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Understanding the historical emergence and growth of long-range fisheries can provide fundamental insights into the timing of ecological impacts and the development of coastal communities during the last millennium. Whole-genome sequencing approaches can improve such understanding by determining the origin of archaeological fish specimens that may have been obtained from historic trade or distant water. Here, we used genome-wide data to individually infer the biological source of 37 ancient Atlantic cod specimens (ca 1050–1950 CE) from England and Spain. Our findings provide novel genetic evidence that eleventh- to twelfth-century specimens from London were predominantly obtained from nearby populations, while thirteenth- to fourteenth-century specimens were derived from distant sources. Our results further suggest that Icelandic cod was indeed exported to London earlier than previously reported. Our observations confirm the chronology and geography of the trans-Atlantic cod trade from Newfoundland to Spain starting by the early sixteenth century. Our findings demonstrate the utility of whole-genome sequencing and ancient DNA approaches to describe the globalization of marine fisheries and increase our understanding regarding the extent of the North Atlantic fish trade and long-range fisheries in medieval and early modern times.

Fish taphonomy from archaeological sites provides considerable useful information about human behaviours and environmental contexts as potential food remains or as natural occurrences. This article focuses on mechanical deformations of fish vertebrae and the potential information about predation, diachrony in the deposition of the remains, and time-averaging and reworking processes these provide. Experimental work using uniaxial compression on dry and water-soaked vertebrae from modern skeletons [Meagre (Argyrosomus regius, Asso 1801), European hake (Merluccius merluccius, L. 1758) and Pouting (Trisopterus luscus, L. 1758)] compared to modern digested fish vertebrae from a predator of extreme taphonomic modification (European otter, Lutra lutra) allowed us to assess key features to identify different processes and site formation agents. Our results are also compared with experimental assemblages modified by water and dry abiotic abrasion. These provide a baseline to understand the nature of the agents causing modifications to archaeological vertebrae from the Middle Holocene Argentinian sites of El Americano II and Barrio Las Dunas and the Magdalenian site of Santa Catalina (Basque Country, Spain). The experimental frame of reference allowed us to identify dry compression on Barrio Las Dunas and Santa Catalina assemblages and wet compression on El Americano II and Santa Catalina sites, improving our interpretation of the formation of those archaeological deposits and their fish assemblages. These data allow one to explore with a higher degree of confidence than has been hitherto possible how humans obtained, processed, and discarded fish in former times.

An experimental program of uniaxial compression forces on fresh and dry salmonid vertebrae of different sizes is presented to show what diagnostic features compression generates on these bones. The study found that diagnostic features exist, but their frequency often depends on size and the amount of fat that vertebrae contain when subjected to uniaxial compression. These signatures provide reference tools to assess formation processes of fish bone assemblages, whether archaeological or paleontological. The experimental data were later applied to a case study of a salmonid assemblage from the Late Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic site of Santa Catalina (Basque country, Spain), to assess the validity of a hypothesis postulating that prehistoric salmonid populations from the Cantabrian region were subjected to overexploitation and that this phenomenon brought about a decrease in the mean size of specimens before the onset of the Neolithic in the region.

This paper assesses the presence and abundance of the limpets from the Genus Patella that were retrieved on a site from the Iberian Levant. The changes in the frequencies and sizes of these species in four occupation stages that last from the second millennium BCE to the beginning of the first millennium CE hint at harvesting pressures on the part of humans whose details will require a more precise determination of archaeological context than has been possible here., Se valora la presencia y abundancias de las lapas del género Patella recuperadas en un yacimiento del Levante español. La evaluación de frecuencias y tallas cambiantes en cuatro momentos culturales que discurren desde el segundo milenio a.C. al inicio del primer milenio d.C apuntan a fenómenos de predo-presión mariscadora cuyas características, sugerentes, habrán de ser necesariamente abordadas en el marco de una contextualización más precisa de las muestras.

[ES] El registro pretérito de las náyades o almejas de agua dulce ibéricas continúa siendo muy pobre a pesar del auge de los análisis arqueomalacológicos en la Península durante la pasada década. Las náyades recuperadas en el yacimiento de Camino de Las Yeseras representan, por ello, una importante aportación que proporciona información sobre tres aspectos independientes: (i) el uso dado a estas náyades, que presumiblemente abarcaba tanto actividades utilitarias como rituales, (ii) la paleobiogeografía de estas especies y (iii) la calidad de las aguas en el entorno del yacimiento durante el Calcolítico. El estudio valora la presencia de los peces recuperados en Camino de las Yeseras desde la perspectiva de potenciales hospedadores de las larvas (gloquidios) de las náyades., [EN] The ancient record of the Iberian naiads is still poorly documented despite the development of archaeo-malacological research that has taken place over the past decade in the peninsula. e naiad remains retrieved at Camino de las Yeseras thus constitute a welcome addition that provides information concerning three di erent aspects, namely: (i) the use given to these molluscs, which apparently was of both utilitarian and ritual connotations, (ii) the paleobiogeography of the group, and (iii) the quality of the waters close to the site during the Chalcolithic period. e study discusses the presence of the sh taxa documented at Camino de las Yeseras from the standpoint of their role as hosts of the naiads’ larval stages (glochidia).

En el presente informe se analizan los restos de peces recuperados durante el curso de las excavaciones realizadas en el yacimiento pre- y protohistorico de cueva Amalda. Se trata de una reducida muestra en la que aparecen restos de una especie poco frecuente en aguas del Golfo de Vizcaya: la breca. En el trabajo se ofrecen detalles sobre la anatomía y significado de los restos óseos recuperados y se intenta explicar algunas de las peculiaridades biológicas y culturales evidenciadas por esta asociación faunística., Honako txosten honetan Amalda kobazuloko historiaurreko eta protohistoriako aztarnategian burututako indusketetan aurkitutako arrain-arrastoak aztertzen dira. Bizkaiko golkoko uretan ohikoa ez den espezie baten arrastoak dituen lagin txiki bat da : lamotea. Lan honetan berreskuratutako hezur-arrastoen anatomiaren xehetasunak eta esanahia ematen da. Fauna-asoziazio horrek agerian uzten dituen berezitasun biologikoak eta kulturalak azaltzen saiatzen da.

