Abstract
This paper looks at the ancient Jewish talmudic literature (4th-7th centuries CE) for information about fish and fish products in the ancient world and compares it with information from classical sources and from archaeology. Analysis of the texts show that information about food, and particularly fish and fish products, can be derived from texts originally written as religious regulations and moral narratives. Talmudic textual evidence, backed up by parallel archaeological finds, documents long-distance transport of preserved fish, including what is identified as Nile perch from Egypt and mackerel from Spain. Parallel papyrological evidence testifies to the import of the parrot wrasse. Graeco-Roman allec, a sauce made of macerated tiny fish, is identified by the Palestinian Talmud with tarit terufah, made of tiny chopped fish, and afitz, cf Greek afye, immature fish, often cooked as such. Remains of allec have been found archaeologically in Israel/Palestine. The Palestinian Talmud identifies tarit[a] with tzaḥana, one of a trio of strong-smelling Babylonian fish-dishes eaten by the poor: the others are gildana and harsana. The varied material on these discussed here adds to our knowledge of ancient salted and/or fermented fish-dishes. The identification of tzaḥana with 9th-to-10th century ṣaḥna from Baghdad of the Caliphs and 14th-century Cairo appears very likely. Thus tarit/tzaḥana/ṣaḥna appears to have been not very appetising processed fish food for the poor in Roman Palestine, Jewish Babylonia, Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphs and Mamluk Egypt, and it may be identified with allec. The talmudic literature also discusses reasons for failure of the preservation processes, as well as of potentially lethal effects of insufficient preservation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The Mishnah and Tosefta citations in this paper follow the standard form: the name of the work, the name of the tractate (section), the chapter and its subdivision; for example, Mishnah (= M) Nedarim vi, 3 or Tosefta (=Tos) Avodah Zarah ii, 6. The Talmuds are cited by the work, tractate and page number; for example, Babylonian Talmud (=BT) Eruvin 109b. Midrashim are cited by name, chapter and section; for example Midrash (=Mid) Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana 13,2. As the Talmuds are commentaries on the Mishnah (and sometimes on the Tosefta), Babylonian Talmud tractate Avodah Zarah, for example, is a commentary on Mishnah tractate Avodah Zarah and sometimes on Tosefta tractate Avodah Zarah.
This refers to Graeco-Roman literature in general. When it comes to actual cookery books, there is considerable debate whether these were written for actual cooks or to be read only in an academic fashion (Grocock and Grainger 2006; contra Nadeau 2015). I am grateful to Dimitra Mylona for this point.
There is also a manuscript reading iltit preferred by Sperber (1976), who suggests that it refers to 'Eilati' fish, from the Red Sea port of Eilat. However very little Red Sea fish has been found in archaeological contexts in Israel/Palestine.
Strabo also notes that the latos was worshipped at the city of Latopolis (Esne) on the Nile.
The text reads: iltot ve-dag ha-Mitzri where the letter vav (ve) could either be the conjunction 'and', or an explanatory 'vav ha-hesber' meaning 'which are;' cf Feliks (2001) with his commentary on MShevi'it (ix, 2) pp. 235–239 (in Hebrew).
'R. Abbahu announced in Caesarea that fish entrails and fish roe may be purchased from anyone since the presumption is that they only come from Pelusium and Aspamia.'
A 5th or 6th century papyrus, POxy 1924, from Oxyrhynchos in Egypt mentions empty jars from Gaza and Ascalon, as well as a jar with pickled fish. Amphorae originally containing olive oil and wine have been found re-used for pickled fish, fish-sauce etc. (Beltrame et al. 2011).
Aspamia can also refer to Apamea in Syria, but this city was on a large freshwater lake where there would not have been any mackerel.
Kraemer (1958) dates this papyrus to ‘probably before 605 CE’.
Even today rabbis in charge of kosher labeling in Israel insist on a piece of scaly skin being left on imported fish, which together with its fins demonstrates that this was a fish with fins and scales and hence a kosher variety. It may not be anachronistic to suggest that the head bones served a similar function in antiquity.
Khalkit or khalbit is a small fish discussed below.
Dalby (2003) sv shad; aphye.
'I will remove far off from you the northern one (= locusts) and will drive him into a barren and desolate land, with its face towards the Eastern (= Dead) Sea…and his foulness shall come up and his ill savour shall ascend’.
Recipes for ṣaḥna: (Perry 2001: 395, 405, 408–9). In the more refined versions minced fish is mixed with a variety of spices and seasonings such as salt, garlic, ginger, madder, spikenard, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, caraway, coriander, thyme, mint, pepper, cinnamon, saffron, sesame oil, mastic, dill, rosebuds, vinegar or lemon juice. This seasoned fish paste is then left to ripen.
