‘Dark Age Economics’ revisited: the English fish bone evidence AD 600-1600

Abstract

When did the market economy come to Europe? Fish might seem an unlikely commodity to throw light on the matter, but the authors use fish bones from English sites to offer a vivid account of the rise and rise of the market as a factor in European development from the late tenth century.

Catch Per Unit Research Effort: Sampling Intensity, Chronological Uncertainty, and the Onset of Marine Fish Consumption in Historic London

“…Having been rare since the onset of the Neolithic (c.4000 cal BC), marine fish taxa suddenly reappear in the English archaeological record in significant numbers from the start of the 11th century AD, often making up more than half of identified fish specimens in sieved assemblages from inland sites (Barrett et al 2004a;2004b). In the first instance this was primarily an urban phenomenon, with percentages at rural sites increasing more gradually over the following centuries.…”

“…This distinction is complicated by the presence of catadromous/anadromous and estuarine species, but taxa have been grouped here following the original Fish Event Horizon papers (Barrett et al 2004a(Barrett et al , 2004b: eel, salmon, and other taxa that potentially migrate between fresh and saltwater are included in 'freshwater/diadromous', along with flounder and indeterminate right-sided flatfish that might have been caught in estuarine waters. Based upon total numbers of fish remains (Figure 5A, B), the pattern accords quite clearly with the Fish Event Horizon model: the early medieval (seventh-eighth C) peak consists almost exclusively of freshwater/diadromous fish, while the 11th to 12th-century peak also includes a substantial number of remains from definitively marine taxa.…”

“…A key development in this context is the dramatic shift towards marine -and apparently away from freshwaterresources that occurred in England around the start of the 11th century AD, particularly at urban settlements. This 'Fish Event Horizon' marks a significant change in the resource bases of medieval towns, and represents the ultimate origin of modern commercial marine fisheries in the North Sea and beyond (Barrett et al 2004a;2004b). This paper discusses two major challenges in urban ecofactual synthesis: chronological uncertainty and variable research intensity.…”

Fish commoditization and the historical origins of catching fish for profit

“…The first reported declines in fish abundance from overfishing and of fishing fleets having to travel further to obtain fish supplies (spatial serial depletion) are found in this Roman period during the 1 st Century AD (Juvenal, Satire 5: 92-96, Braund 2004 (Hodges 1982). A dramatic shift from local freshwater fish to herring and air-dried cod from Norway from the 11 th Century onwards has been interpreted as a response to overfishing of local freshwater fish (Barrett et al 2004a). Nevertheless, evidence shows dried Scandinavian cod joined herring as an important traded commodity from this period, with no reports of cod shortages (Barrett et al 2008).…”

“…Figure 2 illustrates the major events in the environmental history of the North Sea herring fishery over the last 900 years. The herring fishery (and a transition to greater harvesting of marine fish, Barrett et al 2004a) dates back at least to the Saxon invasion of England (Alward 1932), and possibly to Roman times (see above). Worries about the consequences of heavy fishing encouraged Edward III in 1357 to pass a law regulating the expanding East Anglian herring fishery in England.…”