A Seafood Diet at Tybrind Vig?

Image taken from "Late Mesolithic coastal fishing practices: the evidence from Tybrind Vig, Denmark" by Clive Bonsall, 2007: http://www.academia.edu/297660/Late_Mesolithic_coastal_fishing_practices_the_evidence_from_Tybrind_Vig_Denmark_2007_

Tybrind Vig is a Danish submerged site on the west coast of the island Fynen.  It was excavated from 1978-1988 by Søren Andersen and teams of scuba divers.  It was populated by hunter-gatherers from 5600-4000 BC.  Most of the artifacts found there belong to the Ertebølle Culture (this is a culture of hunter-gatherer-fishers who made pottery from around 5300-3950 BC in Southern Scandinavian).  Hazel stakes that were used to build fish traps and the remains of a wickerwork trap were found at the site, along with many fish hooks made of bone and fishing spears.  Lots of fish bones from several species were also found.  People were using a variety of methods to fish, including trapping, spear fishing, and angling.

So, it’s clear that fishing was a very important component of people’s diet.  But was it the main component?  Charred remains of sea beets, acorns, and hazelnuts were found at the site, suggesting that these were cooked and eaten.  The acorn and hazelnut shells may have been used as fuel.  Several types of wild berries and fruit, such as raspberries, dewberries, wild strawberries, and crab apples were found among the waterlogged remains.  Most of the plants found grow in the summer and autumn, so the population would have had to be there during those times to harvest them.  One paleoethnobotanist (person who studies how ancient cultures used plants), Lucyna Kubiak-Martens, has argued (in a descriptively titled article, “The plant food component of the diet at the late Mesolithic (Ertebølle) settlement at Tybrind Vig, Denmark,” published 1999; see the For More Information post for a link)  that the abundance of edible plant remains shows that people were eating more plants than fish.  In either case, it’s clear that people were eating a variety of local foods, instead of specializing in big game hunting (like in the Paleolithic) or farming a few cereals (like in the Neolithic).