Mapping maritime cultural landscapes of the French inshore salt-cod fishery, Petit Nord, Newfoundland, 1500-1904

Summary

The analysis of the spatial distribution and chronological evolution of the fishing rooms and their environs is used to investigate how the local environment and topography, marine and terrestrial, dictated where sites were selected and subsequently established. Seasonal occupation led to an intense exploitation of natural resources (for bait, wood and water) and necessitated the installation of a navigational and cognitive infrastructure to sustain the industry. The concept of the historic ‘maritime cultural landscape’ is used to bridge the terrestrial sites of the fishery, with the region’s network of marine exploitation, landuse and navigation. Effects of cultural processes in the past persist in the patterns and character of landuse, both cultural and semi-natural, on land and at sea, and are observable in the region today. Historic landscape characterisation can also provide an assessment of the fishery’’s wider archaeological potential.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• The French Migratory Fishery and the Maritime Cultural Landscape of Newfoundland’s Petit Nord

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-22,02