2025/07/02 by Gonçalo Espregueira Themudo, Adolfo Fernández Fernández, Patricia Valle Abad +5 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Biology #Demography #Fish <Actinopterygii> #Fishery #Geography #History #Maritime and Coastal Archaeology #Population #Sardine #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.73
published in Antiquity 99(406), 1049-1064 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2025/07/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The Romans were among the first societies to extensively exploit fish resources, establishing large-scale salting and preservation plants where small pelagic fish were fermented to produce sauces such as garum . Here, the authors demonstrate that, despite being crushed and exposed to acidic conditions, usable DNA can be recovered from ichthyological residues at the bottom of fish-salting vats. At third-century AD Adro Vello (O Grove), Galicia, they confirm the use of European sardines ( Sardina pilchardus ) and move beyond morphology to explore population range and admixture and reveal the potential of this overlooked archaeological resource.