DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0286
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FISHING
Oric Bates, M.A.
§ 1. Sources. The material on which this study is based is largely archaeological.
The documentary evidence on Egyptian fishing is so slight and fragmentary that it is
only from the ancient implements which have survived until our time, and from the ancient
representations of fishing scenes, that the technical history of this important industry
can be reconstructed. The implements carry us back in time very nearly to the beginning
of the predynastic period, and until the Old Kingdom constitute our principle source of
information regarding Nilotic fishing. From the beginning of the Old Kingdom until
the Late Period, the material remains are of less importance than the scenes depicted
on the tombs; but thereafter, owing to the changes in the interests of the Egyptian artist,
the implements themselves again become of prime significance.
The tomb sculptures and paintings, especially those of the Old Kingdom, form here,
as in so many other cases, an invaluable source of information. In their striving faith-
fully and accurately to portray the subjects they depicted, the artists of the IV, V, and VI
Dynasties have bequeathed to us a wealth of ethnographic material. The reliefs of the
XII Dynasty, and of the Middle Kingdom as a whole, while largely indebted to Old King-
dom originals, are in themselves hardly less valuable than the earlier representations.
The tendency to follow earlier models was deeply enough implanted in the sculptors of
the Middle Kingdom tombs to make their innovations of exceptional interest. When,
for example, we find a new type of fish harpoon shown for the first time in a Middle King-
dom scene, there is every reason to suppose that the artist has represented an implement
with which he was personally familiar, instead of a stock type of the Old Kingdom. In
the XVIII, XIX, and XX Dynasties the waning of the old magico-religious impulse which
had originally conditioned the evocative tomb reliefs, and the growing interest in courtly
and ceremonial themes, naturally led to an indifference as to the details of the scenes of
daily life. This indifference eventually extended in a general manner to the genre scenes
themselves, which in the Late Period finally ceased to be a feature of the Egyptian tomb.
In using the tomb paintings as evidence, one point should always be borne in mind;
the life reflected in the fishing scenes is that of the Delta. This is shown to be the case by
the whole character of these representations, in which we view a marsh land of papyrus
Oric Bates, M.A.
§ 1. Sources. The material on which this study is based is largely archaeological.
The documentary evidence on Egyptian fishing is so slight and fragmentary that it is
only from the ancient implements which have survived until our time, and from the ancient
representations of fishing scenes, that the technical history of this important industry
can be reconstructed. The implements carry us back in time very nearly to the beginning
of the predynastic period, and until the Old Kingdom constitute our principle source of
information regarding Nilotic fishing. From the beginning of the Old Kingdom until
the Late Period, the material remains are of less importance than the scenes depicted
on the tombs; but thereafter, owing to the changes in the interests of the Egyptian artist,
the implements themselves again become of prime significance.
The tomb sculptures and paintings, especially those of the Old Kingdom, form here,
as in so many other cases, an invaluable source of information. In their striving faith-
fully and accurately to portray the subjects they depicted, the artists of the IV, V, and VI
Dynasties have bequeathed to us a wealth of ethnographic material. The reliefs of the
XII Dynasty, and of the Middle Kingdom as a whole, while largely indebted to Old King-
dom originals, are in themselves hardly less valuable than the earlier representations.
The tendency to follow earlier models was deeply enough implanted in the sculptors of
the Middle Kingdom tombs to make their innovations of exceptional interest. When,
for example, we find a new type of fish harpoon shown for the first time in a Middle King-
dom scene, there is every reason to suppose that the artist has represented an implement
with which he was personally familiar, instead of a stock type of the Old Kingdom. In
the XVIII, XIX, and XX Dynasties the waning of the old magico-religious impulse which
had originally conditioned the evocative tomb reliefs, and the growing interest in courtly
and ceremonial themes, naturally led to an indifference as to the details of the scenes of
daily life. This indifference eventually extended in a general manner to the genre scenes
themselves, which in the Late Period finally ceased to be a feature of the Egyptian tomb.
In using the tomb paintings as evidence, one point should always be borne in mind;
the life reflected in the fishing scenes is that of the Delta. This is shown to be the case by
the whole character of these representations, in which we view a marsh land of papyrus