Roman fishing and fish processing

In Luke 5:1-11, the Bible describes a miraculous event. Peter and his fishing partners caught so many fish that both of their boats started to sink. 1 We wanted to know the economic impact to Peter and his partners from this catch of fish. Using the dimensions of a boat from approximately the same time and location, we estimate that a total of 62,696 pounds of fish filled the two boats. A wage and commodity price law from 301 AD indicates this gave each of the four fishing partners 24.5-36.4 years' salary at General Laborer rates, or 12.1-18.2 years at the skilled labor rates, depending on the fish's quality. With modern financial advice saying one needs 25 years' expenses in savings to live entirely from the interest, this put Peter and his partners in good stead to leave the fishing business and work for God full time. Introduction and Background: While preparing study guides for the book of Luke, 2 we came to the story of Peter letting Jesus use his boat to preach a sermon to the people on the shores of Lake Gennesaret, another name for the Sea of Galilee 3. After He was finished using the boat, Jesus asked Peter to go back out into the lake, and let down his nets for a draw of fish. Peter decided to do it, and pulled in a record catch. He called his fishing partners over to help him, and the Bible says that both the boats were starting to sink because of the significant number of fish. After this large catch of fish, Peter and his partners decided to leave the fishing profession, and be full-time disciples.

The human settlement of the Pelagie Islands is marked by discontinuity from the prehistory to the modern era.
The location of the islands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea gives them a strategic relevance as a landing point along the maritime trading routes but at the same time both the geographic isolation and the exiguity of the resources severely interfere with a durable settlement.
Every time that the archaeological research confirmed the human presence on the islands, it can be always connected to the broader events affecting more generally the Mediterranean basin. So it is in the prehistory, when the islands are involved in the Mediterranean overseas trade earlier for obsidian and later for metal supply or during the Roman Empire, when the marine resources were exploited on large scale, or even in the Late Antiquity when a whole community in disagreement with the central power for religion and politics exiled itself to the border of the Vandalic Reign.

Comparison of the Galilean fishing industry with that of the Graeco-Egyptian industry as it is reflected in numerous documentary papyri offers several important conclusions about the organization and profitability of fishing and the degree to which fishermen were embedded in other economic networks First, the requirements of fishing meant that fishermen were necessarily connected with multiple “upstream” suppliers of materials essential to fishing and also to intensive supervision and surveillance of landlords and tax officials. Second, some data suggests that fishermen likely enjoyed a level of income well above subsistence. Third, the fishing industry had multiplex connections with other social and economic sectors. It is perhaps because of the instrumental role that fishermen, tax supervisors, and their network connectivity played in the dissemination of the early Christ cult that of the early named members of Jesus’ entourage, it is only fishermen and tax collectors who are identified specifically in relation to their trade.

The harbor of Magdala/Taricheae, uncovered during the 2007–2011 Magdala Project archaeological campaigns, represents the only stonework-landing place stratigraphically excavated, along the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) in Israel.
The Magdala harbor has three phases of use: late Hellenistic (2nd–1st centuries B.C.), Early–Middle Roman (1st–3rd century A.D.) and Byzantine (6th–7th centuries A.D.). These phases are consistent with the development of the urban settlement, which is also currently being investigated, also through a geological approach.
Tarichaee and its administrative district were founded under the Hasmoneans and was the main urban site of the region, prior to the establishment of Tiberias as the capital. The prominence of the city and its principal economic activity, based on transformation and export of fish – hence the name Taricheae –, are well documented by the historical sources.
The first harbor consists of a quadriporticus and a Hasmonean tower, both having two sides facing the lake, and with mooring stones. The second has an inner basin, a landing place provided of 4 mooring stones in situ and a flagged platea connected with the city entrance.
The Byzantine–Islamic anchorage, described in the 70’s–90’s, is no longer visible. However, it served the fortified monastery built to aid the Christian pilgrims who visited the sanctuary dedicate to Mary Magdalene. The other 30 landing places around the lake are set ca. 3 m lower than the Hellenistic-Roman harbors of Magdala. For this reason, the analysis takes into account also the geological and environmental data, as well as the latest archaeological discoveries on the lakeshores.
This contribution intends to present the lacustrine harbor of Magdala/Taricheae, as the result of the on-going Magdala Project excavations. The architecture of the harbor will be analyzed with a regional-based approach, taking into account the latest archaeological data from the ancient sites on the shores of the Lake of Galilee, as well as the main geological and environmental research achievements. The state of the archaeological investigations in the area and the historical frame of the city will be briefly provided. The examination of the urban context will help to better understand the chronological phases of the harbor remains.

