Fishbone artefacts from the Samrong Sen site, Cambodia, cast new light on Bronze Age networking between inland and coastal communities

Boulanger, C.; Puaud, Simon; Ly, Vanna; Glémarec, Laurence; Sophady, Heng; Forestier, Hubert

doi:10.1002/oa.2922

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…In both Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, fishing (hunter-gathering) and farming are sometimes seen as opposing economic strategies in the Neolithic and Bronze (Metal) Age and there is little discussion of how the two strategies might have inter-related or been combined. Two shark vertebrae beads from inland Samrong Sen, Cambodia, confirm the existence of trading networks with the coast in the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age (Boulanger et al 2021). The extent to which (preserved) fish were traded at this time remains unknown.…”

Section: Southeast Asiamentioning

confidence: 85%

Bronze Fish

Hudson

Fernández

2023

Old World J. Anc. Afr. Eurasia

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The Bronze Age was a time of pivotal economic change when new long-distance trading networks became associated with a macro-regional division of labour and decentralised political complexity. These developments occurred against the background of a shifting mosaic of subsistence patterns, which included the east-west exchange of crops across Eurasia and (in some areas) greater use of secondary products. As Bronze Age economies became more specialised and diverse, it might be assumed that there was also an increased emphasis on the procurement and trade of fish and other marine resources. However, archaeological analyses of such resources are limited in contrast to land-based subsistence patterns and many questions remain. This essay aims to build a broad interpretive framework for analysing the role of marine resources in the Bronze Age. Our provisional results find that an increased emphasis on specialist systems of agropastoralism reduced the use of marine resources in many parts of Eurasia during this period. However, evidence from Japan and the eastern Mediterranean suggests that, at least in some regions, marine resources became commodities traded over long-distances by the late Bronze Age, though this requires further quantification. Island Southeast Asia displays a different pattern from other regions considered here in a greater continuity of marine resource use from the Neolithic into the historic era, perhaps due to a lower reliance on agropastoralism.

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Section: Southeast Asiamentioning

confidence: 85%

Bronze Fish

Hudson

Fernández

2023

Old World J. Anc. Afr. Eurasia

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“…While shark vertebrae centra are commonly found and usually well preserved, shark teeth are rarely recovered, even when the soil is carefully sieved (Table 1 and references therein). Interestingly, previous studies (Cione and Bonomo, 2003;Betts et al, 2012;Charpentier et al, 2020) determined that fossil shark teeth recovered from archaeological contexts have been employed as ornaments and tools, while shark vertebrae centra are only rarely identified as jewelry (Boulanger et al, 2020) and are usually interpreted as food remnants.…”

Section: Fish As a Commoditymentioning

confidence: 99%

Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analyses Reveal Late Cretaceous Shark Teeth in Iron Age Strata in the Southern Levant

et al. 2020

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Skeletal remains in archaeological strata are often assumed to be of similar ages. Here we show that combined Sr and O isotope analyses can serve as a powerful tool for assessing fish provenance and even for identifying fossil fish teeth in archaeological contexts. For this purpose, we established a reference Sr and O isotope dataset of extant fish teeth from major water bodies in the Southern Levant. Fossil shark teeth were identified within Iron Age cultural layers dating to 8–9th century BCE in the City of David, Jerusalem, although the reason for their presence remains unclear. Their enameloid 87Sr/86Sr and δ18OPO4 values [0.7075 ± 0.0001 (1 SD, n = 7) and 19.6 ± 0.9‰ (1 SD, n = 6), respectively], are both much lower than values typical for modern marine sharks from the Mediterranean Sea [0.7092 and 22.5–24.6‰ (n = 2), respectively]. The sharks’ 87Sr/86Sr are also lower than those of rain- and groundwater as well as the main soil types in central Israel (≥0.7079). This indicates that these fossil sharks incorporated Sr (87Sr/86Sr ≈ 0.7075) from a marine habitat with values typical for Late Cretaceous seawater. This scenario is in line with the low shark enameloid δ18OPO4 values reflecting tooth formation in the warm tropical seawater of the Tethys Ocean. Age estimates using 87Sr/86Sr stratigraphy place these fossil shark teeth at around 80-million-years-old. This was further supported by their taxonomy and the high dentine apatite crystallinity, low organic carbon, high U and Nd contents, characteristics that are typical for fossil specimens, and different from those of archaeological Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) teeth from the same cultural layers and another Chalcolithic site (Gilat). Chalcolithic and Iron Age seabream enameloid has seawater-like 87Sr/86Sr of 0.7091 ± 0.0001 (1 SD, n = 6), as expected for modern marine fish. Fossil shark and archaeological Gilthead seabream teeth both preserve original, distinct enameloid 87Sr/86Sr and δ18OPO4 signatures reflecting their different aquatic habitats. Fifty percent of the analysed Gilthead seabream teeth derive from hypersaline seawater, indicating that these seabreams were exported from the hypersaline Bardawil Lagoon in Sinai (Egypt) to the Southern Levant since the Iron Age period and possibly even earlier.

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Fishbone artefacts from the Samrong Sen site, Cambodia, cast new light on Bronze Age networking between inland and coastal communities

Cited by 2 publications

References 28 publications

Bronze Fish

Bronze Fish

Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analyses Reveal Late Cretaceous Shark Teeth in Iron Age Strata in the Southern Levant

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