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To Salt or Not to Salt: A Review of Evidence for Processed Marine Products and Local Traditions in the Aegean Through Time

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Abstract

This article addresses the question of the production of locally processed and imported marine products in the Aegean through time, utilising zooarchaeological evidence combined with various other records when available. What is clear from this overview is that Aegean populations were familiar with processing techniques from as early as the Mesolithic period. Despite evidence for more intensive exploitation and preservation of marine resources at specific times and in specific areas, aimed at maximising the returns from seasonally abundant catches, in general preserved marine products seem to have been of limited significance to Aegean communities and they probably never constituted a significant part of the Aegean diet.

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Notes

  1. Absence of branchial apparatus and pectoral girdle in Belcher 1994; of dorsal spine and cranial bones in Stewart and Gifford-Gonzáles 1994; Desse and Desse-Berset 1995, 2000; of cranial bones and pectoral girdle in Barrett 1997; of branchial apparatus and some cranial bones in Zohar and Cooke 1997; Zohar et al. 2001; of the branchial and part of the vertebral column except for the caudal vertebrae in Van Neer and Pieters 1997; of the cranial bones and the whole vertebral column with the exception of the urostyle in Hoffman et al. 2000; of the cranial bones, vertebral column and fins in El Mahi 2000.

  2. Theodoropoulou 2007a: v. 2, 212–229: at the sites of Dispilio the absence of caudal parts of bigger cyprinids and catfish and absence of head and branchial arches of smaller cyprinids; Theodoropoulou 2007a: v. 2, 171–172: at Dimitra beheaded pikes and breams, small cyprinids, eels and mullets; cf. the citations on the excellence of Strymonian eels, Ath Deipnosoph. 7.298a, 7.300c.

  3. Partly thanks to the natural marsh salt-pans present on the island of Thasos.

  4. Other cases of transport of C. gariepinus include the late-8th century BC and Archaic burials at Salamis, Cyprus, and the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) from Late Bronze Age and Roman contexts at Hala Sultan Tekke in southern Cyprus (Rose 1994: 223–224, 462–473). The same author provides further examples of short- or longer distance trade of marine fish in Asia Minor or of freshwater fish in Cyprus (Reese et al. 2000).

  5. For a discussion about potential marine fish trade at the Neolithic inland lacustrine site of Dispilio, Theodoropoulou 2007a: v. 1, 462; on the trade of fish surplus in the Bronze Age, Rose 1994: 448–456.

  6. For the significance of vats identified as fish tanks, see e.g. Davaras 1974; Δαβάρας 1975; Hood and Leatham 1958–9; Pirazzoli 1987; Shaw 1978; for their possible relevance in a discussion of fish processing in the Aegean, see Mylona 2018.

  7. A similar discussion has been developed by Marzano (2007) regarding the dearth of data related to fish processing in Italy before the Roman period.

  8. Curtis (1991: 117–118, 139) believes that the following excerpts document the existence of such specialised containers on the islands of Thasos and Skiathos, both in northern Aegean: ταρίχου ὡραίων ἀπολέκτων πεπονηκός Θάσιον κεράμιον, PSI V.53544-45 and κυβίων πεπονηκός Πεπαρήθιον κεράμιον, PSI V.53537. Lytle refutes this interpretation (see 2018).

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Acknowledgements

This paper was produced following an invitation by the organisers of the conference to provide a review of the existing evidence of processed marine products in the Aegean area, for which I am grateful. Specific thanks are addressed to Dimitra Mylona and Tania Panagou for sharing relevant work and for interesting discussions on the topic. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

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Theodoropoulou, T. To Salt or Not to Salt: A Review of Evidence for Processed Marine Products and Local Traditions in the Aegean Through Time. J Mari Arch 13, 389–406 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9216-0

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