The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence
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...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/1/barrettjh1.pdf https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/2/barrettjh1_appendix.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 |
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ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:1317 2024-05-19T07:42:51+00:00 The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence Barrett, J H Locker, A M Roberts, C M 2004-12-07 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/1/barrettjh1.pdf https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/2/barrettjh1_appendix.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 en eng https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/1/barrettjh1.pdf https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/2/barrettjh1_appendix.pdf 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 Article PeerReviewed 2004 ftleedsuniv https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 2024-04-23T23:37:50Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Newfoundland Northwest Atlantic White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 271 1556 2417 2421 |
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Open Polar |
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White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
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ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Barrett, J H Locker, A M Roberts, C M |
spellingShingle |
Barrett, J H Locker, A M Roberts, C M The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
author_facet |
Barrett, J H Locker, A M Roberts, C M |
author_sort |
Barrett, J H |
title |
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
title_short |
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
title_full |
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
title_fullStr |
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
title_full_unstemmed |
The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence |
title_sort |
origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval europe: the english evidence |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/1/barrettjh1.pdf https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/2/barrettjh1_appendix.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 |
genre |
Iceland Newfoundland Northwest Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Iceland Newfoundland Northwest Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/1/barrettjh1.pdf https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1317/2/barrettjh1_appendix.pdf 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 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2885 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
271 |
container_issue |
1556 |
container_start_page |
2417 |
op_container_end_page |
2421 |
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1799482550582771712 |