We document the dietary and economic role of fish at Sagalassos, a town in ancient Pisidia (southwest Turkey) for the Early Byzantine period (c. 550 – 700 CE) through a detailed analysis of animal bones and stable isotopes. The role of fish in the diet is quantified, for the first time, based on large samples of sieved remains retrieved during the excavation of a number of spaces in an urban residence. The table and kitchen refuse from the mansion shows that fish was a regular part of the diet. However, past isotopic work focused on human individuals excavated in the city’s necropolises, slightly postdating the faunal remains examined, did not reflect this consumption of aquatic food. The studied assemblage comprises at least 12 different fish taxa, including five marine species, a Nilotic fish and six Anatolian freshwater species. Since the origin of the freshwater fishes could not be unambiguously determined by zoogeography alone, we analyzed carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope ratios in archaeological fish bones from Sagalassos as well as in bones of modern fish collected at different sites in Turkey. We show that most freshwater fish, i.e., all cyprinid species, came from Lake Eğirdir. No evidence was found for fish from the local Aksu River basin. The exact origin of pike, which account for 3% of all freshwater fish, could not be directly determined due to a shortage of modern comparative data. Using the data obtained on the provenance of the fish, the ancient trade routes possibly used in the Early Byzantine period are reconstructed using a combination of archaeological, numismatic and historical data on past commercial relations.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Larval dispersal and juvenile survival are crucial in determining variation in recruitment, stock size and adult distribution of commercially important fish. This study investigates the dispersal of early-life stages of common sole (Solea solea L.) in the southern North Sea, both empirically and through modeling. Age at different life-history events of juvenile flatfish sampled along the coasts of Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in 2013, 2014 and 2016, was determined through the counting of daily growth rings in the otoliths. Juveniles captured between August and October were estimated to be on average 140 days old with an average pelagic larval duration of 34 days. The hatching period was estimated between early April and mid-May followed by arrival and settlement in the nurseries between May and mid-June. Growth rates were higher off the Belgian coast than in the other nursery areas, especially in 2013, possibly due to a post-settlement differentiation. Empirical pelagic larval duration and settlement distributions were compared with the LARVAE&CO larval dispersal model, which combines local hydrodynamics in the North Sea with sole larval behavior. Yearly predicted and observed settlement matched partially, but the model estimated a longer pelagic phase. The observations fitted even better with the modelled average (1995–2015) distribution curves. Aberrant results for the small juvenile sole sampled along the UK coast in March 2016, led to the hypothesis of a winter disruption in the deposition of daily growth rings, potentially related to starvation and lower food availability. The similarities between measured and modelled distribution curves cross-validated both types of estimations and accredited daily ageing of juveniles as a useful method to calibrate biophysical models and to understand early-life history of fish, both important tools in support of efficient fisheries management strategies.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
