The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing Dr. James Barrett McDonald Institute for Archaeological...
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Transcript of The Prehistory of Intensive Sea Fishing Dr. James Barrett McDonald Institute for Archaeological...
The Leverhulme Trust
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
• 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
Today’s Objectives
In the Beginning … The Mesolithic
Stable Carbon Isotopes Show Changing Dietary Importance of Marine Protein
High Reliance on Marine Protein Doesn’t Reappear until the Middle Ages
Scandinavia: The Exception to the Rule?
• Catching and eating cod, herring and related species part of daily routine throughout prehistory
Sea Fishing in Atlantic Scotland
• Very little fishing before the Viking Age
• Intensification in the 9th & 11th centuries
Base of Viking Age midden
Top of marine zone
Quoygrew Chronology
Base of marine zone10th century
11th – 12th century
The Fish Middens of Atlantic Scotland
Robert’s Haven
St Boniface
Quoygrew
Dried Cod Production
Decapitation Removing the anterior vertebrae
•Based on cut marks and element distributions•Similar cut marks occur on possible imported specimens around the Baltic and North Seas. ‘Stockfish’ trade?
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)
10-1
1
0
-1
Component 2
Com
pone
nt 1
Flatfish
Cyprinid Pike
Smelt
'Gadid'
Eel
Salmonid
Herring
11
911
11
11
9
11
11
9 9
9 9
11
11
9 9 9
11
7
7
13
13
15
15
13
11
13
15
15
1115
13
7
13 7
1513
11
15
11
15
15
1513
15
13
9
15
1311
15
11
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13
1313
15
15
151313
13
11
1115
13
13
13
1313
7
13
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15
1513
1313
11
7
7
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13
7
7
13
7
7
713
13
11
7 7
111313
7
11
1111
13
1315
15
11
1313
15
13
15
7
13
7
7 7
15
13
11
1115
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13
15
13 13
a)
The York Sequence
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
mid
-late
800
s/ea
rly 9
00s
c.93
0/93
5-c.
975
c.97
5
c.97
5-ea
rly/m
id 1
000s
mid
-late
r 10
00s
mid
100
0s-m
id 1
100s
mid
110
0s-1
200
1200
-124
0
1240
-127
5
1275
-mid
130
0s
1300
-late
130
0s
1360
-150
0
Clupeidae
Cod
Haddock
Pleuronectidae
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
mid
-late
800
s/ea
rly 9
00s
c.93
0/93
5-c.
975
c.97
5
c.97
5-ea
rly/m
id 1
000s
mid
-late
r 10
00s
mid
100
0s-m
id 1
100s
mid
110
0s-1
200
1200
-124
0
1240
-127
5
1275
-mid
130
0s
1300
-late
130
0s
1360
-150
0
Eel
Cyprinidae
n=13517, derived from sieving only
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
Belgium:
•11th Century: Flatfish & Herring
•12th Century: Whiting & Haddock
•13th Century: Cod
Ribe, Jutland, Denmark:Cod Size Distribution by Date
Poland:
•10th-11th Century: Herring
•13th-14th Century: Cod
Estonia:
•13th-14th Century: Cod
Eastern Sweden:
•8th Century: Herring
•13th Century: Cod
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13
14
15
16
17
18
-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C
δ15N
Arctic Norway
Northern NorthSea
Southern andCentral North Sea
Kattegat
Eastern Baltic Sea
Cod Provenance: Control Samples
• Possible to distinguish approximate location of catch using reliable stable isotope analyses
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11
12
13
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17
18
-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C
δ15N
Arctic Norway
Northern NorthSea
Southern andCentral North Sea
Kattegat
Eastern Baltic Sea
Causal Variables
• Temperature• Salinity • Length and type
of food web in each area, and consequent trophic level of cod temp
salinity
salinity
TL
TL
Cod Provenance: Target Samples
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12
13
14
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16
17
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-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C
δ15N
WharramPercy
MalaNieszawka
Haithabu
• Arctic Norwegian cod at Hedeby (9th-11th century)?• Traded cod at Wharram Percy (13th century)?• Local dried cod production in the Baltic (15th century)
Uppsala, Sweden:13th Century Vertebrae
• All appear to be imports from Arctic Norway or the North Sea
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11
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13
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-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C ‰
δ15N
‰
Uppsala, Sweden: 14th-15th Century
• All but one specimen appear local
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11
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13
14
15
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-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C ‰
δ15N
‰
Uppsala Late Cranial l
Uppsala Late Cleithra x
Poland: 13th-14th Century Vertebrae
• All appear to be imports, perhaps from Arctic Norway
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C ‰
δ15N
‰
• All but one specimen appear local
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
-20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C ‰
δ15N
‰
Poland Late Vertebrae x
Poland Late Cranial l
Poland Late Cranial xl
Poland Late Cleithra l
Poland Late Cleithra x
Poland: 14th-15th Century
Estonia: Late 13th-14th Century
• All appear to be imports, perhaps from the North Sea
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C ‰
δ15N
‰
Estonia Vetrebrae l
Estonia Vertebrae x
Estonia Vertebrae xx
Estonia Cleithra x
Commercial Fishing: Potential ‘Drivers’
‘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
But can we detect the impact of this early commercial fishery on marine
ecosystems?
Bait Collection at Quoygrew, Orkney
Robert’s Haven: Saithe
25 50 75 100 125
Saithe Total Length (cm)
0
10
20
30
NIS
P
11th-13th/14th Century 14th-16th Century
25 50 75 100 125
Saithe Total Length (cm)
• Downward shift in trophic level between past and present?• Eutrophication of S. North Sea evident in Middle Ages?
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
-19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10
δ13C
δ15N
S. North SeaModern δ15N
N. North SeaModern δ15N
Long Term Human Impacts?A North Sea Example
Acknowledgements• 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