The Quayside sites produced in excess of 6,000 identifiable bones (roughly 2,500 from Queen Street and 3,500 from Crown Court) from at least 30 different species or families of fish (Table 1).
Present, but only 1 or 2 bones | |
Fairly frequent - occurs in several samples | |
Frequent | |
Very abundant |
Fish Taxa | Abundance | Location |
---|---|---|
Thornback Ray (Raja clavata) | Both sites | |
Rajidae | Both sites | |
Elasmobranch | Both sites | |
Eel (Anguilla anguilla) | Both sites | |
Conger Eel (Conger conger) | Only at Crown Court | |
Salmon (Salmo salar) | Only at Queen Street | |
Salmonidae | Only at Crown Court | |
Herring (Clupea harengus) | Both sites | |
Smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) | Both sites | |
Angler (Lophius piscatorius) | Only at Crown Court | |
Cod (Gadus morhua) | Both sites | |
Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) | Both sites | |
Whiting (Merlangius merlangus) | Both sites | |
Saithe (Pollachius virens) | Both sites | |
Pollack (Pollachius pollachius) | Both sites | |
5-bearded Rockling (Ciliata mustella) | Only at Crown Court | |
Ling (Molva molva) | Both sites | |
Hake (Merluccius merluccius) | Only at Crown Court | |
Gadidae | Both sites | |
Grey Gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus) | Both sites | |
Tub Gurnard (Trigla lucerna) | Only at Crown Court | |
Triglidae | Both sites | |
Ballan Wrasse (Labrus bergylta) | Only at Queen Street | |
Labridae | Only at Queen Street | |
Garfish (Belone belone) | Only at Queen Street | |
Scad (Trachurus trachurus) | Both sites | |
?Sparidae | Only at Crown Court | |
Sandeel (Ammodytidae) | Both sites | |
Gobidae | Only at Crown Court | |
Butterfish (Pholis gunnelus) | Only at Crown Court | |
Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) | Only at Queen Street | |
Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) | Both sites | |
Flounder (Platichthys flesus) | Both sites | |
Dab (Limanda limanda) | Both sites | |
?Lemon sole (Microstomus kitt) | Only at Queen Street | |
Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) | Only at Crown Court | |
Pleuronectidae | Both sites |
The bones were identified by comparison with modern reference specimens belonging to the author, and those held in the Environmental Archaeology Unit, University of York. Bones were identified to anatomical element and, where possible, to species. Measurements were taken on the more commonly represented head bones and vertebrae based on those used by Andrew Jones at the Environmental Archaeology Unit, York, which include some described by Morales and Roselund (1979) but use alternative measurements where necessary to exploit more robust areas of bone. Detailed records of the assemblages are held in the archive of the Archaeological Unit for North East England.
As shown in Table 1, all of the fishes represented in the quayside assemblages could have been caught in the estuary of the River Tyne or in the North Sea around the North East of England. The majority of the remains were recovered after sieving large soil samples, especially in the case of Crown Court where an intensive sieving programme was implemented on site using the modified Siraf tank (Jones 1983) fitted with a 1mm and, occasionally, a 0.5mm mesh. Gadidae and herring (Clupea harengus) were the most commonly represented groups, while flatfish (Pleuronectidae), thornback ray (Raja clavata), eel (Anguilla anguilla) and sandeel (Ammodytidae) occurred in quite a few deposits. Of the less commonly represented species, bones from hake (Merluccius merluccius), halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), garfish (Belone belone), salmon (Salmo salar) and turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) were recovered only from the handpicked material, which argues for the handpicking of bones in addition to sieving, except in cases where facilities exist for massive sieving operations.
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Last updated: Thu Dec 16 1999