Cod and Herring

This is an important volume, not only for those already interested in fishery history, but for those interested in the development of commercial activity in the Middle Ages and in the social history of diet. It provides fascinating detail, interesting statistics (where available) and wide-ranging arguments by experts in full command of their material. It is (as its editors, James H. Barrett and David C. Orton, rightly say) a ground-breaking volume in its combination of archaeological and documentary evidence and the new application of stable isotope analysis to archaeological deposits. Together these sources provide evidence for a convincing hypothesis on the chronology of fishing and fish consumption spanning over a thousand years, between c.500 and c.1550, around the northern seas (north Atlantic, Irish, North and Baltic Seas). Fish has long been a part of the human diet, but (as the contributors to this volume demonstrate) marine fish became a significant dietary element for most of northern Europe only in the high and later Middle Ages. In the early period, consumption was mainly of freshwater fish by elites and urban societies; sea-fish bones are rare deposits on archaeological sites for this period, except in Scandinavia. The evidence suggests that consumption of sea fish, especially of herring, increased in the long eighth century, intensified c.850 to c.1050 at varying speeds (quite quickly in England, more slowly in the Netherlands and Poland, not yet in Estonia), and surged in the high Middle Ages, with increasing supplies of cod. Catches probably peaked c.1300, and preserved herring and cod contributed to long-range trade in high-bulk, low-value goods. This development was part of the great economic expansion of Europe at this time, with its increasing demand for food, growing facilities for regular international trade and greater availability of capital. The risks, investment and effort of sea fishing became worthwhile. There were, of course, regional variations across northern Europe in the speed of change, types of fish traded and organisation, but it seems clear that, overall, growth in the consumption of sea fish occurred throughout northern Europe

Archaeological evidence · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Chronology · Consumption (sociology · Fish · Fish <Actinopterygii> · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Herring · Irish · Irish sea · Middle Ages · Period (music · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Oceanography