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
Table 1. Fish Represented in the Newcastle Quayside Assemblage
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.
