DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0332
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
245
another whipping or round turn. The two heads, which, as they are rendered in black 168
in the original are presumably of copper or of bronze,169 * 171 have long shanks widening towards
the tangs. Near the middle of each shank a lashing is attached — just how cannot be
made out. These lashings are made fast to a figure 8-shaped twist between the heads,
and from this twist crossed cords are passed to the end of the shaft. These cords are prob-
ably those with which the shaft is whipped and wound: their purpose wTas to keep the two
prongs of the spear from spreading too far apart when a strike was made.
The second type of bident1/0 (that shown in fig. 46) is more simply made, as may be
seen from the detail drawing. The length of the secondary prong suggests that it was
of wood rather than of metal. The example shown in fig. 46 is of exceptional interest,
for the spear —• the only one of its sort which has come under my observation — is repre-
sented as feathered at the butt. The wife of the noble using this weapon holds in readiness
behind him a bilaterally barbed single headed harpoon or spear also feathered at the
butt. I am not free from a suspicion that the feathering of these weapons may be due to
the fancy of the Egyptian artist, or to an error of the modern recorder of the scene.
In the preceding section I have remarked that in using the harpoon the weapon was
delivered with a downward thrust. The normal posture in using the bident (fig. 45) as
portrayed on the Old Kingdom monuments suggests that the spear was cast and not thrust.
In the fish-spearing scenes the artists, as so often happens, tend to synchronize more than
one action. Thus, in fig. 45, the hands direct the weapon, and the position of the index
finger of the right hand graphically denotes that the spear is about to be launched: but this
has not prevented the artist from representing the points of the bident as being already
imbedded in two large fish (a Lates niloticus and a Tilapia niloticd). A like condensation
frequently appears in the other fishing scenes of this sort,1'1 and affords a curious example
of the way in which the stock types of the Old Kingdom completely dominated the Egyp-
tian artist.
§ 7. The hook and line. Until toward the close of the predynastic period the fish
hook is not found in Egypt — none of those variously fashioned hooks of bone or shell
which are found in so many neolithic cultures in other parts of the world were known in the
Nile Valley, where the first hooks, well made ones of copper, suddenly appear shortly before
the dawn of the historic age. No non-metalic prototype to the Egyptian fishhook has been
found; but it has been suspected that in the earlier prehistoric period gorge baits in the
168 Cf. Griffith, Beni Hasan, pt. 4, p. 3.
169 Bronze, as opposed to copper, does not appear in Egypt until after the end of the O. K.
1,0 Another example of these weapons will be found in U. Bouriant, Tombeau de Harmhabi (Mem.de la
mission archeol. franQ. au Caire, vol. 5, fasc. 3, Paris, 1893), pl. 6.
171 e. g., Davies, Deir el Gebrawi, pt. 2, pl. 5.
245
another whipping or round turn. The two heads, which, as they are rendered in black 168
in the original are presumably of copper or of bronze,169 * 171 have long shanks widening towards
the tangs. Near the middle of each shank a lashing is attached — just how cannot be
made out. These lashings are made fast to a figure 8-shaped twist between the heads,
and from this twist crossed cords are passed to the end of the shaft. These cords are prob-
ably those with which the shaft is whipped and wound: their purpose wTas to keep the two
prongs of the spear from spreading too far apart when a strike was made.
The second type of bident1/0 (that shown in fig. 46) is more simply made, as may be
seen from the detail drawing. The length of the secondary prong suggests that it was
of wood rather than of metal. The example shown in fig. 46 is of exceptional interest,
for the spear —• the only one of its sort which has come under my observation — is repre-
sented as feathered at the butt. The wife of the noble using this weapon holds in readiness
behind him a bilaterally barbed single headed harpoon or spear also feathered at the
butt. I am not free from a suspicion that the feathering of these weapons may be due to
the fancy of the Egyptian artist, or to an error of the modern recorder of the scene.
In the preceding section I have remarked that in using the harpoon the weapon was
delivered with a downward thrust. The normal posture in using the bident (fig. 45) as
portrayed on the Old Kingdom monuments suggests that the spear was cast and not thrust.
In the fish-spearing scenes the artists, as so often happens, tend to synchronize more than
one action. Thus, in fig. 45, the hands direct the weapon, and the position of the index
finger of the right hand graphically denotes that the spear is about to be launched: but this
has not prevented the artist from representing the points of the bident as being already
imbedded in two large fish (a Lates niloticus and a Tilapia niloticd). A like condensation
frequently appears in the other fishing scenes of this sort,1'1 and affords a curious example
of the way in which the stock types of the Old Kingdom completely dominated the Egyp-
tian artist.
§ 7. The hook and line. Until toward the close of the predynastic period the fish
hook is not found in Egypt — none of those variously fashioned hooks of bone or shell
which are found in so many neolithic cultures in other parts of the world were known in the
Nile Valley, where the first hooks, well made ones of copper, suddenly appear shortly before
the dawn of the historic age. No non-metalic prototype to the Egyptian fishhook has been
found; but it has been suspected that in the earlier prehistoric period gorge baits in the
168 Cf. Griffith, Beni Hasan, pt. 4, p. 3.
169 Bronze, as opposed to copper, does not appear in Egypt until after the end of the O. K.
1,0 Another example of these weapons will be found in U. Bouriant, Tombeau de Harmhabi (Mem.de la
mission archeol. franQ. au Caire, vol. 5, fasc. 3, Paris, 1893), pl. 6.
171 e. g., Davies, Deir el Gebrawi, pt. 2, pl. 5.