New ancient DNA and stable isotope evidence shows that stored cod provisions recovered from the wreck of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent, southern England, in AD 1545, had been caught in northern and transatlantic waters such as the northern North Sea and the fishing grounds of Iceland and Newfoundland.
The study, led by researchers from the universities of Cambridge, Hull and York, is published today in the open access journal Royal Society Open Science. Corresponding author, Dr James Barrett, from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, said:
"The existence and development of globalised fisheries was one of the things that made the growth of the navy possible. The navy was a key mechanism of maritime expansion, while at the same time being sustained by that expansion. The story of the cod trade is a microcosm of globalisation during this pivotal period.”
Image: Cod bones (cleithra) recovered from the Mary Rose, with a stained modern example for comparison (Photo: Sheila Hamilton-Dyer)
Posted 9th September 2015
