Žuvies eksploatacijos ir vartojimo tendencijos Vilniaus mieste XIV-XVII a. remiantis zooarcheologinių duomenų analize

• Main Author: Tetereva, Diana
• Other Authors: Keen, Giedrė
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: Institutional Repository of Vilnius University 2016
• Subjects: Brama; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: http://vu.lvb.lt/VU:ELABAETD35870586&prefLang=en_US

Exploatation and consumption trends of fish in Vilnius during the 14th-17th centuries based on zooarchaeological data analysis Fish played an important role in human diet throughout history. Fish consumption can be traced back to the stone age. This master thesis focuses on fish consumption in Vilnius city in XIV – XVII century, using zooarchaeological fish remain data collected from Bokšto st. 10/14, Malūnų st. 4/6, Pranciškonų st. 6, Palace of Grand Dukes and Vilnius Lower castle territory. The main focus is given to fish scales analysis while identifying fish species, age and size. As an additional data, fish bones are also analyzed to understand fish skeletal structure and also to identify species and size. The main problem which hinders the possibilities of fish remain analysis is the survival of the material and also the methods which are used to collect data during the archaeological excavations. Up until now, the collected fish remain data is very scarce which gives little insight about consumed fish in discussed timeline. That is why the bigger part of this works data comprises of gathered material (soil samples) from recent excavations in Vilnius city. The aim of this work is to represent the exploitation and consumption tendency of fish during XIV–XVII century, by analyzing zooarchaeological data from Vilnius city. After the analysis of fish scales (4289) it was seen that freshwater fish predominate. Two fish families were identified – Cyprinidae and Percidae and also six species – bream (Abramis brama L.), roach (Rutilus rutilus L.), crucian carp (Carassius carassius L.), common dace (Leuciscus leuciscus L.), pike (Esox Lucius L.), perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) After counting fish scale annulus it was determined that majority of consumed fish in Bokšto st. 10/14, Malūnų st. 4/6 and Pranciškonų st. 4A were young, approximately 3 years (2+) old pikes. Meanwhile, in the Palace of Grand Dukes, older, 5–7 year fishes were consumed. After counting fish sizes using fish scales it was estimated that mean pike lenght was 36,6 cm and weight 578 g. Smallest caught pike was 17 cm lenght and 50 g weight, while largest was 95 cm and 8,6 kg. Bream mean lenght was 26,3 cm and weight 631 g. Smallest bream was 18 cm and 100 g while largest – 44 cm and 2,9 kg. The amount of fish scales for roach and crucian carp were too low to make any estimations about their sizes. Percidae age and size was not calculated because of their scale structure. Fish bone analysis from Vilnius Lower castle was also conducted. 7 fish species were identified – sturgeon (Acipenser sturio L.), bream (Abramis brama L.), roach (Rutilus rutilus L.) , pike (Esox Lucius L.), perch (Perca fluviatilis L.), zander (Sander lucioperca L.) and cod (Gadus morhua L.). After conducting osteological measurement for 18 fish bones, data showed that pike lenght ranged from 38–42 cm to 67–70 cm, zander lenght from 30–34 to 49–51 cm, roach lenght from 7–12 to 16–25 cm while bream lenght was 44–50 cm. The results acquired by using soil sampling showed that this method is very important in order to learn about the past diet. Analysing even the smallest soil samples can give information about fish size, age, species and etc.