DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0344
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
257
add greatly to the strength of the net, but by gathering up the edge of the net when the
latter is being hauled in, they make the escape of fish much more difficult. The distribu-
tion of this specialized type of net is peculiar: it is employed on the Delta lakes and on
the Blue Nile, but is rare or unknown in the Nubian or Egyptian Nile.
I have felt it excusable to speak at this length of modern cast nets because, despite
the almost total lack of ancient representations of them, it is fairly sure that from at least
the beginning of the dynastic age, if not from an even earlier period, they were employed
by the ancient Egyptian fisherman. This belief is based upon the wide spread use of the
circular cast net, and upon its special prominence in modern fishing all over the Levant,
on the Nile, and on the Red Sea. If it be objected that its general employment in ancient
Egypt is not compatible with the infrequency with which it is represented, I do not think
one has to go far to account for the difficulty. The torsion of the body of the fisherman
casting his net and indeed the whole character of the action, which could only be ex-
pressed satisfactorily by a delineation of foreshortened limbs, of straining muscles, and
of flying ropes, was foreign to the ideals, as it was beyond the powers, of the Egyptian
artist. This, in my opinion, is sufficient reason why in representing netting scenes the
painter-sculptors of the Old Kingdom, preferred to depict the hauling of seines to the
casting of small nets — quite apart from the fact that the seine was the more productive
device, the crews which worked it could more easily be shown hauling on the ropes, than
could the single fisherman engaged in flinging his cast net.
Fig. 67, a Middle Kingdom scene already cited in other connections, shows the haul-
ing in of a circular or elliptical cast net. The archaeologist who published the tomb
in which this scene occurs supposed that the fish in the net were being drawn toward the
canoe by “the very clever fisherman Anqetsa” in order that they might be speared by
Sebeknekht, the owner of the tomb, who occupies the middle of the canoe. This is in
itself improbable, and when we see attached to the butt of Sebeknekht’s weapon a line
of which an attendant holds the end, the unsatisfactory nature of the explanation is not
diminished. The scene is really a double one — Sebeknekht is on the lookout for large
fish on his own account, while “the very clever fisherman” in the bows of the balsa draws
in his catch. The net, as the artist has represented it, is unmanageable, but in a general
way it is easy to understand how, in reality, the lines which the fisherman gathers in were
arranged. The net is not shown as being over the fish, but this is of no significance — cf.
the two Middle Kingdom scenes here given in figs. 163 and 165. One realistic and cor-
rect touch in the scene from the tomb of Sebeknekht is the manner in which the edge of
the net, fitted not with floats, as the writer above referred to supposes,205 but with sinkers,
205 J. J. Tylor, Sebeknekht, p. 6.
257
add greatly to the strength of the net, but by gathering up the edge of the net when the
latter is being hauled in, they make the escape of fish much more difficult. The distribu-
tion of this specialized type of net is peculiar: it is employed on the Delta lakes and on
the Blue Nile, but is rare or unknown in the Nubian or Egyptian Nile.
I have felt it excusable to speak at this length of modern cast nets because, despite
the almost total lack of ancient representations of them, it is fairly sure that from at least
the beginning of the dynastic age, if not from an even earlier period, they were employed
by the ancient Egyptian fisherman. This belief is based upon the wide spread use of the
circular cast net, and upon its special prominence in modern fishing all over the Levant,
on the Nile, and on the Red Sea. If it be objected that its general employment in ancient
Egypt is not compatible with the infrequency with which it is represented, I do not think
one has to go far to account for the difficulty. The torsion of the body of the fisherman
casting his net and indeed the whole character of the action, which could only be ex-
pressed satisfactorily by a delineation of foreshortened limbs, of straining muscles, and
of flying ropes, was foreign to the ideals, as it was beyond the powers, of the Egyptian
artist. This, in my opinion, is sufficient reason why in representing netting scenes the
painter-sculptors of the Old Kingdom, preferred to depict the hauling of seines to the
casting of small nets — quite apart from the fact that the seine was the more productive
device, the crews which worked it could more easily be shown hauling on the ropes, than
could the single fisherman engaged in flinging his cast net.
Fig. 67, a Middle Kingdom scene already cited in other connections, shows the haul-
ing in of a circular or elliptical cast net. The archaeologist who published the tomb
in which this scene occurs supposed that the fish in the net were being drawn toward the
canoe by “the very clever fisherman Anqetsa” in order that they might be speared by
Sebeknekht, the owner of the tomb, who occupies the middle of the canoe. This is in
itself improbable, and when we see attached to the butt of Sebeknekht’s weapon a line
of which an attendant holds the end, the unsatisfactory nature of the explanation is not
diminished. The scene is really a double one — Sebeknekht is on the lookout for large
fish on his own account, while “the very clever fisherman” in the bows of the balsa draws
in his catch. The net, as the artist has represented it, is unmanageable, but in a general
way it is easy to understand how, in reality, the lines which the fisherman gathers in were
arranged. The net is not shown as being over the fish, but this is of no significance — cf.
the two Middle Kingdom scenes here given in figs. 163 and 165. One realistic and cor-
rect touch in the scene from the tomb of Sebeknekht is the manner in which the edge of
the net, fitted not with floats, as the writer above referred to supposes,205 but with sinkers,
205 J. J. Tylor, Sebeknekht, p. 6.