Between 1999 and 2003 the University of Southampton conducted excavations on the site of Quseir al-Qadim (western shores of the Red Sea), a place that had not been examined since the excavations by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ended in 1982. The new work was prompted by the discovery that the site of Quseir al-Qadim was, in all probability, not that of the minor port of Leucos Limen, as had been previously thought, but none other than Myos Hormos. This port, together with its sister harbour Berenike, articulated Rome’s trade with India and the East. This second volume concentrates on the finds made during the excavation period and the volume concludes with an overview of what we now know of the nature and function of the ports of Myos Hormos and Quseir al-Qadim and a discussion of outstanding problems which can only be resolved by further work.
This volume presents and discusses the large volume of finds from the excavations at the Red Sea port of Myos Hormos, a major node in Rome's trade with the east. The many specialist chapters focus on ceramics, metal artefacts, glass, wooden artefacts, ship fittings, finds related to fishing, plant remains, faunal remains, basketry and some written material. A seperate volume, however will cover the pottery, textiles, palaeobotany, ostraca and paper documents.

The fishing technology of the Classical world has so far received little systematic attention, neither from historians nor from archaeologists. In this volume, the reader will find a series of studies offering a wide range of approaches to the topic of ancient fishing technology, based on detailed studies of the available literary, archaeological, pictorial and icthyological evidence as well as on diachronic comparisons with fishing techniques of the Early Medieval and Modern periods. The articles included in the present volume are based on the authors' presentations at an international, interdisciplinary workshop in Cádiz, covering the history of fishing from Pre-history to the present day, with a special emphasis on the Roman period.

Las infraestructuras y procesos económicos ligados a la industria conservera del territorio de Gadir/Gades en la Antigüedad han sido profusamente estudiados tanto desde la perspectiva histórica como arqueológica desde hace décadas, atendiendo a múltiples parámetros y a las implicaciones de este sector como uno de los pilares fundamentales de desarrollo y proyección exterior de la ciudad en época púnica, republicana e imperial. La evolución de esta floreciente industria en diversas vertientes, desde su plasmación material en instalaciones, hasta los contenedores de almacenaje y transporte, ha sido también un argumento ampliamente abordado en los últimos tiempos, sobre la base de un creciente corpus de hallazgos arqueológicos, que ha permitido caracterizar la transformación de edificios, artes de pesca, tipos de capturas, centros de producción cerámica, tipología anfórica, etc. Sin duda, este estado de la cuestión ha situado a la bahía de Cádiz como referente historiográfico a escala regional y mediterránea para estas cuestiones. Frente a ello es, por tanto, sorprendente la escasa curiosidad suscitada entre los investigadores por el estudio sistemático de otros aspectos clave, a pesar de ser ingredientes imprescindibles del paisaje industrial del área. Es el caso de la tecnología empleada en la construcción de las infraestructuras implicadas, tales como superficies y piletas impermeabilizadas, revestimientos de mortero de cal, en buena medida los habitualmente conocidos en la bibliografía como de opus signinum. En este trabajo se propone una primera aproximación arqueológica –con el auxilio también de la zooarqueología y la arqueometría- a una selección de estos morteros con base de cal, tomada en puntos del entorno de la Bahía de Cádiz. Su peculiaridad estriba en la incorporación de conchas, además de cerámica, como principal agregado.

The aim of this paper is to present the analysis of a selection of archaeological materials included in the arqua collection. The items examined are related to fishing activities and have been found in submarine contexts off the coast of Murcia. This analysis has been carried out within the framework of my doctoral studies, currently in progress and through which I intend to compile the evidence for fishing activities in Hispania. This work is the first study with these characteristics in the area, and aims at completing the already available information concerning the coast of the Tarraconensis.

Myos Hormos (modern Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt) was well known to Greek and Roman geographers for its role in the Indian Ocean trade from the late first century BC to third century AD (Peacock & Blue 2006). Myos Hormos was on a stretch of western Red Sea coast inhabited by the Ichthyophagi Arabaegypti (Ptolemy, Geogr. 4.5), renowned for their fishing economy, where 'Poseidon had assumed the function of Demeter' (see below). A combination of excellent preservation and extensive archaeological research in the region has enabled a thorough study of fishing on the Red Sea during this period.The artefacts preserved include weights, floats, nets and hooks that supply the main body of evidence for this paper, though historical, ethnographic and faunal data help illustrate how the fishing equipment was used (Wendrich & Van Neer 1994). Faunal (Van Neer et al. 2004) and epigraphic (Cuvigny, 2003b) data have also greatly increased our understanding of fishing methods and marketing in
the Red Sea region during the Roman period. Fish (depending upon species) was marketed fresh, salted, dried, pickled, as sauce (fermentation) or smoked. In conclusion the archaeological evidence suggests there was a significant demand for fish products in the region that fuelled a diverse fishing industry at Myos Hormos (Thomas 2007).

This paper will discuss the fishing equipment from Myos Hormos, and other contemporaneous finds from the Red Sea region. The combination of fishing artefacts complemented by epigraphic, historical, faunal and ethnographic data has provided us with a detailed insight into fishing gear, techniques, and the wider fishing industry in the Red Sea region during the first three centuries AD. This paper will also will discuss production,marketing and very briefly the social importance of this to the Red Sea port communities.

