Fishing and Aquaculture in the Roman Mediterranean

Annalisa Marzano

It has been generally assumed that the contribution of fishing in the ancient world was negligible because of the inefficiency of fishing technology. In fact, archaeological and documentary evidence indicates that fishing in the Roman world was well-organized, on a large scale, and used very efficient techniques which remained unaltered in the Mediterranean until the post-World War II period. This lecture will discuss the techniques and evidence for large-scale fishing, attested in conjunction with the “industrial” fish salting factories known in many parts of the Roman world, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Black Sea. The lecture will also discuss ancient marine aquaculture, in particular pisciculture, focusing on the archaeological, literary and juridical sources. The Romans developed intensive marine pisciculture to a considerable degree of sophistication and efficiency thanks to important technological innovations, a knowledge that was completely lost in the subsequent historical periods. It is only in the 20th century that one again finds successful intensive marine pisciculture.

Please note that audio recording and photography of any kind is not permitted at ISAW activities without prior consent. Requests can be emailed a week or more in advance to isaw@nyu.edu.

To RSVP, please email isaw@nyu.edu.