Fish ‘n’ Ships: Fishing through time
Phil Leverington and Kristine Korzow Richter

Credit: Amy McMahon

• Saturday 9 June 2018, 11.00AM to 4.00pm
• Free admission
  No booking required
• King's Manor, Exhibition Square (map)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

What can old fish bones tell us? Lots! Everything from the diet of our ancestors to what the oceans looked like in the past. 

Join us at King's Manor where archaeologists, ecologists and historians from the University of York will explain how people throughout history caught, farmed, prepared, cooked, traded and disposed of fish.

During a fun-filled day of activities and mini-talks you can:

• Dig for old bones and look at them for clues about what people ate, their cultural practices and how they fished
• Discover how science can help us learn about the size and structure of fish populations in the past
• Look at how paintings, maps and historical documents can give us clues and help us to learn about the ocean's past
• Find out how different fishing methods, both historic and modern, can affect the environment and why this is important today to maintain healthy fish stocks and a stable ocean environment
• Watch chef Philip Leverington as he shows how fish were cooked during Roman and Medieval times. You can even have a taste - if you dare!

Come along and have fun while you learn.

The activities are designed for all ages, adults included. Drop in for a few minutes or stay the whole day.

About the speakers

Phil Leverington  (@thedemochef) is a Chef Presenter who appears on stage, radio and TV and at food festivals nationwide. A 'seasoned' presenter and chef demonstrator, he works closely with local independent micro-producers to create tasty, easy to repeat, no-nonsense dishes in front of a live audience.  He works with Fish ‘n’ Ships to bring historical fish dishes to our plates for tasting. Find out more: @thedemochef or chefpresentations.com

Kristine Richter is a Marie Curie Fellow with BioArCh, in the University of York’s Department of Archaeology.  She is interested in preservation of biomolecules in the archaeological record, use of animals by historic and prehistoric populations, and the use of the archaeological record to inform current animal protection and conservation management strategies. Her current project aims to use collagen sequences to aid in fish bone identification in the archaeological record to reconstruct ancient diet and fishing (or fish farming) methods.  She is also part of a broader team working on ancient fish remains across the globe creating a method to reconstruct the dynamics of ancient and historic fish populations to inform current conservation and management practices of commercially important fishing stocks.

Phil and Kristine will be joined by researchers from the University of York’s Departments of Archaeology, Environment and History.