Fishing on the eastern African coast in the space-time continuum

For over a millennium, people living along the eastern African coast have been fishing on a daily basis. As an archaeologist, my research reconstructs past fishing and fish consumption in this region from the cumulative material traces of these activities. However, it remains a challenge to identify daily actions from archaeological remains. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of daily activities in the formation of long-term patterns recognizable in archaeological data sets. I look at archaeological evidence of fishing from within houses, throughout towns, and across the region that demonstrate how these spaces are interlinked. This multi-scale approach provides a more dynamic understanding of the long-standing fishing practice in this region.