Fishing economy and its possible role in a sustainable agroecosystem around 6000 years ago in the Lower Yangtze River region, China

Abstract

Water covers over 70 % of Earth’s surface and contains a diverse array of aquatic resources that have been exploited by humans throughout history. While the exploitation of terrestrial animals and plants has been widely investigated, the subsistence economy based on aquatic resources remains under-examined in prehistoric China. Here, we analyse the fish skeletal remains excavated from the mid-Neolithic site of Weidun in the Lower Yangtze River region, where both freshwater and seawater resources were available. Our results show that freshwater species, including Northern snakeheads, common carps and crucian carps, were predominantly harvested, suggesting the significant contribution of freshwater resources to the local population. Surrounded by diverse water systems, including probably large rivers and lakes, as well as small ponds and bogs, the Weidun society might have developed a series of fishing techniques from their fishing activities. These techniques included casting nets dangled with pottery weights and using detachable and immobile bone harpoons. With the accumulated knowledge about aquatic species, freshwater fishes were perhaps farmed simultaneously with rice in paddy fields in this region, helping establish the integrated rice-fish farming system which continued as a typical polyculture type in later dynastic periods and even today.