[1] From Neolithic times, these coastlines, as well as the shorelines of inland lakes and the banks of rivers, have been punctuated with fishing villages.
Until the 19th century, some villagers supplemented their incomes with wrecking[8] (taking valuables from nearby shipwrecks) and smuggling.
[9][10] In less developed countries, some traditional fishing villages persist in ways that have changed little from earlier times.
Seven hundred years ago, Shanghai, beside the Yangtze River delta, was a small fishing village.
[18] Skara Brae on the western coast of the Orkney mainland, off Scotland, was a small Neolithic agricultural and fishing village with ten stone houses.
[19] Clovelly, a fishing hamlet north Devon coast of England, an early Saxon settlement, is listed in the Domesday Book.
[23] Another recent excavation has been made at Walraversijde, a medieval fishing village on the coast of West Flanders in Belgium.