This paper explores the early stages in the history of fishing in the Aegean Sea in Greece, and highlights its formative phases and its specific characteristics in different points in time. This is testified by various physical remains, such as fish bones, fishing tools, and representations in art, which are gathered in the course of archaeological research. The aquatic resources in the Aegean Sea have been exploited and managed for millennia by communities that lived near the water and often made a living from it. The earliest evidence for a systematic, intensive exploitation of marine resources in the Aegean Sea dates to the Mesolithic, eleven millennia ago. In the Neolithic period, the adoption of a sedentary, agro-pastoral way of life led to a reduction in the intensity of fishing and shellfish gathering. Its importance as an economic resource remained high only in certain regions of rich, eutrophic waters. In the Bronze Age, an era of social complexity and centralized economy, the exploitation of aquatic, mostly marine, resources became a complex, multi-faceted activity which involved subsistence, industry and ideology. The range of preferred fish and invertebrate species, the fishing technology, and the processing of fish and shellfish in order to produce elaborate foods or prestige items are all traceable aspects of the complex relationship between humans and the aquatic resources throughout the prehistory of fishing and shellfish gathering in the Aegean area. The broadening of collaboration between archaeology and physical sciences offers new means to explore these issues in a more thorough and nuanced manner.
Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus; BFT) is a large (up to 3.3 m in length) pelagic predator which has been exploited throughout the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean since prehistoric times, as attested by its archeological remains. One key insight derivable from these remains is body size, which can indicate past fishing abilities, the impact of fishing, and past migration behavior. Despite this, there exists no reliable method to estimate the size of BFT found in archeological sites. Here, 13 modern Thunnus spp. skeletons were studied to provide power regression equations that estimate body length from vertebra dimensions. In modern specimens, the majority of BFT vertebrae can be differentiated by their morphological features, and thus, individual regression equations can be applied for each rank (position in vertebral column). In an archeological context, poor preservation may limit one's ability to identify rank; hence, "types" of vertebrae were defined, which enable length estimates when rank cannot be determined. At least one vertebra dimension, height, width, or length correlated highly with body length when vertebrae were ranked (R 2 > 0.97) or identified to types (R 2 > 0.98). Whether using rank or type, length estimates appear accurate to approximately ±10%. Finally, the method was applied to a sample of Roman-era BFT vertebrae to demonstrate its potential. It is acknowledged that further studies with larger sample sizes would provide more precision in BFT length estimates.
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