Marine fisheries and the ancient Greek economy

The dissertation assesses the role of marine fishing in the economy and culture of the ancient Aegean. The first chapter, La liberte halieutique, challenges the orthodox view that ancient city-states claimed rights to marine chi w&d12; rhoalpha or monopolized fishing rights at sea. Most marine fisheries were openly and freely accessible. Consequently, relative to other sectors of the economy, ancient fisheries have left few documents.; The evidence that does survive can be divided into two categories. Chapter Two, Trapping Ancient Tuna, discusses the large traps and seines seasonally targeting tuna and similar migratory species. These traps were associated with fixed points on the coast subject to ownership. This resulted in a unique class of documents, one of which, an inscribed dedication from Parium, actually allows us, in conjunction with literary and comparative evidence, to reconstruct the workings of a large-scale fishing operation in the Hellespont. Additional evidence suggests that similar operations would have contributed direct revenues to many Greek city-states. But these large-scale shore-based fisheries should be considered exceptional: the marine fisheries employing most ancient fishermen and producing the bulk of catches required no regulation.; Greek fishermen enjoyed open access to the sea, but markets were tightly controlled, and documents record the existence of duties, taxes and market regulations on the sale of seafood. The third chapter, Taxing the Sea, collects this evidence and argues that duties were often assessed on seafood at the dock, often at a higher rate than for other goods. These duties would have required assigning prices to different species. An alphabetically arranged list of saltwater fishes from Hellenistic Acraephia seems to preserve evidence of such a tariff. Such duties were often vital to civic finances. The evidence, largely ignored by social and economic historians, is surprisingly rich. Based on the sums recorded in the Delian accounts it is possible to conclude that local fishermen produced annual marketed catches in the mid-third century BC of at least 300,000 pounds. Delians consumed fish in considerable quantities, supporting a well-developed artisanal industry. This evidence directly contradicts minimalist models in which Aegean fishing was simply an occasional subsistence strategy.