Palestinian fishermen ride their boats as they return from fishing at the seaport of Gaza City early morning September 26, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem / File.

i24 News – One of the oldest copper fishhooks in the world was discovered during excavations in Ashkelon, southern Israel, the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA) announced on Wednesday.

The 6,000-year-old discovery was made in 2018 when the IAA carried out excavations prior to the construction of the Agamim neighborhood in Ashkelon. However, the find is only being presented to the public now; it will be exhibited for the first time at the 48th Archeological Congress on April 3, the IAA press release said.

“This unique find is 6.5 cm (2.5 inches) long and 4 cm (1.5 inches) wide, its large dimensions making it suitable for hunting 2–3 m (0.7-1.2 inches) long sharks or large tuna fish. More ancient fishhooks found previously were made of bone and were much smaller than this one,” said Dr. Yael Abadi-Reiss, co-director of the excavation and Dr. Daniel Varga, both from the Israel Antiquity Authority.

According to them, the use of copper began in the Chalcolithic period and the discovery proves that this technological innovation was also applied for the production of fishhooks for fishermen along the Mediterranean coast.

“The rare fishhook tells the story of the village fishermen who sailed out to sea in their boats and cast the newly invented copper fishhook into the water, hoping to add coastal sharks to the menu,” explained Dr. Abadi-Reiss.