Modelling ancient crab consumption in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Omanby:Dr. Peter J. Hogarth(*)
and Dr. Mark J. Beech(**) Web: http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/biol/staff/pjh.htm (**) Department
of Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, York YO1 7EP,
U.K. Paper to be presented in the "Coastal adaptations in arid environments" session at the 9th Conference of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ), due to be held at the University of Durham, UK from 23rd-28th August 2002. For more information about
this conference visit:
ABSTRACT: The study of crab remains from archaeological sites is an often neglected area of study in zooarchaeology. On many coastal sites in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman crabs made a regular contribution to the diet of the coastal inhabitants. There is even some evidence for crabs being exported to the interior of the south-east Arabian peninsula. Fieldwork was carried out by both authors to record and collect the modern day crab species which occur along the coastline of the United Arab Emirates. This baseline study identified the first authenticated records in the Arabian Gulf of the mangrove crab (Scylla serrrata) as well as of a further mangrove-associated species, Perisesarma guttatum. The result of this work was the creation of a reference collection which enabled the identification of archaeological crab remains recovered from a number of archaeological excavations in the region. To date material has been identified from a total of 12 excavations, located in Kuwait (1 site), Saudi Arabia (1 site) and the United Arab Emirates (10 sites). These range in date from the late 6th/early 5th millennium BC to the Late Islamic period. The majority of the archaeological crab remains identified belonged to swimming crabs (Portunus spp. and Scylla serrata.). Remains of Scylla have been recognised at several archaeological sites in the Emirates The strong association of this particular crab species with mangroves indicates that human populations were dependent on mangroves, and were already exploiting them for food as well as other resources like fuel and timber, as long as 3000 years ago. In this paper the overall
distribution of crab remains is discussed. Several hypotheses are advanced
to explain the interesting distribution of archaeological crab remains. KEYWORDS crab, Portunus, Scylla
serrata, Portunidae, distribution
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