Fish book son indd

G.M.Palatnikov,  R.U.Qasimov
88
GOING BACK TO HISTORY
Sturgeon catching has been known since ancient times. Ancient Egyptians, 
who lived more than four thousand years ago, and Phoenician merchants, 
who traded with the ancient Egypt, salted and pickled fi sh and caviar and 
then consumed this food during wars, famine and long sea journeys. Bas-
reliefs on the walls of old tombs at the sett lement of Ti, near the pyramid in 
Saqqara, depict fi shers catching and gutt ing fi sh and extracting fi sh roe.
In ancient Egypt and China, sturgeons could only be served to pharaohs 
and emperors. Ancient Chinese believed that sturgeons turned into dragons.
Coins dating back to 600 B.C. and minted in Carthage – an ancient 
Phoenician port city located in the territory of modern Tunisia – depict a 
fi sh belonging to sturgeon species. In 400 B.C in Panticapaeum, the capital 
of Thracian Kingdom, they minted coins depicting fi sh. . Images of sturgeon 
heads can be seen on ancient coins found in the burial mounds of the northern 
areas of the Black Sea region, along with the profi les of Roman emperors and 
Scythian kings.
In the 2
nd
 century B.C., the Greek orator Claudius Elian describing his 
journey along the Danube River on the Balkan Peninsula praised beluga – 
one of the species of sturgeons. In his works, we see references to a sturgeon 
catching technique used those times, which involved application of  special 
fi shing lines with hooks att ached to a rope, which was thrown across the 
river, so-called set line. Beluga was so large and heavy that the set lines and 
nets were dragged out of river using horses and oxen.
No feast in ancient Greece was served without sturgeon dishes. According 
to ancient manuscripts, this fi sh was so highly valued that one amphora (jug) 
of sturgeon cost more than a hecatomb, which was equal to the price of a 
hundred of sheep or one bull.
During the times of prosperity and power of the Roman Empire 
(beginning from the 4
th
 century B.C.), many scholars and philosophers wrote 
about sturgeons. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), noting the tastiness of sturgeon, 
wrote the gelatin produced from the gas bladder was used as a glue and also 
wine purifi cation device. Today, this gelatin is called ‘fi sh glue.’

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Sturgeons – contemporaries of dinosaurs
89
Cicero (106-43 B.C.) complained about extremely high cost of sturgeon 
when he was purchasing it for feasts, while poet Ovid (45 B.C. -17 A.D.) was 
characterizing the sturgeon as a noble fi sh. According to Pliny the Elder (23-
79 A.D.), during feasts whole sturgeon, decorated with fl owers, would be 
brought into the hall and placed on the table by the accompaniment of fl utes 
and trumpets. According to the Greek writer Athenaeus, in the 2
nd
 century 
A.D. the sturgeon was the favorite dish at important festivals and feasts. 
Moreover, excavations of Roman sett lements in Wales provide evidence that 
breeding of sturgeons was a common practice even at such remote frontiers 
of the Roman Empire.
In the Middle Ages large shoals of sturgeons moved up many European 
rivers, including the Thames in England, the Seine and Gironde in France, 
the Po in Italy, the Ebro and Guadalquivir in Spain, and the upper reach of 
the Danube.
There were so many sturgeons in Germany that labor contracts stipulated 
a provision, according to which it was banned to force a worker to eat fi sh 
more than twice a week.
And still sturgeons were highly valued. The rulers of many countries, 
such as Russia, China, Germany, Denmark, France and England, obliged 
fi shers to sell them sturgeons at fi xed prices, making this fi sh one of the most 
important dishes of the nobility.
According to the order, issued by the King of England Henry the Second 
(1133-1189), sturgeon was taken under protection of the Royal Crown. Later, 
in the 14
th
 century, Edward the Second (1284-1327) issued a decree on the 
“kingfi sh.” A copy of this document is kept in the Royal Windsor Library. 
Nowadays, when sturgeons can be (although rarely) found in British waters, 
the monarch is still entitled to the fi rst catch (even though a fi sherman can 
leave the fi sh with himself).
Old manuscripts testify that in1240 Batu Khan (the grandson of Genghis 
Khan who was renowned not only for his deeds, but also for inventing a 
special culinary recipe – he placed slabs of meat on a horse’s back under 
saddle bags and rode this way all through the day, thus making the meat very 
tender) arranged a feast that included a fi sh soup made of sterlets, a large 
fried sturgeon, an eel pie, pastries fi lled with fi nely chopped mushrooms, 
followed by caviar and candied apples.
Crowned heads in many countries, for example France and Denmark, 
declared their rights for sturgeons catch. In 1165, the King of Aragon Alfonso 

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G.M.Palatnikov,  R.U.Qasimov
90
II allowed his people to fi sh in the river Ebro, but reserved the royal right for 
the catch. In France, the term “le droit d’esturgeon” meant that, according to 
the king’s decree, the right to possess all sturgeons caught in the Seine and 
Rhone Rivers had been granted to nobility and church. In the 17
th
 century, the 
famous Minister of Finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert imposed special restrictions 
aimed at protecting sturgeons, which are in force up to now.
And Russia did its part. People learned how to process the sturgeon caviar 
in the 12
th 
century, and during the times of Ivan the Terrible, fi shermen were 
obliged to deliver sturgeons to the czar’s table. Besides, there also existed 
the so- called ‘caviar tribute’, which fi shermen paid the czar. According to 
Czar Aleksey Nikhaylovich’s 1672 decree, each of the court’s 50 fi shermen 
should have provided the czar 30 sturgeons per year. Moreover, in Russia 
and Hungary, monarchs granted areas of rivers, inhabited by beluga, to their 
vassals for special achievements.
The tradition of viewing the sturgeon as a “czar’s fi sh” continued in 
Russia up to the October revolution. Each fi sherman was obliged to give 11 
tons of black caviar per year to Nicholas II. For this, Nicholas II had to thank 
his ancestor Peter I, who ordered that “the Great Czar should take upon 
himself all fi shing;” i.e., to create a state monopoly on fi shery. This primarily 
applied to sturgeons.
Until the end 19
th
 century in Russia the cheapest and most available food 
products was fi sh, not the least of which was sturgeon. Famous Russian 
writer Chekhov, describing his trip to Sakhalin, noted: “You can fi nd salted 
beluga with horseradish in every road inn. How much beluga is being salted 
in Russia!...”
Some 2,500 years ago Herodotus wrote that Scythian tribes caught 
sturgeons in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. Up to nowadays, 
the main source (89% of the world’s reserves) of sturgeons is the Caspian Sea,  
and, to a lesser degree, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
The Arab writer Ibn al-Fakih writes in his “Book of Countries” about 
the Caspian Sea as the main source of sturgeons, as do European travelers, 
particularly Marco Polo and Olearius. Claudius Elian mentions a huge lake 
on the “land of the Caspians, which is inhabited by large sharp-nosed fi sh, 
whose length reaches 8 cubits (3-4 meters). They are caught and brought for 
sale. Their fat makes a splendid ointment and boiled internal organs make 
clear and strong glue.
Let us talk about the peculiarities of the Caspian Sea.

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