Egyptians farmed fish 3,500 years ago: study
Jerusalem, Oct 16: Egyptians practised fish farming more than 3,500 years ago, the earliest evidence of such activity worldwide according to a joint German-Israeli study released on Tuesday.
Scientists studied 100 fish teeth found at archaeological sites across modern-day Israel to conclude they had been plucked from a lagoon in Egypt's Sinai thousands of years ago.
"The sample of teeth covered a chronological period extending over 10,000 years, from the early Neolithic period through to the early Islamic period," said a statement from Israel's Haifa University, one of the participants in the study.
Of those samples, some were from about 3,500 years ago.
Farmers at the time found a lagoon which fish were entering and barricaded it for a few months, Guy Bar-Oz, one of the authors of the report and archaeology professor at the University of Haifa.
Afterwards "you can easily harvest them," the academic explained of a method still used in the same Sinai lagoon.
The Haifa academics worked alongside those from German universities in Mainz and Gottingen to deduce their findings from the teeth of gilthead sea bream.
Through studying the different types of oxygen isotopes in the teeth, scientists deduced that they were "spending at least four months in the closed lagoon", Bar-Oz told AFP.
The majority of the fish found by the researchers came from aquaculture and not local fishing.
Irit Zohar, from the University of Haifa and co-author of the study, said the size of fish standardised around 3,500 years ago and those imported from Egypt were all "the size of a plate".
"Exactly what we observe of the fish bred in modern aquaculture," she said.
Egypt became a "superpower in aquaculture" at that time, according to Bar-Oz. Scientists believe fish farming was practised in China 4,000 years ago, although Bar-Oz said no evidence has yet been produced to prove the theory.
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Case registered against those who took part in protest march against Khamenei's killing
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday said that the police have booked a case against those who took out a protest march in the city recently, without permission, condemning the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A large number of Shia Muslims gathered in Richmond Town on March 2 to mourn Khamenei's demise and held a protest march.
"A section of the minority community has accepted Khamenei as their religious leader. When he died, naturally they felt the pain and expressed it. But it should have happened within the framework of the law of the land. They had not sought any permission for the procession and no permission was given," Parameshwara said in response to a question.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "They went ahead with the procession. So, the police have taken action by registering cases against them. In the days ahead, we will not let them hold any processions. As there are court orders not to permit any procession in the city, it can be done at Freedom Park if needed. The government is strictly abiding by the court orders."
Responding to a question about a Congress legislator also being part of the protest march, the home minister merely said, "We will strictly follow the rules."
Khamenei was killed in an airstrike in Tehran on Saturday during a joint Israel-US attack on Iran.
