Characteristics of dried fish stores: Evidence based on an intact pit from Late Islamic Qatar

Abstract

Archaeological evidence for the preparation of preserved fish is common. Preserving fish allowed stockpiling of temporary abundance of food created by good catches and seasonal plenty. In traditional societies, the majority of fish caught are preserved for later use rather than consumed fresh. Ethnographic information from southeast Arabia, and the wider region, for the storage of fish provides interesting details of the process. Archaeological evidence for fish storage is not usually the stored product itself, but distinctive species and element composition of preparation waste or post-consumption refuse. Archaeologists rarely excavate a complete cache of preserved fish. This study presents data from a fish storage pit, capped with a mud seal, excavated at the Late Islamic site of Freiha (al-Furayḥa) in Qatar. The contents of the pit were intact providing an opportunity to examine the practice of storing dried fish from the product itself and compare this evidence to ethnographic accounts.