Harpoon

Museum number:
2-6365
Permalink:
ark:/21549/hm21020006365
Alternate number:
x-2558 (original number)
Accession number:
Acc.167
Description:
Decorated with feathers. Red painted wood shaft, whalebone foreshaft, bone head with 3 unilateral barbs. Plaited sinew line. Butt end found damaged during August 1988; repaired by conservator. Whalebone foreshaft inserted into wooden shaft, painted red; bone tip with three unilateral barbs secured with Y-shaped braided sinew dart line; feathers at proximal end.
Donor:
Alaska Commercial Company, Benjamin Bristol, and Older University Collections
Collection place:
Karluk Island, Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska
Verbatim coll. place:
Alaska; Kodiak district; Karluk Island
Culture or time period:
Kodiak Eskimo
Collector:
unknown
Collection date:
unknown
Materials:
Feather (material), Paint (coating) (red), Sinew (material), and Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Harpoons and Plaited weaving
Function:
1.1 Hunting and Fishing
Accession date:
1904
Context of use:
For hunting sea otters.
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
point— length 4.5 centimeters, whole— length 88.5 centimeters, point— width 0.9 centimeters, foreshaft— length 17 centimeters, point— height 0.7 centimeters, and foreshaft— diameter 0.9 centimeters
Comment:
Photo: 15-21005. References: See: Notes on Koniag Material Culture, R. F. Heizer; Anthro Papers, Univ. Alaska, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 11-24 (p. 23, pl. d-g). Neg. number: ACC53-02; ACC5-03 Graburn, Nelson H.H., Molly Lee, Jean-Loup Rousselot, and Robin K. Wright. Catalogue Raisonné of the Alaska Commercial Company Collection, Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 114. Vol. 21. Univ of California Press, 1996.
Legacy documentation:
Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Harpoon, accession number 2-6365, described as Decorated with feathers. Red painted wood shaft, whalebone foreshaft, bone head with 3 unilateral barbs. Plaited sinew line. Butt end found damaged during August 1988; repaired by conservator. Whalebone foreshaft inserted into wooden shaft, painted red; bone tip with three unilateral barbs secured with Y-shaped braided sinew dart line; feathers at proximal end.Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Harpoon, accession number 2-6365, described as Decorated with feathers. Red painted wood shaft, whalebone foreshaft, bone head with 3 unilateral barbs. Plaited sinew line. Butt end found damaged during August 1988; repaired by conservator. Whalebone foreshaft inserted into wooden shaft, painted red; bone tip with three unilateral barbs secured with Y-shaped braided sinew dart line; feathers at proximal end.Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Harpoon, accession number 2-6365, described as Decorated with feathers. Red painted wood shaft, whalebone foreshaft, bone head with 3 unilateral barbs. Plaited sinew line. Butt end found damaged during August 1988; repaired by conservator. Whalebone foreshaft inserted into wooden shaft, painted red; bone tip with three unilateral barbs secured with Y-shaped braided sinew dart line; feathers at proximal end.

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