An assessment of the importance of marine life to human societies during the last two millennia, with a focus on understanding the consequences of marine resource exploitation for societal development.
How did marine life affect and alter societies of the past? This is one of the key questions the EU-funded 4-OCEANS project will seek to answer by investigating the importance of marine life for human societies during the last two millennia, from 100 BCE to 1860 CE. Bringing together expertise from marine environmental history, climate history, natural history, geography, historical ecology, genomics and zooarchaeology, the project will conduct the first-ever global assessment of the role of marine life in societal development and will consider how selected socio-economic, cultural and environmental forces limited as well as enabled marine exploitation.
Humans are driven by a desire to consume specific foods, rather than mere dietary preferences. The quest for marine resources has fueled human exploration and settlement across the globe. It is evident that the oceans have influenced human history, and conversely, humans have impacted marine ecosystems and populations. How, where, when, in what way and with what consequences for societies are the questions we are answering, with the aim of transforming our understanding of the natural and cultural heritage of the oceans.
Humans are driven by a desire to consume specific foods, rather than mere dietary preferences. The quest for marine resources has fueled human exploration and settlement across the globe. It is evident that the oceans have influenced human history, and conversely, humans have impacted marine ecosystems and populations. How, where, when, in what way and with what consequences for societies are the questions we are answering, with the aim of transforming our understanding of the natural and cultural heritage of the oceans.
For instance, the vast coastlines of Brazil reveal extensive indigenous use of coastal ecologies, where communities relied heavily on marine resources for sustenance and cultural practices. In contrast, the first inhabitants of the Canary Islands and Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, abandoned nautical technology after colonizing these islands, focusing instead on other resources. The discovery of the Great Banks in the North Atlantic spurred European sailors to seek immense wealth; between 1550 and 1650, they extracted fish and whales in quantities equivalent in value to the silver mines of Latin America. Similarly, the colonization of South America by the Portuguese and Spanish facilitated the transfer of coastal whaling practices from the Iberian Peninsula to this new region. By the early 16th century, whaling and the trade of its products had become a transoceanic and globalized practice.