Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

ASSYRIAN FISHING^CHAPTER XXXNO ROD, ALTHOUGH CLOSEINTERCOURSE WITH EGYPTThere is no delineation or suggestion of the Rod, or of Anglingon any sculpture or any seal, Sumerian, Babylonian, orAssyrian. 2The omission does not preclude the existence or use of theRod. If it did exist, and were used, we are surprised thatthere should not survive amongst the thousands of thingsmentioned and the many pursuits represented a single indicationof it. Our wonder, indeed, grows stronger when we callto mind that the Assyrians :(a) Were a people much given to sport of all kinds :(6) Were keenly addicted to the eating of iish, which wasnot, as in Israel or Egypt, half-banned by a prophet, or wholebarredto a priesthood by custom, totemistic or other :(c) Did attach very real importance to the maintenance ofan ample supply of fish. Their dams and vivaria, the adjunctsof every important temple or every self-respecting township,and their enforcement of Fish Regulations, attest the economicvalue :{d) Do mention and do represent other kinds of fishing,e.g. with the hand-line and the net. The latter, for both fowling^ The term Assyrian in this chapter usually includes the Sumeriansand Babylonians.^ Lest Forlong's sentence {Rivers of Life (London, 1883), II. 89), " A beautifulAssyrian cyhnder exhibits the worship of the Fish God ; there we see themitred Man-God with Rod and basket," etc., be quoted in opposition, I wouldpoint out that this so-called Rod is merely a cut sapling, like the one in thehands of Heracles, but without a sign of any hne, which in the Greek vasein the British Museum is obviously attached. Cf. Elite des monumentsC^ramographiques, vol. III., Plate I.349 2 A 2