Ivory Harpoon Head
date: label: Accession Date
content: 20 Dec 1929
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Henry B. Collins Jr.
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Henry B. Collins Jr.
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Closed socket, round line hole parallel with blade slit, spur is divided into three parts, surface is richly decorated with an old Bering Sea pattern. (Excavated from old midden by Eskimos. Purchased.) Ill. in "Archeol. of St. Lawrence Is., Alaska" - Collins - Smiths. Misc. Coll., 96:1, pl. 27A, 5. Cast loaned to the National Gallery of Art October 20, 1972. Cast returned by National Gallery of Art May 30, 1973 and put in storage."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=492 , retrieved 7-17-2018: Harpoon head. Designs engraved on harpoon heads and socket pieces from the Old Bering Sea period (A.D. 100 - 800) often depict animals or suggest them in abstract form, an artistic practice that expressed spiritual connection between human and animal beings. The lines and spurs on this harpoon head may represent a bird's feathers, appealing to the winged creature as a helping spirit.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Little Diomede Island, Teller Quad / Diomede Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
culture: label: Culture
content: Old Bering Sea
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 104800
label: USNM Number
content: A347940-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Harpoon
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 12.5 cm