Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, Haifa, Israel.
Institute for Geosciences, Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 20;8(1):14086. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-32468-1.
Past fish provenance, exploitation and trade patterns were studied by analyzing phosphate oxygen isotope compositions (δO) of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) tooth enameloid from archaeological sites across the southern Levant, spanning the entire Holocene. We report the earliest evidence for extensive fish exploitation from the hypersaline Bardawil lagoon on Egypt's northern Sinai coast, as indicated by distinctively high δO values, which became abundant in the southern Levant, both along the coast and further inland, at least from the Late Bronze Age (3,550-3,200 BP). A period of global, postglacial sea-level stabilization triggered the formation of the Bardawil lagoon, which was intensively exploited and supported a widespread fish trade. This represents the earliest roots of marine proto-aquaculture in Late Holocene coastal domains of the Mediterranean. We demonstrate the potential of large-scale δO analysis of fish teeth to reveal cultural phenomena in antiquity, providing unprecedented insights into past trade patterns.
通过分析来自黎凡特南部各地考古遗址的金头鲷（Sparus aurata）牙釉质的磷酸盐氧同位素组成（δO），研究了过去的鱼类产地、开发和贸易模式。这些遗址跨越了整个全新世。我们报告了最早的证据，表明在埃及北西奈海岸的盐水巴达维尔泻湖进行了广泛的鱼类开发，其特征是同位素 δO 值明显较高，这些高值在黎凡特南部沿海地区以及更远的内陆地区都变得丰富，至少从青铜时代晚期（公元前 3550-3200 年）开始就已经如此。全球冰川后海平面稳定时期引发了巴达维尔泻湖的形成，该泻湖被密集开发，并支持了广泛的鱼类贸易。这代表了地中海全新世沿海地区海洋原始水产养殖的最早根源。我们证明了大规模鱼类牙齿 δO 分析揭示古代文化现象的潜力，为过去的贸易模式提供了前所未有的见解。
