Ancient history of fish consumption

Fish were a major source of food in the ancient world, although its availability and palatability depended in how far a market was from the river or sea.

The first evidence of humans using tools to catch for food comes from archeological finds; these were barbed tools probably used as spears and are approximately 90,000 years old.

The evidence showed that men were already catching fish in the Lower Paleolithic Age. The first recoded recipe is from ancient China dated 1300 BC which was a fish salad based on marinated and spiced carp.

It is thought that about 0ne-third of the pre-historic human population of hunter and gatherer societies subsisted on fish. Fish was appreciated by ancient Egyptian and Chinese civilization.

The Egyptian caught fish in shallow pools at the time of the Nile’s inundation. Diodorus commented that the Nile contains every variety of fish for it supplies the natives not only with abundant subsistence from the fresh fish caught, but also yields an unfailing multitude for salting.

Fish such as the red mullet were more common in Greek than in Italian waters, and so commanded higher prices in Roman markets.

In ancient times, the most significant achievement in the use of fish as a source of protein was the processing of hydrolyzed protein from fresh fish.

In Roman times, this product was known as liquamen. Ancient Romans also use ice mixed with seaweed to keep fresh fish. Ices were taken from the mountains near Rome.
Ancient history of fish consumption

Fish of tilapia in history

Tilapia culture is believed to have originated more than 4000 year ago, but very little information is available on their culture during those ancient times.

The earliest evidence of fish culture of sorts purportedly comes from ancient Egypt where fish often has a scared as well as prosaic role in society. Tilapia is well-known as a symbol of rebirth in Egyptian art and is in addition associated with Hathor.

A bas-relief found on an ancient Egyptian tomb show tilapia being fished out of an article pond, presumably a drainable one. It is evidence that tilapia culture was already practiced in Egypt about 250 BC.

The first trials of tilapia culture were recorded in Kenya in the 1920s.

Global tilapia farming until the 1940s was marked by experimental pond cultures in Africa and some commercial activity in Asia.  Indonesia used O. mossambicus in saltwater ponds and rice field, providing protein for its citizens during the Second World War.

Tilapia culture was gradually expanding worldwide during the period from 1970 to 1990.
Fish of tilapia in history

Ancient People Near the Sea

Food History
Cro-Magnons who lived near the sea or who visited the coats had a rich source of food – fish, seals, sea birds, shellfish and seaweed. Those who dwelt inland could enjoy fresh water fish such as salmon, trout, eel and pike.

One of their ingenious inventions was the gorge – a baited sliver of bone attached to a line of leather or sinew. When a fish took the bait the gorge stuck in its throat and it was hauled in nets made from plant fibers or leather, have not survived, but the existence of small, grooved stones that could have been net weights suggest that nets were in use. Fishers also invented the leister, a three pronged spear. A fish was impaled on the central straight prong and curved prongs on either side stopped it wriggling off.

In the spring the salmon raced upstream to spawn. This was a gastronomic bonanza for Cro-Magnons, as huge deposits of scales and bones found in some places confirm. Salmon could be speared as they struggle through the shallows, and the crafty Cro-Magnons may well have piled up stones to form a trap. The fish would swim through the funnel-like entrance into pool from which there was no exit, except on the prongs a leister. Much of the catch was then dried or smoked and stored.
Food History