Harpoon-Dart
Harpoon-Dart
Object name: Harpoon-Dart
Date: 1700-1900
Dimensions:
240 x 60 x 57 mm
Medium: Ivory, slate
Object number: C03223
DescriptionHarpoon head. Made of ivory with flat leaf slate shaped blade inserted into a piece of bone and fixed in place with hide, sinew or gut thongs inserted into 5 holes drilled through. At the end of the bone section there is a long, thick, coiled hide thong.
Inuit harpoon-heads were either toggle-heads or barbed heads. The main difference between these two styles lies in the way each cements the animal in place; the toggle-head twists 90 degrees through a complex system of external lines and pulleys, while the barbed heads simply had teeth along the edges that secured the harpoon in place. This harpoon-dart seems to be of the first variety, arrow-shaped and easily attachable to a fore shaft. Toggle-heads were most often used in the more Northern Arctic because the more densely packed ice required a more secure grip on the animal prey as it tried to swim away.
Inuit. Bering Strait.
Inuit harpoon-heads were either toggle-heads or barbed heads. The main difference between these two styles lies in the way each cements the animal in place; the toggle-head twists 90 degrees through a complex system of external lines and pulleys, while the barbed heads simply had teeth along the edges that secured the harpoon in place. This harpoon-dart seems to be of the first variety, arrow-shaped and easily attachable to a fore shaft. Toggle-heads were most often used in the more Northern Arctic because the more densely packed ice required a more secure grip on the animal prey as it tried to swim away.
Inuit. Bering Strait.