While visiting in Mexico,I spent a few weeks in a small fishing village. About 50 miles south of the city of Mazatlan, located on the west cost, the only economy there was commercial fishing.Numerous small boats put out their nets each day. While the new commercial net is used, the remains of old, hand made, nets were not uncommon. After my inquiry of how nets were made today, one young man offered to show me. First he needed to make the tool he would use as his gage. From a tree limb, with the aid of his machete, he in short time crafted his net makers tool. Stringing a cord across the back of a second chair, he began to make his net. As the display shows the gage was used not only to make the knots it was also the tool to maintain the size of the gaps. In later comparing the knots used there in Mexico, with the net recovered at the shelter, it was learned that the same knot was employed. Only one small step was changed. On the last step used in Mexico, the cord is passed through the new gap in the net, using the tool to carry the extra cord. In the samples from the prehistoric net making, this last step was not made. The tool of early man did not allow for running the cord through the net. |
