Human and Aquatic Beings: Interactions in and beyond the Eastern Mediterranean (3rd—1st Millennia BCE)

This volume examines the role of fish and molluscs in everyday life as well as in terms of their impact on social structures, and as part of ideological and symbolic expression. Given the prevalence of anddependence on water in various forms in all regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt and Western Asia, it is no wonder that fish and other aquatic species made an impact on human lives. Yet this topic remains rather understudied. Until recently, ongoing projects in marine and freshwater species and their interaction with humans and the environment either focus on the European marine ecosystem or on themes other than the social interactions of humans and aquatic species. 

The chapters in this volume explore questions related to fishing practices and technologies, social status, human-fish/mollusc relations (including potential over-exploitation), and fish/molluscs in ritual practices (e.g. as temple offerings, festival consumption, burial offerings), and ideology and religion (e.g. associated with supernatural beings or sacred space, as hybrid creatures, and as represented in luxury goods). The volume also examines aquatic species as a nonalimentary resource, for example as jewellery, inlays, dyeing and medicinal purposes. The material under investigation includes faunal remains (worked and unworked), fishing gear and related tools, iconography and written sources. Many chapters also integrate multiple lines of evidence, ranging from stylistic, contextual and iconographic analyses to zooarchaeological investigations. This volume is relevant to archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, biologists and anyone interested in human-animal relations and/or the archaeology of the early Eastern Mediterranean and surrounding regions.