Using ZooMS to Understand Hunting and Fishing in the Roman Mediterranean

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Large scale fishing of small fish in the Scombrid and Clupeid families as well as hunting of tunas was part of the economy in the Roman empire through the production of fermented fish sauces (including garum), pastes, and other fish products. These products were produced in various grades at large factories on the Mediterranean and exported throughout the Roman empire with the best garum fetching high prices. Much information is known on fish sauce production and use through texts and cookbooks including the commonly used fishes. In addition, the remains of garum factories and amphorae containing fish remains provide evidence of production and trade. While morphology can provide some information about species, the fermentation process often digests the bones creating morphological ambiguity which is complicated because most element of some species (such as the tunas) are morphologically indistinguishable. We developed markers for zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) that distinguish to species level the most commonly used Mediterranean species in the Scombrid and Clupeid families and then used them to determine the species exploited at different fish processing plants in Iberia including both small whole fish used in garum and larger species of tuna identified at the garum production sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40455.0