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.

中文翻译：

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地中海的鱼类加工：不同的传统、技术和生产规模，特别是东地中海

对古代地中海沿岸海洋资源加工的研究揭示了一幅不平衡的图景。西部鱼类和海产品系统加工的考古证据丰富多样。在这里，咸鱼和鱼酱的生产似乎是许多地方促进经济增长的重要因素。然而，在地中海东部，海洋资源加工的考古证据很少见，而且往往是间接的。考古记录中几乎没有大型加工厂，对鱼类和贝类的遗骸或其他与鱼类保存和商业有关的物质证据的研究也很少。然而关于这个问题的书面证据比比皆是，而是强调消费和商业，而不是生产。本文描述了这种不平衡代表性的证据并探讨了可能的原因，以试图评估整个地中海地区海洋资源加工的实际重要性。讨论的问题是跨空间和跨时间的鱼类加工重点转移、考古研究议程和方法、资源可用性和丰度，最后是规模和可见性问题。