Seal Spear Points Item Number: E3975-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

FROM CARD: "1 OR 2 ILLUS. IN PROCEEDINGS, USNM, VOL. 60; PL. 25, NO. 11; P. 48."Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/93 , retrieved 1-8-2020: A set of three Ivory harpoon heads tipped with with iron blades. Each of the harpoon heads has a single set of paired barbs, and the iron blades also are barbed. The blades are secured in slots in the harpoon heeads with copper rivets. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/30: Harpoons are used for hunting sea mammals such as seals and whales. They have a point, or 'head', that separates from the rest of the harpoon and remains attached to the quarry. A line running from the harpoon head is held by the hunter or attached to a float, allowing the animal or fish to be retrieved. Thrusting harpoons, used for hunting seals at breathing holes on the sea ice, generally have long foreshafts that swivel inside a socket piece attached to the harpoon shaft in order to release the harpoon head. Throwing harpoons used for hunting seals and whales in open water normally have foreshafts that are more securely fixed to the harpoon shaft. Both types are found in the MacFarlane Collection.