Net fishing in the central Mediterranean. An ethnoarchaeological research on the immaterial culture of the societies of the past

Abstract

This paper explores how ethnoarchaeology can help to rescue the intangible cultural heritage of Mediterranean net-fishing from the threats of technological modernisation. Using the Salento peninsula (southern Italy) as a case study, we integrate ethnographic fieldwork with archaeological, historical and comparative data from Spain and the Greek Ionian Islands to reconstruct the operational chain of traditional net-fishing. Ancient tools such as netting needles and sinkers, although rarely preserved in the archaeological record, can be interpreted through living practices still observable in Salento. Roman and Bronze Age finds from Apulia were re-contextualised by present-day usage, showing remarkable technological continuity since at least the 2nd millennium BC. Cross-Mediterranean comparison reveals broad congruence in net types, tools, dyeing recipes, and social rules for resource management, suggesting either shared Greco-Roman and post-medieval heritage or convergent responses to comparable coastal ecologies.