Hairnets were also worn in ancient Peru. Some hairnets described by Singer from Pachacamac were constructed with square knots, but most of the 29 specimens she describes were made with the sheet-bend (fisherman’s) knot (Singer, 1936).
Hairnets of the square-knot construction from Bahía de Los Angeles pose, at the present time, an unanswerable question of origin and extrapeninsular distribution.
Carrying net.—One fragmentary net (139535a), the original size of which cannot be determined, is similar to the hairnets in construction, but probably was used for carrying. The bag is tied with the same element square knot; the mesh size is approximately 2.4 cm. Both ends of this net, however, are gathered together. The net beginning is a small circular piece of cord. Four loops are cast onto this; the number of working loops is increased to 16 in the next course by the method illustrated in [figure 4]. The square-knot tying begins with the next course.
At the lower end, the meshes are gathered together with a hitch ([fig. 6]). This may have been put through the loops at what would have been the top of the bag to hold it shut. This would serve as a supplementary tying cord rather than being part of the structure of the net.
This fragmentary net has one notably unique feature. Feathers, presumably decorative, were caught, not in the knots themselves, but between them ([fig. 7]). The knot used is identical to the “marline spike hitch” described by Graumont and Hensel (1946, p. 69; fig. 101; pl. 29). This type of knot—more properly called a hitch—has not been reported elsewhere among the methods of attaching feathers. As can be seen in the reconstruction, the feather serves to hold the hitch, yet if the cord were to be pulled tightly around it, the feather could be removed only with difficulty. It remains puzzling that the carrying net, rather than the hairnets, should be so decorated.
Fig. 7. Detail showing insertion of feathers in hitches of carrying net.
Turning to other archaeological examples of nets from the peninsula, we learn that specimens of square-knot netting have been found to the south in the central region from Mulegé to Comondú. Caves to the west of Mulegé have yielded two fragments of square-knot netting (Massey, MS 2). Other examples derive from Caguama and Metate caves between Comondú and Loreto. In Metate Cave there was a single complete carrying net (Massey and Tuohy, MS). Elsewhere on the peninsula little is known of them except for the southern Cape Region, where netting was in the distinct technique of lark’s-head knotting (Massey, MS 1).
On the ethnographic level, carrying nets were widely used by Indians of western North America from Canada to Mexico, and again in Central America. As part of this general distribution they were used throughout the peninsula (Driver and Massey, 1957, pp. 274, 276, map 78).