Flasks and fish

Abstract

For more than 600 years Aqaba flasks were manufactured at Aila. In the Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic periods they occur at a fair number of sites in the southern Levant, in particular in the Arava Valley and the Negev desert. A flask with fish residue was discovered in a domestic context at Petra. The residue was identified as garum prepared from Red Sea fish. The evidence for the production of fish sauce at Aila raises the question of whether flasks and fish products are interconnected. It is suggested here that the wide distribution of flasks is related to the export of garum from Aila. Admittedly, so far the suggestion is largely hypothetical; however, the importance of regional fish trade and consumption, attested at many inland sites, and the fishing facilities on the Red Sea point to a prevailing diet of fish products.