New data and a review of historiographic information from Neolithic sites of the Malaga and Algarve coasts (southern Iberian Peninsula) and from the Maghreb (North Africa) reveal the existence of a Neolithic settlement at least from 7.5 cal ka BP. The agricultural and pastoralist food producing economy of that population rapidly replaced the coastal economies of the Mesolithic populations. The timing of this population and economic turnover coincided withmajor changes in the continental and marine ecosystems, including upwelling intensity, sea-level changes and increased aridity in the Sahara and along the Iberian coast. These changes likely impacted the subsistence strategies of the Mesolithic populations along the Iberian seascapes and resulted in abandonments manifested as sedimentary hiatuses in some areas during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. The rapid expansion and area of dispersal of the early Neolithic traits suggest the use of marine technology. Different evidences for a Maghrebian origin for the first colonists have been summarized. The recognition of an early North-African Neolithic influence in Southern Iberia and the Maghreb is vital for understanding the appearance and development of the Neolithic in Western Europe. Our review suggests links between climate change, resource allocation, and population turnover.

[EN] The physiographical features of the Galician sea, in particular its temperature, marine currents and plankton richness, have turned its waters into one of the most biologically diversified marine regions of the planet. The 1500 km of shorelines from this Northwest Iberian region are dotted with rías (Galician fjords) where settlements devoted to fishing and trade have existed since prehistoric times. These activities left abundant testimonies in terms of archaeological deposits. In recent decades, urban/industrial development, as well as a number of natural agents (e.g., storms, sea level rise, climate change), is rapidly erasing the evidences of this rich cultural heritage. Loss of fish and shellmiddens in particular will hamper our ability to infer traditional lifeways, doing away with evidence that is crucial to monitoring past climatic changes and to inferring those biological conditions under which marine species and coastal populations thrived in the past. This paper surveys some issues dealing with the coastal bio-archaeological heritage of Galicia, and the risks these deposits face. It concludes with a proposal to save this increasingly threatened marine heritage.

[EN] The origin and development of the Iberian Medieval fisheries is a poorly documented phenomenon both from the standpoint of historical (documentary) and material (archaeological) evidence. Such dearth of knowledge can be explained in terms of proximal (i.e., a deficient retrieval of fish remains) and ultimate causes. Among the latter, the Muslim invasion, that lasted ca. 800 years of the “medieval millennium” in the Iberian Peninsula, needs to be taken into account as it probably delayed the development of fishing fleets within the Christian kingdoms for a substantial period of time. Be it as it may, the lack of knowledge does not allow one to explore a range of critical issues of Spanish and Portuguese history, such as the role played by the ever-expanding fishing fleets of Portugal and Castilla in the process of maritime discovery and colonization that these two kingdoms fostered by the end of the Middle Ages. In this paper, the results from a comparative analysis of selected fish assemblages from primary (i.e. coastal) deposits of the northern Iberian shores are presented. The aim is to check whether changes can be documented both at the level of (1) the range of species occurring in sites from the late Iron Age (Castreña culture, IV-I BC) to the Late Middle Ages (XV AD), and (2) the skeletal spectra of certain species that could reveal a differential processing of taxa meant for local consumption and those that appear in inland sites., [ES] El origen y desarrollo de las pesquerías ibéricas de época medieval es un fenómeno deficientemente documentado tanto desde una perspectiva histórica (documental) como material (arqueológica). Tales limitaciones de evidencias podemos explicarlas en función de causas próximas (p.ej. una deficiente recuperación de restos) como distales. Entre las últimas, la invasión musulmana, que se prolongó durante casi 800 años de lo que supone el milenio medieval, es, sin duda, un elemento importante en la medida en que hubo de paralizar durante periodos substanciales de tiempo el desarrollo de las flotas pesqueras de los reinos cristianos. Sea como fuere, todas estas limitantes impiden valorar adecuadamente algunos aspectos fundamentales de la historia de España y Portugal, tales como el papel jugado por estas flotas pesqueras en constante expansión en los procesos de descubrimientos y colonización operados en ambos paises al final de la Edad Media. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de un análisis comparativo de registros costeros (depósitos primarios) seleccionados de las costas ibéricas nor-occidentales. El propósito consite en comprobar si se pueden documentar cambios en las colecciones a nivel de: (1) la composición faunística de peces desde la Edad del Hierro (cultura castreña, ss. IV-I a.C.) hasta el final de la Edad Media (S. XV AD), así como (2) los espectros esqueléticos de ciertas especies por si permiten revelar prácticas de procesado del pescado diferentes entre los yacimientos costeros y otros situados en el interior del territorio.

[EN] Processed fish is known to have been systematically traded in Europe since the Early Middle Ages to meet increasing demand of incipient markets and religious precepts, yet specific details regarding the supply of different fish in Southern Europe is often missing. Here, we address this gap through an integrated approach involving bone metrics and stable isotopic analysis of archaeological European hake (Merluccius merluccius, Merluccidae) from the Iberian Peninsula. The results offer new insights regarding historical fisheries production systems, including the regions exploited and commercial routes, whilst also revealing biological differences between archaeological and present-day hake populations in the North-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. This research highlights the fruitful result of combining ichthyoarchaeological and historical data for tracking down the origin and development of historical fisheries in south-western Europe and their bearing on modern fisheries.