FIRST HOOKS BARBLESS 313 



In Egypt no records of the progenitor of this copper Hook 

 survive. No family tree helps us, as elsewhere, to surmise 

 whether the thorn, the flint, or the shell constituted the material 

 of the first hook, for no non-metallic prototype has come to 

 light. The numerous bone and ivory points, all more or less 

 like the slender rod or pin of ivory shown in El Amrah and 

 Abydos} may, perhaps, indicate the gorges used by fishermen 

 in pre-dynastic times. The absence, however, in the above 

 example of any indentation in the middle, round which the 

 line was frequently attached, tends (in my view) rather to 

 negative the suggestion. 



The earliest hooks were of simple shape. The point was 

 barbless. The head, which in all cases lay in the plane of the 

 hook, was formed by doubling over the end of the shank 

 against the outside of the latter, so as to form a stop or an 

 eye, which might, or might not, have been an open one. 2 Their 

 length (varying from 2 to 6 cms.), if contrasted with the bronze 

 hooks of the Swiss Lakes, is short in proportion to their 

 width from the outside of the point to the outside of the 

 shank. 3 



The Xllth Dynasty displays a few barbed hooks alongside 

 barbless ones. One of the latter, belonging to Petrie, excites 

 our interest, for the string of its attachment (some nine inches 

 in length) is composed of double stout twist, w^hile another 

 proves itself the ancestor — in fact itself is — the Limerick hook 

 with a single barb. 



By the XVIIIth Dynasty barbed hooks, usually of bronze, 

 largely predominate. Instead of being headed up in the older 

 fashion they show the end of the shank expanded, so as to 

 form a small flange in a plane at right angles to that of the 

 hook. A Hne bent on the shank below this flange (even if 

 slight), and drawn hard up against it had the advantage of 

 chafing less than when made fast to a hook of the earher type. 

 The New Kingdom hooks, which continue scarcely altered in 



^ Mac Iver and Mace (London, 1902), PI. VII. i. 



« T. E. Peet, The Cemeteries of Abydos (London, 1914). Pt. 2, PI. XXXIX. 3. 



» For twenty-five figures of hooks, see Bates, PI. XI. For others curiously 

 shaped, probably Vth Dynasty, see Lepsius, Denkmdler , etc. (Berhn, 1849^, II. 

 p. 96. 



