Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

FISH HIEROGLYPHS SUPPRESSED IN TOMBS 323were they forced by food pressure to rebel against it ? Didthe nobles in the Old and Middle Kingdoms occasionally wobblein their diet ? All these questions meet with no adequateanswer.An answer to the first, i.e. the date and reason of theabstention, as yet baffles even the richness of the fertile preservativesands of Egypt, since adequate data must stretchback to pre-dynastic periods.One fact stands out. The lower classes very early eschewedthe tahu and ensued after fish. Their example was followedlater by the upper classes, " with whom fish became a favouritedish : the epicure knew each variety, and in which water themost dainty were to be caught. It was, therefore, a mostfoolish invention of later Egyptian theology to declare thatfish were unclean to the orthodox, and so much to be avoidedthat a true believer might have no fellowship with those thatdid." 1Robertson-Smith declares that the doctrine—the highestdegree of hoUness can only be attained by abstinence—resultedfrom the pohtical fusion in Egypt of numerous local cultsin one national religion,with a national priesthood that representedimperial ideas. 2The statement, " countless pictures of offerings to the godsand the dead survive, but never a fish among them " has inthe light of subsequent discoveries to be revised. One strongreason at any rate existed in its favour.In the Pyramid textscarved on the sepulchral chambers of the Pharaohs of theVlth Dynasty the hieroglyph of the fish was deUberatelysuppressed, which goes far to prove that fish were regarded asimpure for kings. Furthermore, in the thousands of lineswhich contain speUs for the future benefit of these dead Kingsnot one figure of a fish occurs.On the other hand, evidence exists of practices in apparentconflict with the above facts. Newberry, ^ provides two^ Erman, Egyptian Life. Eng. Trs. (London, 1S94), p. 239,^ basing himselfon Mariette's statement in JSIonnments divers recueillis en Egypte, pp. 15X,152.2 Op. cit.. p. 2843 El Bersheh, Pt. I. (London, n. d.), PI. XXIIL