Collection: Fry

Item Number: Fry0154

Category: Harpoon

Region: Arctic

Tribe: Eskimo

Period: 1875-1900

Materials: Wood (cedar), bone finger rest, forshaft and point, old twine.

Description: This harpoon is the style found in the St. Michael Island area of Alaska. It has a prominent handrest, of bone, a heavy forpiece probably of whale bone, and a rather crude point attached by old twine, to the cedar wood shaft. This is a thrusting harpoon, probably not utilized for throwing. The point is attached, by the line, to the shaft which would be held by the hunter after the point penitrates the prey and detaches from the harpoon.

Dimensions: 67"

Provenance:

Gary Litherland

References:

Mason, Otis Tufton, Aboriginal Harpoons: A Study in Ethnographic Distribution and Invention, National Museum, 1900,

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