DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0346
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
259
is not quite clear, but as they end in a sort of 1 Turk’s head’ or other round knot at the
bottom,209 it may be surmised that they were caught in bights of the rope so as to jam
when a strain was put on them (cf. fig. 162).
The bottom line of the seine was weighted to make it hang vertically when in use.
The weights, as is indicated both by their form and their color, were usually made of stone
until late times, when lead was also employed. The most usual shapes are those here
shown in figs. 165, 178, 179, 183, 186, 189, and 192. Fig. 165 shows weights bound to
the line of the net by a transverse lashing at either end; in figs. 178, 179 the lashing passes
around the middle of the weight, where it was doubtless kept in place by a shallow groove
such as is seen in the gritstone specimen from Gammai depicted in fig. 202. It is equally
clear that the stone weight in fig. 186 was secured by cross.lashings (cf. 164 and the sand-
stone specimen in fig. 204). The round or elongated weights in figs. 189, 192 were prob-
ably like the stone examples in figs. 193-199. What appear to be net weights of unusual
form are the actual specimens in figs. 200, 201, 203. The former of these (figs. 200, 201)
bears rudely scratched upon it a design which recalls the arrangement of the cords in
the cast net shown in fig. 150.210 With regard to some of the weights (figs. 195, 197, 198,
200, 201, and 203) figured in plate 21, Petrie has observed that they were probably
reels used in net making.211 Even supposing that by reels he means spacers, the identi-
fication, because of the nature of the objects in question, cannot be accepted. No lead
weights are depicted on the monuments, for by the time they were introduced, the Egyp-
tian artist was devoting his energies to mythological and religious scenes.212 Actual
specimens of lead weights, in the form of small plates or lumps bent over the bottom
line of the net (figs. 160, 205, 207), or in the shape of thick rings, either twisted (fig. 206)
or molded (fig. 208), are not infrequently found on Graeco-Roman sites in Lower Egypt,
where the ring form has been preserved until modern times, being common in pottery
among the Fayum fishermen (fig. 209). The unspecialized forms of most of the weights
above cited should warn the reader that whereas there is good reason to believe that they
were employed for sinking nets, they may in some cases have served for quite different
purposes.
The upper line of the seine was, of course, dressed with floats (figs. 161-166, etc.).
These floats are in many cases so conventionalized as to make it impossible to divine
209 Ibid., loc. cit.
210 The design is a common one on neolithic loom weights and similar objects. For an example of it which can
hardly be in any way related to fishing, see the ivory discoid published in W. M. F. Petrie, Tarkhan, London, 1914,
pl. 2, fig. 14 = phot. pl. 1, 1205.
211 Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite cities, p. 19.
212 An exception ought perhaps to be made to this statement in favor of some lead weights from Kahun which
Petrie (Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, p. 34) assigns to the XVIII Dynasty.
259
is not quite clear, but as they end in a sort of 1 Turk’s head’ or other round knot at the
bottom,209 it may be surmised that they were caught in bights of the rope so as to jam
when a strain was put on them (cf. fig. 162).
The bottom line of the seine was weighted to make it hang vertically when in use.
The weights, as is indicated both by their form and their color, were usually made of stone
until late times, when lead was also employed. The most usual shapes are those here
shown in figs. 165, 178, 179, 183, 186, 189, and 192. Fig. 165 shows weights bound to
the line of the net by a transverse lashing at either end; in figs. 178, 179 the lashing passes
around the middle of the weight, where it was doubtless kept in place by a shallow groove
such as is seen in the gritstone specimen from Gammai depicted in fig. 202. It is equally
clear that the stone weight in fig. 186 was secured by cross.lashings (cf. 164 and the sand-
stone specimen in fig. 204). The round or elongated weights in figs. 189, 192 were prob-
ably like the stone examples in figs. 193-199. What appear to be net weights of unusual
form are the actual specimens in figs. 200, 201, 203. The former of these (figs. 200, 201)
bears rudely scratched upon it a design which recalls the arrangement of the cords in
the cast net shown in fig. 150.210 With regard to some of the weights (figs. 195, 197, 198,
200, 201, and 203) figured in plate 21, Petrie has observed that they were probably
reels used in net making.211 Even supposing that by reels he means spacers, the identi-
fication, because of the nature of the objects in question, cannot be accepted. No lead
weights are depicted on the monuments, for by the time they were introduced, the Egyp-
tian artist was devoting his energies to mythological and religious scenes.212 Actual
specimens of lead weights, in the form of small plates or lumps bent over the bottom
line of the net (figs. 160, 205, 207), or in the shape of thick rings, either twisted (fig. 206)
or molded (fig. 208), are not infrequently found on Graeco-Roman sites in Lower Egypt,
where the ring form has been preserved until modern times, being common in pottery
among the Fayum fishermen (fig. 209). The unspecialized forms of most of the weights
above cited should warn the reader that whereas there is good reason to believe that they
were employed for sinking nets, they may in some cases have served for quite different
purposes.
The upper line of the seine was, of course, dressed with floats (figs. 161-166, etc.).
These floats are in many cases so conventionalized as to make it impossible to divine
209 Ibid., loc. cit.
210 The design is a common one on neolithic loom weights and similar objects. For an example of it which can
hardly be in any way related to fishing, see the ivory discoid published in W. M. F. Petrie, Tarkhan, London, 1914,
pl. 2, fig. 14 = phot. pl. 1, 1205.
211 Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite cities, p. 19.
212 An exception ought perhaps to be made to this statement in favor of some lead weights from Kahun which
Petrie (Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, p. 34) assigns to the XVIII Dynasty.