Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

3o8TACKLEconcern us first. Of the Trident there seems to be neitherexample or representation. Priority of use may possibly beEARLY HARPOON.See note i.'.^M-xrconceded to the Spear in Palaeolithictimes. The fact that inEgypt we are dealing with anage, the Copper, separated fromthe PalaeoHthic by the NewStone era, prevents even aguess as to priority on the Nile.Egypt, it is true, bequeaths usthe oldest historical as apartfrom archaeological data, butthese are merely great-greatgrandchildrenof the debrisdata of France, and comparativelymodern.Then again, in Europe theHarpoon was rarely combinedwith objects of the CopperAge, in Egypt frequently.The Harpoon has beendivided by Bates, but, I think,somewhat needlessly, into twotypes.(i) A spear barbed unilaterallyor bilaterally.(2) A similar Spear whichhas its head so socketed as tocome free from the shaft whenthe object has been struck, thequarry being thereafter retrieved by means of a line madefast to the head itself.One of the simplest specimens is, perhaps, that figured byReisner, 1 while two by Petrie 2 are, though probably predynastic,of more elaborate workmanship.^EARLY HARPOON.See note 2.The ArchcBological Survey of Nubia for 1907-8 (Cairo, 1910), Plate LXV.,b. 5-2 Naqada and Ballas (London, 1896), Plate LXV. 7; and(1915), Part I. p. 13, f. 3.Ancient Egypt