Harpoon-Dart

Date1700-1900

MediumIvory, slate

DimensionsObject/Work: 240 x 60 x 57 mm

ClassificationsAgriculture/subsistence

Terms

Object numberC03223

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.

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