Harpoon-Dart

Date1700-1900

MediumBone, iron, hide

DimensionsObject/Work: 40 x 145 x 40 mm

ClassificationsAgriculture/subsistence

Terms

Object numberC03238

DescriptionIvory or bone head of a harpoon. A flat triangular blade of iron is fixed with a small metal rivet into the bone base. Half way down a hole is drilled across the top width wise and a section of thin, coiled, hide line attached.

Inuit and Eskimo 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 foreshaft. Toggle-heads were most often used in the more Northern Arctic because the more densely packed ice required a more secure grip on targets.
Inuit.

On View

Not on view

Collections