Barrett, J H, Locker, A M and Roberts, C M orcid.org/0000-0003-2276-4258 (2004) The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. pp. 2417-2421. ISSN 1471-2954
Abstract
The catastrophic impact of fishing pressure on species such as cod and herring is well documented. However, the antiquity of their intensive exploitation has not been established. Systematic catch statistics are only available for ca. 100 years, but large-scale fishing industries existed in medieval Europe and the expansion of cod fishing from the fourteenth century (first in Iceland, then in Newfoundland) played an important role in the European colonization of the Northwest Atlantic. History has demonstrated the scale of these late medieval and post-medieval fisheries, but only archaeology can illuminate earlier practices. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that the clearest changes in marine fishing in England between AD 600 and 1600 occurred rapidly around AD 1000 and involved large increases in catches of herring and cod. Surprisingly, this revolution predated the documented post-medieval expansion of England's sea fisheries and coincided with the Medieval Warm Period-when natural herring and cod productivity was probably low in the North Sea. This counterintuitive discovery can be explained by the concurrent rise of urbanism and human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The search for 'pristine' baselines regarding marine ecosystems will thus need to employ medieval palaeoecological proxies in addition to recent fisheries data and early modern historical records.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2004 The Royal Society |
Keywords: | marine ecosystems baselines,cod,herring,archaeology,Middle Ages,climate change,COD GADUS-MORHUA,NORTH-SEA COD,LATE HOLOCENE,ATLANTIC COD,CLIMATE,VARIABILITY,ECOSYSTEMS,FISHERIES |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) |
Depositing User: | Repository Officer |
Date Deposited: | 21 Jun 2006 |
Last Modified: | 17 Oct 2024 08:22 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:1317 |
Downloads
Filename: barrettjh1.pdf
Description: barrettjh1.pdf
Filename: barrettjh1_appendix.pdf
Description: barrettjh1_appendix.pdf