Seal Spears
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Dec 1866
name: label: Donor Name
content: Roderick R. MacFarlane
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "A PAIR OF ALEUT BOOTS IS SO NUMBERED. 1 ILLUS. IN PROCEEDINGS, USNM, VOL. 60; PL. 25, NO. 11; P. 48.
label: Notes
content: 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/224 , retrieved 12-30-2019: Harpoon heads made from ivory and antler with iron blades that are held in place with iron rivets. The body of one of the harpoon heads has a paired barbs and in addition has a barbed iron blade set into a slot at its end. of the barbed harpoon head has a single pair of barbs. Another of the harpoon heads lacks barbs, but has an iron blade with two pairs of barbs. Each of the harpoon heads has a line hole running though the body in the same plane as the blade, and a single spur. 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.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Apr 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Northwest Territories, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit, Inuvialuk (Inuvialuit)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00090
label: USNM Number
content: E2092-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Harpoon