de Lagima] ARCHEOLOGY, YAKUT AT BAY AREA, ALASKA 135 



IIAIIPOON AUKOWHEADS 



Nine bone heads for sea otter harpoon arrows were found. These 

 are lilce the detachable barbed heads for seal and fish harpoons except 

 that they are smaller, and some seem to lack the line hole, perhaps 

 because the line was tied around the head below the lowest barb and 

 above the bulge of the tang. We cannot be sure, however, that 

 these unpierced specunens were finished. The archeological speci- 

 mens were identified by our informants, who reported that such heads 

 were also made of copper, although they disagreed as to whether 

 there were any of u'on. The harpoon arrow was described as a shaft 

 about 4 feet long, preferably of cedar, with three split eagle tail 

 feathers at the butt. At the fore-end was a socket piece of whalebone 

 into which the tang of the barbed head was inserted. This part was 

 described as "a little bone ring, split in two," that is, made in two 

 parts, and about as long as the thumb (5 cm.?). It had a hole at one 

 end for the shaft and a socket at the other for the barbed head. 

 Another informant described the socket piece as like the cap of a 

 fountam pen, presumably made in one piece. Probably several differ- 

 ent styles were used (see below). The function of the piece was to 

 add weight to the fore-end so the arrow would shoot straight, and 

 also so that it would float vertically in the water with the feath- 

 ered butt projecting above the surface after the quarry had been 

 struck and the barbed head detached. The harpoon line was of 

 twisted or braided porpoise sinew. It was divided, with both ends 

 of the martingale attached to the shaft, one near the fore-end, the 

 other near the butt. 



Hunting of sea otters was carried out by the surround method, 

 using fleets of small forked-prow canoes. The chief directed the 

 hunt and established rules intended to give each man an equal chance 

 of obtaining the valuable skins. 



The complete archeological heads for harpoon arrows (pi. 13, a-c, 

 g, h) range in length from about 5 to 6.3 cm., in width from 0.8 to 

 1 cm., and in thickness from 0.2 to 0.4 cm. One broken specimen 

 (pi. 13, e) when complete may liave been only 3 or 4 cm. long and 

 0.6 cm. wide. It evidently had only two barbs. This specimen is 

 from Old Town II and is one of the fom* heads that have, or were 

 intended to have, drilled line holes. The largest of these (pi. 13, a), 

 from Old Town III, has three barbs, and the others are two heads 

 from Old Towm II, with two barbs (pi. 13, 6), and with fom- barbs 

 (pi. 13, c). On the last, the line hole is only partially diilled. 



Three other heads lack the line hole, but may be imfinished. One 

 with two barbs (pi. 13, h) is from Old Town III; a second from the 

 same level (pi. 13, g) is made of bu'd bone and has four poorly defined 



