Ichthyophages
As ichthyophages ( ancient Greek Ἰχθυοφάγοι Ichthyophagoi and Latin Ichthyophagi , "fish eaters") were referred to by ancient historians as ethnic groups or peoples who lived in a primitive way and fed on fish . Different areas inhabited by ichthyophages are mentioned by historians and geographers such as Herodotus , Pausanias , Arrian , Pliny and Strabo , most of them are on the coasts of the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea . The British Richard Francis Burton confirms the existence of such ichthyophages in his work on the Arabic Midian .
The ichthyophages of Makran
mention
By far the best-known representatives of these peoples are the people who lived in the 4th century BC. BC on the coast of the Arabian Sea in Makran. According to them , they met Admiral Nearchus , who drove along the coast on behalf of Alexander the Great , to have met Arrian . Also Plutarch , Quintus Curtius Rufus and Diodorus they mention in their biographies Alexander. By far the most detailed description of the shape and way of life of these people can be found in the Indica of Arrian. It is not known where the ichthyophages came from or what peoples they were most closely related to. It is doubtful whether Curtius Rufus' designation “Indians living by the sea” is of ethnological relevance.
Settlement area
The ichthyophages settled a vast area on the coast of the Persian Gulf, which, according to Pliny, was said to have been so long that it took thirty days to sail along it. Arrian mentions that it was about ten thousand stadia long. The land of the ichthyophages was bordered at sea level and inland by steep rocky cliffs. The vegetation was sparse, only a few palm trees , thorn bushes and tamarisks (salt cedars) grew here. There was hardly any water. There was heavy surf on the coast, and the water retreated well during the low tide .
Appearance
The ichthyophages are said to have been rough, unkempt and extremely hostile people who lived completely isolated on the coast and were not in contact with any other peoples, much less engaged in any form of trade. Their hair and nails are said to have been completely uncut, and they are said to have dressed in the shabby fur of wild animals. According to a first-century trader, they are said to have spoken Arabic and wore belts made from palm leaves.
Way of life
The name "Ichthyophagen", in English "fish eater", already indicates that these people mainly fed on fish. However, according to Arrian, very few of them were actually fishermen, as very few had serviceable boats. Most lived on the animals that had been washed ashore, or at low tide on the ocean floor and in the creeks remained. They used nets made from the bark of the date palm to catch the fish. Often whales are said to be stranded on the coast . Crabs, oysters and mussels were also caught. The smaller fish were mostly eaten raw, the larger ones first dried in the sun. Sometimes they are said to have been baked in ovens. The fish are said to have often been ground into flour with stones and whale bones and then processed into bread. The cattle that the ichthyophages kept, "a few poor sheep" according to Plutarch, were also given fish due to the lack of grass and pastureland, which meant that their meat also tasted like fish and was supposedly inedible. The country's natural salt was processed into oils. The people are said to have obtained drinking water mainly from the dew and the little rainwater that collected on the roofs of their huts. This water was brackish and not entirely free of salt. Deep wells that exposed poor quality water were also dug. A few are said to have managed to cultivate some grain in certain parts of the country, which, according to Arrian, was actually enjoyed by the people as a change from fish.
People lived in huts built from whale bones, seaweed and shells . The wealthier people lived in huts, the basic structure of which consisted entirely of the skeleton of a whale, with the pine serving as an entrance. The ichthyophages made arrows, bows and spears from whale bones. These were sharpened with stones and hardened in the fire.
Say the ichthyophages
The ichthyophages, according to Arrian, had a myth that there was an island on the sea called Nosala, which is sacred to the sun . The earth on the island is blood red. The island is uninhabited, but anyone foolish enough to set foot on it disappears. Another account handed down by Arrian tells of a neride who turned everyone who entered the island into fish and then threw them into the sea. The sun is said to have been angry about this and ordered her to leave the island, which it did on condition that its enchantments were undone. The sun showed compassion for people and turned them back again. These people emerged from the sea and became those ichthyophages.
Other ichthyophage peoples
In the first book of his Histories, Herodotus tells of three Babylonian tribes who feed exclusively on fish and, like the ichthyophages of the Arabian Sea, dried it in the sun, crushed it and kept it in bags made of Indian cotton ; for consumption they were kneaded into pulp or baked like bread. These ichthyophages, however, were by no means such poor and neglected people as those of the Alexander historians . Also in Herodotus (III, 19) ichthyophages from the Egyptian Elephantine appear, who spoke Ethiopian and were sent scouts disguised as ambassadors to the Ethiopian royal court by Cambyses II . These ichthyophages are only mentioned as mediators between Cambyses and the Ethiopians and are not further characterized. It is likely that these are merely fishermen who lived on Elephantine Island and who were able to speak the Ethiopian language due to its proximity to the Ethiopian Empire. Pausanias and Ptolemy report of ichthyophage peoples on the Red Sea .
Appreciation
The existence of such peoples was long dismissed as a myth, also because in the Alexander novel of the Middle Ages these ichthyophages appear as people without a head and with eyes and mouth on their chests. However, Sir Richard Francis Burton reported in the 19th century such ichthyophages that settled on the coast of Arabia. This also allows the conclusion that such ichthyophages as described by the Alexander historians actually existed at that time.
literature
- R. Bloch: Ichthyophagoi , in Der Neue Pauly. Antiquity . Stuttgart-Weimar, Verlag JB Metzler, vol. 5, 1998, p. 883
- O. Longo: Un viaggio fra i mangiatori di pesci (dal Periplo di Nearco) , Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Patavina di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, Memorie della Classe di Scienze morali Lettere ed Arti , XCVIII, parte III, 1986, p. 153-57.
- O. Longo: I mangiatori di pesce: regime alimentare e quadro culturale , Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici , 18, 1987, p. 9-56.
- O. Nalesini: Roman and Chinese Perception of a “Marginal” Coastal Population: Ptolemy's Far Eastern Ichthyophágoi , in The Prehistory of Asia and Oceania , Edited by G. Afanas'ev, S. Cleuziou, JR Lukacs and M. Tosi, Forlì, ABACO, 1996, p. 197-204.
- Oscar Nalesini: History and use of an ethnonym: Ichthyophágoi , in Connected Hinterlands: Proceedings of Red Sea Project IV held at the University of Southampton September 2008 , edited by L. Blue, J. Cooper, R. Thomas and J. Whitewright. Oxford, Archaeopress, 2009, pp. 9-18.
- Jaroslav Tkáč : Ichthyophagoi. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 1, Stuttgart 1914, Col. 2524-2531.
- H. Treidler: Ichthyophagen , in Der Kleine Pauly . Munich, Beck'sche Verlag, vol. II, 1979, coll. 1333-34.
- W. Will: Alexander the Great , Stuttgart, 1986.