Changes

[McCLURE MCCLURE & COLLINS 1969:p.193]<br>

Bede thought that the Ely in Cambridgeshire was so named for its eels. [CRAWFOOT CRAWFORD 2009:p.100]<br>

Flatfish, a migratory specimen, are intermediate between C7th and C12th. Site location does not bias the results as a whole. Non Marine species were preferred prior to the end of the 1st millennium AD. Herring increased 4 fold between period 1 and 2. [BARRETT, LOCKER and & ROBERTS 2004] It is also interesting that there was no word for cod in Anglo-Saxon prior to the mid 11th century [BARRETT 2007]. At York the fresh water fish found were, pike, roach, rudd, bream, perch and the salt water fish were herring, haddock, flat-fish, ling, horse mackerel and cod. Smelt, eels and salmon were also represented. [HALL 1984: p.94]. It seems that in the late C9th there is a disappearance of Barbell and Grayling bones which may reflect the increase of pollution in the rivers from the growing town [BOND 20011999:p.186]. It could be argued that the increase in marine species like cod and herring was due to population growth, particularly in towns, changes in Christian fasting practices and the human impact on fresh water eco systems [BARRETT 2007:p.202].<br>In Scotland before the arrival of the Viking the Picts caught small fish from the shore. Once the Viking settlers arrived in the 9th century cod, ling and saithe entered the diet. It is worth noting that the numbers of these fish consumed still increased just like in England in the C11th [BARRETT, LOCKER and & ROBERTS 2004].<br>

A study by Mueldner and Richards [MUELDNER and & RICHARDS 2007] looks at the changes in diet over 1500 years in York. The results show a distinct increase in fish consumption around 1000AD.<br>

St. Benedict’s Rule was written by Benedict of Nursia (480-547AD) as a guide for his own monastic foundation at Monte Cassino, Italy. At the time it was one of many of these rules. During the reign of Charlemagne it was adopted as the rule for all unified monasteries in the Carolingian empire. From there it spread, as the Benedictine Reformation, through France, Italy, Spain and England in the 10th century. [BARREY BARRY 2003:p.61]

This implies that members of the clergy would consume only fish and poultry, while the lay people would have been prohibited meat during lent and on fast days. Although, as Hagen Hagan [HAGEN HAGAN 2006:p.397] points out, a fasting diet would not have differed much from the everyday diet for the poor people.In the later medieval period tail of beaver, frogs, puffins and barnacle geese were classified as fish to get around the no-meat rule. However there are no indications this took place during the Anglo-Saxon period [HAGEN HAGAN 2006: p.405].

Perforated antler burrs normally identified as spindle- whorls may in fact have been used for fishing [MacGREGOR MACGREGOR 1985:p.187]. Net-sinkers found individually may have been used for line fishing particularly in deep water [ROESDAHL and & WILSON 1992:p.248 cat.85]

Wicker baskets used as traps are mentioned in Aelfric’s colloquy. An example of a fishweir from archaeology can be found at Colwick in Nottinghamshire and dated to the 8th or 9th centuries. Weirs were constructed by a V shape of wattle hurdles placed in a river that funnel the fish towards a basket trap. Other archaeological remains have been found at Castle Donington and Lincoln [BOND 20011999:p.186]. Artificial fish ponds seem to have been rare before the end of the C11th.<br>Charter references to inland river fisheries occur from the C7th onwards, often they indicate some form of fixed weir containing traps [BOND 20011999:p.186]. Archbishop Wulfstan described the construction of fish weirs on an estate as one of the tasks during summer. There must have been many in C11th England as King Edward the confessor in the 1060’s ordered the destruction of the fisheries that were blocking the flow of the river Thames. [LACEY and & DANZIGER 1999:p.59]<br>

Vikings may have introduced some form of drift net which would explain the significant increase in herring bones in late Saxon Ipswich [BOND 20011999: p.185] [CRAWFORD 2009:p.100] Along the coast a variety of stake nets and foreshore weirs were used to trap fish from the outgoing tide. [BOND 20011999:p.186]<br>

Soapstone net-sinkers have been found in the Faroes [ROESDAHL and & WILSON 1992:p.310 cat.316]. In York 2 were found of lead and 1 of stone [MAINMAN and & ROGERS 2000:p.2535]. A pebble shaped stone net-sinker from Norway has grooves cut across its surface in a cross, rather than being perforated like the York example. [ROESDAHL and & WILSON 1992:p.248 cat.85]

In [[Aelfric’s Colloquy:fish|Aelfric’s Colloquy]] the opportunity of whaling is mentioned in the conversation with the fisherman, but does not appeal to the fishermen because of the danger involved, despite the fortune that can be made from it. This indicates that these large sea mammals were hunted, but to what extent is unclear. Artefacts made from cetacean bone have been found such as the sword pommel and comb at York [MacGREGORMACGREGOR, MAINMAN and & ROGERS 1999] and a board (the use of which is debated) found at Ely [BJORN and & SHETELIG 1940].<br>

In the cold, sunny air of Norway cod could be dehydrated to a point where it would keep almost indefinitely. In this state it was exported to England [HAGAN 2006: p.158], as reported in Egil’s saga from the C9th [BOND 20011999:p.185]. Drying can be achieved in the sun, in the open air, by a fire or in an oven or kiln, and where fish is concerned it works better on the less oily fish like flounder or cod [HAGAN 2006:p.275]. Fish dried by being hung on the front of ships may have helped Vikings reach distant locations like Greenland.<br>

In Anglo-Scandinavian York a roman building was used for fish processing as seen in the compacted layer of scales and bones. It contained about 40,000 fish remains [HALL 1978:p.34], [WENHAM 1987:p.77], [BOND 20011999: p.186].<br>

Doomsday book records 68,000 herrings a year being produced at Dunwich [BOND 20011999:p.185] <br>