Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fishing has been a central subsistence activity for maritime adapted societies around the world. A variety of fishing related implements have been documented in archaeological contexts including stand-alone tackle, and composite tools. Different types of fishing tackle and sizes of hooks, gorges, barbs, and points likely represent technologies adapted to specific habitats and fish prey types, with some continuing in use after “newer” technologies are invented indicating preference and continuity. Manufacture marks and use wear can reveal technological gestures, innovations, transformations, and uses. In addition, the nature of animal raw material used for manufacturing fishing tools, can tell us about artisanal traditions, traditional ecological knowledge, and movements of people and natural resources.

Under this context, the proposed session seeks to assemble a group of researchers from around the world, to share and compare their studies on fishing technologies. Discussions about manufacturing techniques, context of use, changes through time in tool characteristics, and the social and economic context of fishing practices, among others are welcome. The session will be an opportunity to share case studies, as well as methodological and theoretical approaches towards the study of fishing tool production and use within coastal and maritime focused societies.

Other Keywords
Use-Wear Analysis • Craft Production • Material Culture and Technology • Coastal and Island Archaeology

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • “…Any man who pits his intelligence against a fish…”: What a diverse set of fishing tools and strategies tells us about the Earliest Known fishing communities of Baja California. (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Claritsa Duarte.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recovery of several dozen single-piece shell fishhooks, fishing weights, indirect evidence for the use of small-gauge nets and harpoons from Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene contexts on Isla Cedros Baja California provides the earliest definitive evidence for a fully...

  • Epipaleolithic Fishing Technologies in the Southern Levant: New Insights from Jordan River Dureijat, Upper Galilee (Israel) (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emanuela Cristiani.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fish has been a significant part of the human diet for nearly two million years, yet early fishing technologies remain challenging to trace due to the perishable nature of materials like wood and plant fibers. Discoveries at the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat...

  • An Ethnoarchaeological Approach to Fishing Technology on the Central Coast of Ecuador (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Klemmer.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fishing has been an intrinsic element to life on the central coast of Ecuador for at least 5000 years and remains vital at the household, community, and commercial level in the modern day. Direct evidence of fishing technology is not always visible in the archaeological record,...

  • Pearl Oyster Shell Fishhooks from the Cañada de la Enfermería Sureste 3 Site, La Paz Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Harumi Fujita.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Modified pearl oyster (Pinctada mazatlanica) shells, which may represent fishhooks and/or ornaments, were recovered from various sites on Espiritu Santo Island, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and directly dated to ∼8700 calBP. At the Cañada de la Enfermería Sureste 3 site,...

  • Perspectives on global fishing technologies, material culture and practices in the past (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amira Ainis.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fishing implies cultural practices that consider social, economic and ecological factors which can be explored through the study of the associated tool kits. The contexts of initial production and use of fishing technologies, how they spread, adapted, and changed through time...

  • Shell fishhooks from Chile. Technological knowledge and tradition of coastal and maritime societies along the Pacific coast of South America (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carola Flores-Fernandez.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of hooks made of shells is a practice carried out by the first fishers along the Pacific Ocean. Evidence of these artifacts is found on coastal sites with antiquities up to 11000 years before present. The study of hooks manufacturing techniques is one approach to study...

  • Tuna Fishing Tradition in Jicarita: Archaeological Investigations in the Coiba Archipelago, Panama (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Carvajal Contreras.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological investigations into the marine traditions of Jicarita Island, located in the Coiba Archipelago in Panama, reveal a rich history deeply intertwined with maritime activities (Cal 1290–1060 B.P). This study sheds light on the maritime practices, technologies,...

  • Using Experimental Archaeology and a Technological Approach to Decode Single Piece Shell Fishhook Production Strategies in the Southern California Bight. (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Smith.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research uses experimental archaeology and a technological approach to decipher functional linkages between disparate artifact forms and key stages in shell fishhook production strategies on California's Channel Islands and the adjacent mainland coast. The single piece...

  • When no technology is the best technology (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dustin McKenzie.

    This is an abstract from the "Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration and More" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ichthyofaunal data indicate an increased exploitation of small bodied intertidal fish along the shore of Central California during the Late Holocene Period. Fish including pricklebacks (Xiphister spp.) were unlikely caught with known types of pre-colonial fishing technology...