Mesolithic fishery in the Polish Lowland. Fish remains from the Site 7 at Krzyż Wielkopolski, Poland

Abstract

Fish remains have been discovered at seven Mesolithic sites located mainly in central and northern Poland, an area that is known as the Lakeland of the Polish Lowland. Based mainly on the results of the identification of fish remains uncovered during the excavations at the Site 7 in Krzyż Wielkopolski (Western Poland), the conclusions were made on the locality and technique of fishery. The fish taxa represented show that the fishing showed that the fishing economy during the Mesolithic period was focused on nearby freshwater rivers and lakes. At that time, people fished primarily for Cyprinids, pike and perch. According to the archaeological finds, the basic fishing tools used by the Mesolithic communities were spears, harpoons and rods with hooks. The small fishes recovered were most probably caught by fishing traps or nets, but such artifact finds are very rare in the Polish Lowland. This paper summarises the current data on Mesolithic fishery in the Polish Lowland based mainly on the data from the Site 7 at Krzyż Wielkopolski, but also includes archaeological data collected from previous studies in the region.

Keywords:

• Fishery
• Fish Remains
• Mesolithic
• Polish Lowland

Acknowledgements

This study was partially financed by the Polish National Science Centre grant no. NN109 181340 “Społeczności łowiecko-zbierackie wczesnego mezolitu środkowej części Pradoliny Toruńsko-Eberswaldzkiej”. We express our thanks for that support.