Fonti scritte e fonti materiali: l’allevamento e il consumo di pesce nei monasteri medievali del meridione d’Italia

The recovery from more archaeological excavations of fish rests, their recognition and their integration with the study of the written sources, allow getting a unitary picture on the food application of fish in middle-southern Italy, between the IX and XIV century. It appears then evident that the consumption of fishery was diffused to all the social levels and how the rich economy tied up to its commerce attracted, not only the regal affairs, but also the monastic ones being the convents among the principal owners of the medieval “alieutic” (fish) fittings. Among the fishery quoted in the documents of the monasteries predominate cuttlefish; nevertheless the essence of the sepiostariis found in the excavations of the religious contexts, can be related to the custom of using the cuttlebone as ingredient for herbs remedies, or to induce to consider the possibility that, tied up together in bundles, the cuttlefishes reached the monasteries after being dried. The problem of fish conservation comes up again also about the conspicuous recoveries of bivalve molluscs by sites in the inland Apennines, giving attention to the existence of “neviere” (snow boxes), that are still scarce studied for what concerns the medieval age.