Casting the Net: Evidence of Fishing and Fish Farming in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mesoamerica is a region with highly biodiverse ecosystems, from temperate forests to tropical jungles, and where civilizations impacted the landscape in different ways. In several Mesoamerican cities, zooarchaeologists have found evidence for animal management and breeding practices to supply the population with resources. Recent research indicates that Palenque was a regionally important city that had a major impact on its landscape over time. Owning to Palenque’s high population density— approximately 3,000–4,000 inhabitants per km2 toward the end of the eighth century AD—the city’s residents needed to devise multiple methods to provision the ever-increasing population with a constant, and sustainable, supply of food. Examples of this include intensive planting techniques such as terraces and irrigation canals. Due to the high proportions of freshwater fish recovered at the site, this paper presents evidence of the exploitation of streams, swamps, rivers, and lagoons in the Palenque region during the Late Classic period. I will also present the possibility of managing and cultivating freshwater fish in several pools detected in the city, highlighting the great knowledge about the biology and ecology required for successful production.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33127