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Fish Processing in the Mediterranean: Varying Traditions, Technologies and Scales of Production with Particular Reference to the Eastern Mediterranean

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Abstract

Research into the processing of marine resources along the Mediterranean coasts in antiquity reveals an uneven picture. The archaeological evidence for the systematic processing of fish and seafood in the western part is abundant and varied. Here, the production of salted fish and fish sauces seems to have been an important factor contributing to economic growth in many locations. In the eastern part of the Mediterranean, however, archaeological evidence for the processing of marine resources is much less common and is often indirect. Large-scale processing plants are virtually absent from the archaeological record and there are few studies of the remains of fish and shellfish or of other material evidence relating to fish preservation and commerce. Yet written evidence on the subject abounds, but places heavy emphasis on consumption and commerce rather than production. This paper describes the evidence and explores possible reasons for this imbalanced representation in an attempt to assess the actual importance of the processing of marine resources across the whole Mediterranean region. Issues discussed are the shifting emphasis on fish processing across space and through time, archaeological research agendas and methodologies, resource availability and abundance and, finally, issues of scale and visibility.

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Notes

  1. In this paper the term processed fish or salted fish is used in a generic manner. Processing leads to a very wide range of products, dry or liquid, and is done by a number of techniques such as salting, drying, smoking, marination, fermentation and any combination of them (e.g. Curtis 2001: 402–417; Botte 2009: 14–21).

  2. The division of the Mediterranean into eastern and western on cultural grounds is far from straightforward, and it encompasses a number of different points of view (for an indicative discussion see Antonaccio 2009). This paper adopts a more or less physiographic division of the Mediterranean basin and its coasts along a notional line that extends from the eastern coast of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, east of Malta and roughly to the western borders of modern Libya (see for example Coll et al. 2010). Also, the term “Black Sea” includes the Sea of Marmara that links it to the Aegean Sea. The literature on the various aspects of fish preservation in antiquity is vast. For this paper only a small fraction of it, mostly more recent or synthetic works, have been indicatively used.

  3. Eastern Mediterranean: Franchthi Cave - Greece: Payne (1975); Rose (1995); Cave of Cyclops, Yioura island – Greece: Mylona (2011); Powell (2011); Maroulas on Kythnos island – Greece: Mylona (2010); Cape Andreas-Kastros – Cyprus: Desse and Desse-Berset (1994); Vela Spila – Croatia: Rainsford et al. (2014). Western Mediterranean, Sicily: Grotta del Uzzo: Mannino et al. (2007).

  4. This short review only includes evidence from coastal Mediterranean sites. Contemporary evidence from inland Anatolian sites is excluded. Also cases with unclear taphonomic or depositional circumstances are excluded.

  5. For the likelihood of the use of salt in fish processing in prehistoric Egypt see Curtis (2001: 174–175).

  6. In several of these cases it is not possible to discern whether the fish are of a Mediterranean or a Red Sea origin.

  7. On written evidence Botte (2009: 53–60), Curtis (1991: esp. 6–7), Garcia-Vargas and Ferrer-Albelda (2012); on the earlier archaeological evidence for fish processing indicatively Çakırlar et al. (2016); Curtis (1991: 47–48); Morales-Muñiz and Roselló-Izquierdo (2012); Muñoz-Vicente et al. (1988: 490–496); Trakadas (2005: 46–47, 2018); for the central Mediterranean Botte (2009: 73–82, 2016); for north Africa: Trakadas (2015); for the Black Sea: Højte (2005); Bekker-Nielsen (2016).

  8. Written sources from various regions along the coasts of eastern Mediterranean, besides the Aegean Sea, complement our current knowledge on the consumption of processed fish, imported or produced locally, in these areas (see Weingarten this volume; Χουλιάρα - Ραΐου 2003; Berdowski 2008).

  9. The term “industrial” is used in this discussion on fish processing in a pre-industrial era in a conventional manner, following the rationale presented by Marzano (2013). It refers to “the production of salted fish and other fish by products for regional and interregional commercialization” (Marzano 2013: 301) without presuming particular standards in scale of production, number of employees etc.

  10. These cases, known mostly from written sources, are discussed and appraised in a number of publications; some take an optimistic view to their scale and regional significance (e.g. in Curtis 1991: 116–118, 129; Theodoropoulou 2014), while others are more reserved (e.g. Lytle 2006: 52–53, 2012: 24–36, 2016a, b, and this volume).

  11. This analogical perception of processing of fish other than tunas is a topic that requires further research.

  12. An instructive example of how physical variables affect the presence of bluefin tunas in the Gulf of Lyon has been published by Royer et al. 2004.

  13. Discussion of a similar phenomenon on the Italian coasts (Marzano 2007) has led to some insights that are shared by the present author and are presented in detail here, with reference to the Aegean context.

  14. The problem of retrieval biases and the visibility of the fish record is shared by other areas around the Mediterranean (e.g. Morales-Muñiz and Roselló-Izquierdo 2016: 31–33; Zohar and Belmaker 2005) and the benefits of meticulous sieving or water floatation in the research on fish processing are clearly demonstrated in some recent comprehensive excavation programs (e.g. Bernal-Casasola 2016: esp. 193).

  15. In recent years this situation is changing with remarkable results (Post 2017; MacKinnon 2018).

  16. For the complementarity of fish salting, purple dye production and salt production see Lowe this volume; Ponsich and Tarradell 1965: 102; Curtis 1991: 65.

  17. The so called “fish tanks” are large vats that were used in antiquity either to keep fish alive after their capture or to breed fish in (Higginbotham 1997). Their sizes along with certain structural features, such as the presence of channels that permit the circulation of sea water in the tank (and grills that prevent fish from escaping) are used as identification markers. These set the coastal rock-cut fish tanks apart from similarly shaped features such as the fish salting vats.

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    Dimitra Mylona

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Mylona, D. Fish Processing in the Mediterranean: Varying Traditions, Technologies and Scales of Production with Particular Reference to the Eastern Mediterranean. J Mari Arch 13, 419–436 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9217-z

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