Harpoon

Object Details

Collector

J. H. Turner

Donor Name

Bureau Of American Ethnology

From card: "69" long. Illus. in USNM Rept, 1900; Pl. 10; p. 290. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned: Jan 21 1991. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 199, p. 162."

Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=248 , retrieved 1-4-2022; see web page for additional information: Harpoon, Inupiaq. A heavy harpoon for bearded seals, beluga whales, and walrus, with a toggling head that penetrated the animal and then turned sideways so it would not pull out. Even after hunters switched to guns, they used harpoons to fasten lines to wounded animals. Harpoons, used for hunting seals, walrus, beluga whales, and bowhead whales, were the heaviest Iñupiaq weapons. They have thicker wooden shafts than the lightweight darts that were used for seals, and unlike darts were always thrust or thrown by hand rather than launched with a throwing board. Harpoons have "toggling" points (heads) rather than the slender barbed points seen on darts. The basic parts of a harpoon are the detachable head, foreshaft, socket piece, wooden shaft, and harpoon line. Toggling heads were made of bone, ivory, or antler, with a slot at the end to hold a thin stone or metal blade. This type is spurred at the base and has a hole for insertion of the slender foreshaft. It was connected to the harpoon line with a short leader, which enabled quick replacement of the head if it broke. The foreshaft-which improved penetration of the harpoon head-fit into the socket piece and was tied to the shaft so that it would not be lost. The heavy socket piece was made from bone or ivory, and its weight helped the weapon to hit with great force. The length of a harpoon shaft ranged from approximately four to nine feet depending on the size of the prey-shorter ones for small seals and longer, heavier ones for larger sea mammals. When a harpoon struck an animal the head penetrated well below the skin, came off the foreshaft, and turned sideways under tension from the harpoon line. In open water hunting, the shaft dragged behind the fleeing animal, slowing its escape. Sealskin floats were often tied to the harpoon line for greater drag when hunting whales and other large mammals. When hunting seals at the ice edge or breathing holes the hunter would hold on to the line rather than letting it go. Harpoons like this one have a finger rest on the side of the shaft to help in making long throws. The foreshaft on this weapon is relatively long, to penetrate the skin and blubber of bearded seals, beluga whales, and other larger sea mammals. By the turn of the 19th century, the use of harpoons had begun to change. E. W. Nelson noted that by 1881, men in the Bering Strait region still hunted with harpoons but had begun to use firearms to kill sea mammals. By 1905, George Gordon reported that seal, walrus and whale harpoons were still in general use, but the stone harpoon blade was replaced by a metal one. Gordon noted that overall, firearms had begun to replace many Native-made weapons. Harrison Thornton-who lived in Wales from 1890 to 1893-reported that seal harpoons were used only occasionally to deliver the final blow to a seal after shooting it with a gun. John Murdoch-in the Barrow area from 1881 to 1883-reported that seals and walrus were often shot with rifles, while walrus were killed with a combination of rifle and large harpoon.

Record Last Modified

4 Jan 2022

Specimen Count

1

Culture

Eskimo, Inupiaq

Accession Date

9 Mar 1894

Accession Number

027937

USNM Number

E153727-0

Object Type

Harpoon

Length - Object

168 cm

Place

Alaska, United States, North America

See more items in

Anthropology

NMNH - Anthropology Dept.

Topic

Ethnology

Record ID

nmnhanthropology_8343280

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/38d83463e-13e3-41b3-add4-39c77fe4bfe3