Ancient Jews eating only fish with fins and scales?

Question

“The Pentateuchal Dietary Proscription against Finless and Scaleless Aquatic Species in Light of Ancient Fish Remains” published in the peer-reviewed Tel Aviv archaeological journal on May 24, 2021, presents evidence from some 56 fishbone assemblages from 30 sites spanning from 1550 BCE to 640 CE.

“Significantly, all the fish assemblages from sites within the Southern Kingdom — first and foremost Jerusalem — presented evidence of modest to (more often) moderate amounts of scaleless fish remains,” they write.The requirement to eat only fish that has both fins and scales is found twice in the Torah: in Vayikrah 11: 9–12 and in Dvarim 14: 9–10.

How can these findings be reconciled with the Torah's prohibitions to consume finless and scaleless fish?

Answer 1

How can these findings be reconciled with the Torah's prohibitions to consume finless and scaleless fish?

To give a few possible answers.

1. The research was biased and faulty

2. Finless and scaleless fish were used for purposes other than human consumption

3. If they were consumed, then perhaps they were consumed by the many non-Jewish residents of Eretz Yisreol at the time (Gerey Toshev)

4. Or they were consumed by those who sinned against kashrut Torah Laws and they were the crowd the Navi/Prophet gives instruction/correction to.

5. BECAUSE they weren't eaten there were so many of their remains left around. They were caught by the fishermen's nets with the Kosher fish and being that they weren't consumed and had far fewer marketplace buyers stuck around to have their remains being found today

6. Note the dates of these (merely) fifty six Fish assemblages from a mere thirty sites which weren't even all in Eretz Yisroel. It runs almost SIX HUNDRED YEARS after the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdush and the exiling of most of the Jewish population from Eretz Yisroel and predates the Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel by hundreds of years as well. No surprise that they found non-kosher fish were eaten in Eretz Yisroel that time period.

etc. etc. etc.

Answer 2

Writing in the Times of Israel (here), Joshua Berman and Ari Zivotofsky write that these findings are actually highly in sync with the history of ancient Israel as told by the Prophets of the time. The Jews who were eating non-kosher fish were the same as those who intermarried or who worshiped idols as described in Isaiah, Ezra and Nehemiah.

As @DoubleAA suggested in his comment to the question, "although the Torah proscribes idol worship, the prophets censure Israel for doing just this, and indeed we find many dozens of figurines in Israelite sites during that time, including locations near where some of these non-kosher fishbones were found."

The authors cite various archeological finds at different periods in time. Some from the city of David, dated to the 8th century BCE, found 5,385 fishbones with 96% of the fish remains from kosher fish. "Other sites in the City of David have a much higher percentage of non-kosher fishbones. Remarkably, again, these other sites date from the period just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, broadly a period in which the residents of Judah come in for particularly harsh censure by the prophets of Israel."

Answer 3

Perhaps there were Jews who simply disobeyed Torah laws. King David violated Torah laws all his life. This does not prove that ancient Jews did not know about Torah laws.

The Rambam wrote:

"when I have a difficult subject before me--when I find the road narrow, and see no other way of teaching a well-established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools--I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace." — Guide, Preface