Fish Consumption and Trade in Early Byzantine Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima)

Abstract

The ruin city known as Caričin Grad is generally identified as the Byzantine city of Justiniana Prima. The site is located in southern Serbia, on the eastern slopes of mountain Radan, about 30 km southwest of the town of Leskovac. Recent excavations at Caričin Grad yield a small assemblage of fish bone consisting of 252 specimens. The paper presents the fish bone spectra from Caričin Grad as a component of the city’s subsistence strategies in a difficult setting and in time of turmoil. It gives an account of the streams and reservoirs of the region and puts the species spectrum into the context of Byzantine fish consumption patterns as evidenced by zooarchaeological research.