Seal Spear Head And Line
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1876
name: label: Collector
content: James G. Swan
label: Donor Name
content: James G. Swan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "HEAD OF FISH-DART.---MADE OF NATIVE COPPER; FIVE BARBS ON EACH SIDE; THROUGH THE SHANK IS ROVE A STRAP MADE OF BRAIDED SINEW. LENGTH, 7 INCHES. FORT SIMPSON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1876. 20,653. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=526, retrieved 4-24-2012: Spear head, Tsimshian. Seal meat and fat are highly important foods, and their oil is used to preserve berries and as a condiment for eating dried fish. Seals were traditionally killed from canoes using long spears with barbed heads. This spear head, which is attached to a piece of braided seaweed [sic] line, was forged from an iron trade file. Faint parallel lines from the file can still be seen.
label: Notes
content: From 2009 Conservation Condition Report by Kim Cullen Cobb: Metal spear head with a braided sinew cord tied through a hole in the proximal end. The metal spearhead is fabricated from a iron file trade item. The file cross-hatching from the original tool is visible in the surface texture; the iron was subsequently carved into the shape of a barbed spearhead. There are five barbs extending down each side, with a groove running down the middle of the spearhead and out to the end of each barb point. The cordage running from the spearhead consists of four strands and is strung through a hole at the end of the spear. A darker cord wrapping ties the heavier cord near the spearhead. Eight strands are twisted together and four are tied around the others at 17 cm. From here, the remaining four cords are braided down the length of the line and then tied in a slip knot at the end. Research shows that seaweed was sometimes used as fishing or hunting line, and the waxy, fibrous appearance of the cord suggests that it could possibly be made of bull kelp. However, comparisons made with this material and examples of seaweed in the NMNH collections indicate that the cord is likely fabricated from thick strands of sinew.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 18 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fort Simpson, British Columbia, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 004686
label: USNM Number
content: E20653-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Spear
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 18 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 23 cm