The Exploitation of Toxic Fish from the Terminal Pleistocene in Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study from the Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines

Clara Boulanger; Alfred Pawlik; Sue O'Connor; Anne-Marie Sémah; Marian C Reyes; Thomas Ingicco

doi:10.3390/ani13132113

The Exploitation of Toxic Fish from the Terminal Pleistocene in Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study from the Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines

Animals (Basel). 2023 Jun 26;13(13):2113. doi: 10.3390/ani13132113.

Authors

Clara Boulanger^{1

2

3}, Alfred Pawlik^{4

5

6}, Sue O'Connor^{2

7}, Anne-Marie Sémah¹, Marian C Reyes^{8

9}, Thomas Ingicco¹

Affiliations

¹ UMR 7194 Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme Préhistorique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75005 Paris, France.
² Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
³ Japan Society for the Promotion of Science International Research Fellow, Department of Modern Society and Civilization, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka 565-8511, Japan.
⁴ Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City 1108, Philippines.
⁵ TRACES ASIA, 3F Eduardo J. Aboitiz Sandbox Zone, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City 1108, Philippines.
⁶ Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany.
⁷ ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁸ The National Museum of the Philippines, Manila 1000, Philippines.
⁹ School of Archaeology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines.

Abstract

Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record of these Philippines shell middens suggests that porcupinefish were prepared by human inhabitants of the sites to render them safe for consumption, indicating an advanced cultural knowledge of the preparation needed to separate the toxic principle from the edible parts. This constitutes one of the rare examples of poison processing by humans, aside from the contentious wooden stick poison applicator from Border Cave (South Africa).

Keywords: Diodontidae; Indo-Pacific; hunter-gatherer; marine environment; poison.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the University Research Council and the Loyola Schools of Ateneo de Manila University, the University of Western Australia, the National Geographic Society, the POSCO TJ Park Foundation, the University of the Philippines OVPAA, and the University of the Philippines Diliman OVCRD.