MShabbat xxii 2 'Everything which comes in hot water on the eve of the Sabbath, you can soak in hot water on the Sabbath and everything which does not come in hot water from the Sabbath eve you rinse it in hot water, except for old salt food (maliaḥ), and little salt fish and kolias from Aspamia where rinsing them is the final stage of preparation’.
References
Beltrame C, Gaddi D, Parizzi S (2011) A presumed hydraulic apparatus for the transport of live fish found in the Wreck at Grado Italy. Int J Naut Archaeol 40(2):274–282
Bruschi T, Wilkens B (1996) Conserves de poisson à partir de quatre amphores romaines. Archaeofauna 5:165–169
Buckley, RP (ed and tr) (1999) The Book of the Islamic Market Inspector Nihāyat al-Rutba fi Ṭalab al-Ḥisba (the utmost authority in the pursuit of Ḥisba) by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Naṣr al-Shayzarī. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Cotton H, Lernau O, Goren Y (1996) Fish sauces from Herodian Masada. J Roman Archaeol 9:223–238
Curtis RI (1991) Garum and salsamenta: production and commerce in materia medica. Brill, Leiden
Curtis RI (2001) Ancient food technology. Brill, Leiden
Dalby A (2003) Food in the ancient world from A to Z. Routledge, London
FAO (=Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), Torry Research Station (2001) Torry Advisory Note no. 22 http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5902e/x5902e01.htm
Feliks Y (ed and com) (2001) Yerushalmi Shevi’it, vol II. Reuven Mas (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, pp 235–239
Freidenreich DM (2011) Foreigners and their food: constructing otherness in Jewish Christian and Islamic Law. University of California Press, Berkeley
Grocock C, Grainger S (2006) Apicius: a critical edition with introduction and English translation. Prospect Books, Totnes
Jastrow M (2005) Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and the Midrashic Literature. Pardes Publishing House, New York
Kraemer CJ (1958) Excavations at Nessana, vol 3. Non-Literary Papyri. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Lewicka PB (2011) Food and foodways of medieval Cairenes: aspects of life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean. Brill, Leiden
Löw I (1906) Aramäische Fischnamen. Alfred Töpelmann, Giessen
Mylona D (2003) Fishing in late antiquity: the case of Itanos, Crete. In: Kotzabopoulou E, Hamilakis Y, Halstead P, Gamble C, Elefanti P (eds) Zooarchaeology in Greece: recent advances. BSA Studies 9, British School at Athens, London, pp 103–110
Mylona D (2008) Eating fish in Greece from 500 B.C. to A.D. 700: A story of impoverished fishermen or lavish fish banquets? BAR International Series 1754, Archaeopress, Oxford
Nadeau R (2015) Cookery Books. In: Wilkins J, Nadeau R (eds) A companion to food in the ancient world. Wiley Blackwell, Malden, pp 53–58
Perry C (ed and tr) (2001) Kitab Waṣf al-At‘ima al-Mu‘tada, the description of familiar foods. In: Perry C (ed) Medieval Arab Cookery. Prospect Books, Totnes, pp 395, 405, 408–409
Pestman PW (1981) A guide to the Zenon archive. Brill, Leiden
Sokoloff M (1990) A dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine period. Bar Ilan University Press, Ramat Gan
Sperber D (1976) Objects of trade between Palestine and Egypt in Roman Times. J Econ Soc Hist Orient 19:113–137
Thomas R (2010) Fishing equipment from Myos Hormos and fishing techniques in the Red Sea in the Roman period. In: Bekker-Nielsen T, Bernal Casasola D (eds) Ancient nets and fishing gear: proceedings of the international workshop on nets and fishing gear in classical antiquity: a first approach. Cadiz, 15–17 Nov 2007. Aarhus University Press, Cadiz/Aarhus, pp 139–160
Van Neer W, Lernau O, Friedman R, Mumford G, Poblóme J, Waelkens M (2004) Fish remains from archaeological sites as indicators of former trade connections in the Eastern Mediterranean. Paléorient 30:101–148
al-Washshā Abū Ṭayyib, (9th-10th c. CE. facsimile:1965). Al-Muwashshā aw aẓ-Ẓarf wa-ẓ-Ẓurafā. Beirut
Weingarten S (2005) Mouldy bread and rotten fish: delicacies in the ancient world. Food Hist 3:61–72
Weingarten S (2018) Food in the context of first-century Galilee: The Mishnah and the so-called Jesus Diet. In: McWilliams M (ed) Proceedings of the Oxford symposium on food and cookery, 2017. Prospect Books, Totnes
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weingarten, S. Fish and Fish Products in Late Antique Palestine and Babylonia in Their Social and Geographical Contexts: Archaeology and the Talmudic Literature. J Mari Arch 13, 235–245 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9210-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9210-6