Abstract
Western Iberia in the VIth century: on a Justinianus I pentanummium found at the
Governors’ House of Torre de Belém fish production unit (Lisbon, Portugal)
A Justianus I pentanummium minted at Constantinople (538-542) was found in
abandonment context of a salted fish production centre at Torre de Belém Governor’s
House, Lisbon. Trying to understand the meaning of such a found in the westernmost
part of the Iberian Peninsula was done an inventory of some other late oriental
artefacts in this region (Phocean red slip ware, the so called Hayes Late Roman C
ware, late oriental amphorae and Byzantine exaguia).
The distribution of those artefacts shows, in one hand, the contact continuity between
the Eastern Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula’s west, and in the other hand a
consistent pattern of interaction between the towns and also between them and their
rural territories, as it happens in Late Roman period. Despite the still scarce
information, it seems probable the continuity of marine resources exploitation, but
surely not in the fabric excavated at Torre de Belém Governor’s House. The presence
of a Byzantine coin in the westernmost part of Iberian Peninsula should be seen as a
part of this economic dynamics.

According to Polybius (IV, 38), goods exported from the Black Sea included salted fish, suggesting that fishing played an important role in the colonisation process along the Pontic shores, possibly from a very early date (Dupont 2007). However, in addition to the question of the containers used for this trade, raised by J. Lund (2005) and V. Gabrielsen (2005), there is also the issue of eventual discrepancies between sources and archaeological data. Perhaps due to the hasardous preservation of archaeological structures, or simply to a geographic imbalance in research, studies have until now revealed evidence of fish drying and salting mainly in the northern Pontic region, during a period that came after the testimony of Polybius.

Nonetheless, careful analysis of ancient sources reveals the full range of complex factors involved in fishing in a region where species were zoned and subject to seasonal migration. A dichotomy between northern and southern Black Sea coasts, in addition to the distinctive characteristics of the deltas punctuating the north and northwest shores, may have had an impact on the resources produced, as enlightened by the Franco-Romanian archaeological mission around Orgame at the settlements of the Golovita lagoon (Baralis et al. 2017). Varied local resources, such as highly migratory species, may indeed explain different fishing management strategies, which in turn would have shaped local and regional exchange networks, including those stretching over greater distances to connect Pontic colonies with the Aegean world.

Some fifteen years after the very promising symposium held at the University of Aarhus (2003), it is time to re-examine this key issue for the understanding of the colonial process in the Pontic region, particularly in light of the recent synthesis by T. Bekker-Nielsen (2016) and the latest studies carried out in the northern Black Sea region and Danube delta. The goal of this symposium is to shed light on the latest data, with a special focus on regional specificities resulting from the characteristics of species exploited within the perimeters of each site, in accordance with the aims of ichthyofaunal studies. Such research does sometimes produce results that contradict textual and epigraphic data, opening up new avenues for the analysis of local networks, where the participation of local populations has not always been taken into account (Gavriljuk 2005). In the framework of the research programme on the Greek colonisation in the Black Sea area (Musée du Louvre -Centre Camille Jullian, CNRS-Aix-Marseille University), we would like to bring together ichthyofaunal analyses, studies or reinterpretation of production structures and publication of archaeological material linked to fish exploitation and trade, all too often neglected and more often than not left unpublished. Through these various contributions, we wish to enrich the debate around fish-related trade and its potential role in Greek colonial process in the Black Sea and the Straights.

The metaphor is a hallmark of Classical Hebrew poetry. Some metaphors, such as “Yhwh is king” or “Yhwh is warrior,” play a foundational role. The same does not hold for metaphors from the fishing industry. Because they had access to only two major freshwater sources, archaeological research demonstrates that this industry did not play a major socioeconomic role in ancient Israel. Fishing has nevertheless made a substantial contribution to prophetic and wisdom literature. All metaphors manifest reality, but given the physical circumstances of a largely agrarian, nonmarine society, what does the sustained presentation of fishing metaphors in the Hebrew Bible communicate?

Examining the use of fishing images in the Hebrew Bible is a formidable task that demands an open mind and a capacity to mine the gamut of contemporaneous evidence. In Fishers of Fish and Fishers of Men, Tyler Yoder presents the first literary study devoted to the fishing images used in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as in the Mesopotamian textual records. This calls for a penetrating look into cultural contact with Israel’s neighbors to the east (Mesopotamia) and southwest (Egypt). Though nearly all fishing metaphors in the Hebrew Bible carry overt royal or divine connotations that mirror uses well-attested in Mesopotamian literature, this comparative analysis remains a largely untapped area of research. In this study of the diverse literary qualities of fishing images, Yoder offers a holistic understanding of how one integral component of ancient Near Eastern society affected the whole, bringing together the assemblage of disparate materials related to this field of study to enable scholars to integrate these data into related research and move the conversation forward.