Net Sinker

A net sinker is a stone weight tied to the bottom of a fishing net, line or trap. The commonest form is a flat, water-worn pebble or cobble with a notch knocked into each of two opposite edges to hold the cord. Side-notched sinkers have the notches on the long sides, end-notched sinkers on the ends, and a few have notches on both (Prowse 2010). Thicker, rounder pebbles were grooved around instead, and some are perforated (Fowke 1896; Bell 1980).

Notches were made by direct percussion with a hammerstone or by pecking; Rau described a flint wedge set on the edge and struck (Prowse 2010). Experimental notches were sharp enough that they may have been abraded to spare the cord (Hannold 2019). Grooves were pecked (Bell 1980). The Waco net weight of Texas is a small pebble grooved lengthwise all round (Bell 1980).

Cord wear smooths the notches. At the Early Woodland Morrow site in New York, charred nets were found with sinkers still attached, their notches worn by a double cord (Ritchie 1980, cited in Prowse 2010). Moorehead (1910) saw Ojibwa fishermen using notched pebbles as net weights; the largest notched stones are read as anchors (Hannold 2019). The key trait is a natural pebble altered only by two opposite notches, or a groove, for a cord.

Notched sinkers, Clearwater River, Idaho: length 34–337 mm (mean 68 mm), weight 14–12,691 g, the largest being anchors (n = 102); lower Snake River: length 39–230 mm (mean 73 mm; n = 216) (Hannold 2019). Perforated sinkers, Three Springs Bar, Washington: length 69–111 mm, width 72–124 mm, thickness 15–29 mm (n = 9, Daugherty et al. 1967, cited in Hannold 2019). In the Midwest net weights rarely exceed 100–150 mm (Morrow 2016).

Found across North America along rivers, lakes and coasts: the Great Lakes and New York (Prowse 2010), the Delaware and Susquehanna valleys (Moorehead 1910), southeastern Oklahoma and the Red River (Bell 1980), coastal California, where nearly half the artifacts from the West Berkeley shell mound are sinkers (Kroeber 1925), and the Columbia Plateau (Hannold 2019).

Identification tips: Look for a flat pebble with two opposite notches made by a few flake scars or by pecking, often smoothed by cord wear, the rest of the stone left natural. Sinkers cluster along stream banks and shores (Hodge 1910).

Similar types: Plummet is ground smooth and symmetrical, with a groove or hole at the narrow end; Moorehead (1910) and Kroeber (1925) rejected its use as a sinker. In California a centrally perforated stone is a digging-stick weight, while perforated sinkers of the northwest have the hole near one edge (Kroeber 1925). Bola Stone is shaped into a ball (Hodge 1907). Notched stones with ground edges and polished notches are axes or hoes (Fowke 1896).

Naming: Also called net weights, netsinkers and notched pebbles or cobbles (Bell 1980; Hannold 2019). Kroeber (1925) described California sinkers as beach pebbles nicked on opposite edges or grooved.

Dating evidence: Lamoka Lake, the type site of the Lamoka phase (Hart et al. 2023).