The inland seas : towards an ecohistory of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea

The shores of the Mediterranean-Black Sea basin were home to some of the earliest urban communities and some of the earliest literate cultures. Their complex history and rich archaeological heritage have been studied by generations of scholars, to a degree of detail comparable to no other macro-region of our planet. Its waters, too, have been the object of intense and systematic investigation, motivated not only by scientific curiosity but also by increasing concern for the well-being of their marine life. Yet until recently, there have been few attempts at integrating the results of different scientific approaches in order to write the ecohistory of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In this volume, eighteen scholars from eleven different countries and representing a wide range of scientific disciplines address the question of how humans have interacted with the Mediterranean-Black Sea ecosystem from the dawn of prehistory until the twentieth century; how they have exploited its resources; what consequences this has had for life in the sea and what, based on past experience, the future may hold in store. Contents Zum Geleit Illustrations Abbreviations Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen and Ruthy Gertwagen: Introduction Arturo Morales-Muñiz and Eufrasia Roselló-Izquierdo: Fishing in Mediterranean prehistory: an archaeo-ichthyological overview Dimitra Mylona: Fish and seafood consumption in the Aegean: variations on a theme Christophe Morhange, Nick Marriner and Nicolas Carayon: The eco-history of ancient Mediterranean harbours Ephraim Lytle: Status beyond law: ownership, access and the ancient Mediterranean Carmen Alfaro Giner: Purple in the ancient Mediterranean world: social demand and the exploitation of marine resources Robert I. Curtis: Ancient processed fish products Darío Bernal-Casasola: Garum in context: new times, same topics in the post-Ponsichian era Benedict J. Lowe: The trade in fish sauce and related products in the western Mediterranean Emmanuel Botte: Fish, craftsmen and trade in ancient Italy and Sicily Enrique García Vargas: Littoral landscapes and embedded economies: tuna fisheries as biocultural systems Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen: Ancient harvesting of marine resources from the Black Sea Constantin Ardeleanu: Fishing in the Lower Danube and its floodplain from the earliest times to the twentieth century Ruthy Gertwagen: Towards a Maritime Eco-history of the Byzantine and Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Sabine Florence Fabijanec: Fishing and the fish trade on the Dalmatian coast in the late Middle Ages Ferdinando Boero: Mediterranean Scenarios Index of Persons Index of Places Index of Sources Index of Species Index of Subjects