DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0336
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
249
We are ignorant as to what baits were used by the ancient Egyptian fisherman. His
modern successor dresses his hook with scraps of meat, with minnows, or —- a frequent
practice — with lumps of dough. In many cases he uses no bait at all, but fouls his fish
by means of a naked hook attached either to a hand line or a ground trawl. Bait is not
shown on the hooks in the ancient scenes, but as the fish are there often shown as being-
taken by the mouth, there is no doubt but that the hooks were dressed. A curious allusion
to baiting may occur in an obscure and dubious passage in the Book of the Dead, which
appears to read: “I have not caught fish”—it is the deceased who speaks — “[with
bait made of] the fish of their kind.”183 The implied prohibition, if the passage is not
purely metaphorical, is one of some interest.
By way of conclusion to this section, it may be again observed that whereas Egypt
shows us the development of the metal fishhook from its simplest to its most finished
form, it is rather curious that no bone or shell prototypes of the metal hooks have yet
been found. It is also worthy of notice that several European types of fishhook which are
found fairly well distributed throughout the northern Mediterranean, are totally unknown
in Egypt. Thus, the double hook, either barbed or unbarbed, commonly found in Bronze
Age Switzerland, and, later, in Italy, is conspicuously absent, as are hooks with a split
eye, an eye made by twisting the end of the shank around itself,181 a shank notched at the
end, corrugated at the end, or headed in a round button. Not even such fishhooks, more-
over, as have been found in early Syria bear anything more than a general resemblance to
the Egyptian types.185
§ 8. The week The wicker fish trap or weel is so widely employed throughout the
world that it would be a matter for surprise if it were not represented on the ancient Egyp-
tian monuments. The savage fisherman who has learned to construct rude weirs and
fish-runs soon proceeds, especially if he is following his calling beside the moving waters
of a tidal bay or of a river, to. set baskets at openings in his fences;186 and it commonly
183 Budge, Book of the Dead. Text, c. CXXV, Introd., 15 = p. 251; Ibid., Trans., p. 192, for the rendering
given above.
184 This type is found in Crete; H. B. Hawes, Gournia, Philadelphia, 1908, fig. 47.
185 Cf. R. A. S. MacAlister, The excavation of Gezer 1902-1905 and 1907-1909, London, 1912, vol. 2, fig. 275, c,
and text p. 86 sq.; vol. 3, pl. 134, fig. 40 and text, vol. 2, p. 86, note.
186 As an extra-African example of the weel used in conjunction with guide fences, cf. E. W. Nelson, 'The Eskimo
about Bering Strait ’ (XVIIIth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Washington, 1899) pl. 70, fig. 3, and text, p. 184 sq. In
Africa, the use of weels big and small is well nigh universal wherever fishing is practised; e. g., among the Manyuema
“across each small stream or backwater dams are built of hurdle-work, with conical openings at intervals, something
like the entrance to a wire rat-trap. When the waters begin to subside, the fish endeavor to pass through these dams
to the perennial streams. The women then go fishing in the following manner: Doffing their grass-cloth aprons, and
replacing them with leaves, they take enormous baskets — some seven feet long, two feet six inches deep, and two
feet wide in the middle — made of close mat-like work of split cane. These they set under the openings in the dams,
which are then unfastened, while some of the dark sportswomen go into the stream and drive the terrified fish toward
the dam. The fish, seeing no chance to escape save by these holes, jump through into the baskets ready for their
reception”; V. L. Cameron, Across Africa, New York, 1877, p. 251. See below, descriptions of figs. 133, 136.
249
We are ignorant as to what baits were used by the ancient Egyptian fisherman. His
modern successor dresses his hook with scraps of meat, with minnows, or —- a frequent
practice — with lumps of dough. In many cases he uses no bait at all, but fouls his fish
by means of a naked hook attached either to a hand line or a ground trawl. Bait is not
shown on the hooks in the ancient scenes, but as the fish are there often shown as being-
taken by the mouth, there is no doubt but that the hooks were dressed. A curious allusion
to baiting may occur in an obscure and dubious passage in the Book of the Dead, which
appears to read: “I have not caught fish”—it is the deceased who speaks — “[with
bait made of] the fish of their kind.”183 The implied prohibition, if the passage is not
purely metaphorical, is one of some interest.
By way of conclusion to this section, it may be again observed that whereas Egypt
shows us the development of the metal fishhook from its simplest to its most finished
form, it is rather curious that no bone or shell prototypes of the metal hooks have yet
been found. It is also worthy of notice that several European types of fishhook which are
found fairly well distributed throughout the northern Mediterranean, are totally unknown
in Egypt. Thus, the double hook, either barbed or unbarbed, commonly found in Bronze
Age Switzerland, and, later, in Italy, is conspicuously absent, as are hooks with a split
eye, an eye made by twisting the end of the shank around itself,181 a shank notched at the
end, corrugated at the end, or headed in a round button. Not even such fishhooks, more-
over, as have been found in early Syria bear anything more than a general resemblance to
the Egyptian types.185
§ 8. The week The wicker fish trap or weel is so widely employed throughout the
world that it would be a matter for surprise if it were not represented on the ancient Egyp-
tian monuments. The savage fisherman who has learned to construct rude weirs and
fish-runs soon proceeds, especially if he is following his calling beside the moving waters
of a tidal bay or of a river, to. set baskets at openings in his fences;186 and it commonly
183 Budge, Book of the Dead. Text, c. CXXV, Introd., 15 = p. 251; Ibid., Trans., p. 192, for the rendering
given above.
184 This type is found in Crete; H. B. Hawes, Gournia, Philadelphia, 1908, fig. 47.
185 Cf. R. A. S. MacAlister, The excavation of Gezer 1902-1905 and 1907-1909, London, 1912, vol. 2, fig. 275, c,
and text p. 86 sq.; vol. 3, pl. 134, fig. 40 and text, vol. 2, p. 86, note.
186 As an extra-African example of the weel used in conjunction with guide fences, cf. E. W. Nelson, 'The Eskimo
about Bering Strait ’ (XVIIIth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Washington, 1899) pl. 70, fig. 3, and text, p. 184 sq. In
Africa, the use of weels big and small is well nigh universal wherever fishing is practised; e. g., among the Manyuema
“across each small stream or backwater dams are built of hurdle-work, with conical openings at intervals, something
like the entrance to a wire rat-trap. When the waters begin to subside, the fish endeavor to pass through these dams
to the perennial streams. The women then go fishing in the following manner: Doffing their grass-cloth aprons, and
replacing them with leaves, they take enormous baskets — some seven feet long, two feet six inches deep, and two
feet wide in the middle — made of close mat-like work of split cane. These they set under the openings in the dams,
which are then unfastened, while some of the dark sportswomen go into the stream and drive the terrified fish toward
the dam. The fish, seeing no chance to escape save by these holes, jump through into the baskets ready for their
reception”; V. L. Cameron, Across Africa, New York, 1877, p. 251. See below, descriptions of figs. 133, 136.