden artefacts of Purkajasuo will have deteriorated.

Kodiak Island's Prehistoric Fisheries: Human Dietary Response to Climate Change and Resource Availability

ABSTRACT Here I assess the effects of climate change and fluctuating resource abundance on prehistoric fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska using zooarchaeological remains, stable isotope analysis, and salmon abundance data. These lines of evidence are used in the context of foraging theory to test whether people accommodated climate change and resource fluctuation by transitioning from a riverine to a marine environment. Based on comparison of these datasets, there is real change in the fishing strategy through time, but this change cannot be explained by variations in local climate change or salmon abundance.

Prehistoric fisheries in the Caribbean

We studied faunal remains from archaeological sites on five Caribbean islands, each with an early (1,850–1,280 years B.P.) and late (1,415–560 years B.P.) occupation. On each of these islands (Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Saba, and Nevis), the mean size of reef fishes in the faunal remains declined from the early to the late occupation. The large samples from sites on St. Thomas and Nevis allowed examination of the size distribution of individual taxa. Samples of obligate reef fishes (Scaridae, Acanthuridae, Lutjanidae, and Serranidae) showed large reductions in size between the early and late occupations. Samples of facultative reef fishes (Carangidae and Clupeidae) showed little change in size frequency distribution. The percentage of estimated reef fish biomass in the total aquatic faunal record sharply declined in the samples from four of the islands, while on Nevis there was a slight increase. The mean trophic level of reef fishes declined from the early to the late occupations on each island. Together these patterns suggest that populations of reef fishes adjacent to occupation sites on these islands were heavily exploited in prehistoric times. Such exploitation resulted in shifts in size structure and species composition among the reef fish fauna. On some islands the decline in reef fish resources corresponded with a shift towards greater exploitation of pelagic species.

Some observations on the material culture of Aboriginal fishing in the Moreton Bay area: implications for archaeology

Assessments of suites of material culture items have often been used to characterize various aspects of human behaviour and cultural development. This has particularly been the case with regard to assessments of prehistoric fisheries (e.g. Anell 1955, Reinman 1967, Kirch 1982, Colley 1983:4-7). This paper presents some observations on the material culture of Aboriginal fishing in and around Moreton Bay, southeast Queensland, which derive from written and oral history relating to the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They allow implications to be drawn about the way the fishery may have operated in the prehistoric period.