142 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



BARBED BONE ARROWHEADS 



There are 12 unilaterally barbed bone points for arrows (2 of which 

 might be for multipronged arrows), 6 fragments of presumably simi- 

 lar heads, and 5 very small barbed points which might have been for 

 fishhooks. Since slender unilaterally barbed bone or antler points 

 are common and ancient among the northern and southwestern 

 Alaskan Eskimo and the Aleut, and are also found on the northern 

 and southern Northwest Coast, appearing at such ancient sites as 

 Cattle Point, Marpole (Eburne), Beach Grove, and Locarno Beach 

 (de Laguna, 1947, pp. 203 ff.; Drucker, 1943, type AI, pp. 41, 120; 

 King, 1950, fig. 13, 32-35; Borden, personal communication), their 

 presence at Yakutat could have been predicted. Our informants 

 also mentioned a type of arrowhead with one (or two?) pau's of barbs, 

 probably like the long-tanged bone and iron specimens from the 

 Eyak (Birket-Smith and de Laguna, 1938, pp. 103 ff., pl.l2, ^-8), 

 but we found no examples. 



There are three complete slender barbed points mth more or less 

 detached conical tangs, and a pair of incised lines or grooves out- 

 lining the row of four or five barbs, and a flat bladelike tip. These 

 are 21.2, 22, and 25 cm. long, and about 1.5 cm. wide and 0.7 cm. 

 thick. The longest and most interesting specimen (fig. 17, o) has a 

 scalloped edge below the row of five barbs, and the bordering lines 

 are spurred. This specimen comes from Old Town II. The other 

 two are from Old Town III; one with four barbs, the other (fig. 17, m) 

 with five barbs and a medial line on each side, in addition to the 

 bordering lines along the barbs. Informants who saw this last speci- 

 men doubted that their ancestors had used such arrowheads, and one 

 man hazarded that it might have been Chugach. 



Fragments of what were probably similar heads are the basal part 

 with conical tang from Old ToAvn II (fig. 17, e), a midportion with 

 bordering lines and two barbs from Old Town III, and a long fore- 

 end like a blade from Old Town III (fig. 17,/). 



There is also a slender point (fig. 17, n), 14 cm. long and 1 cm. 

 wide, with long conical tang, and a small shoulder or notch below the 

 two barbs. It lacks bordering lines, however, and comes from Old 

 Town II. 



These seven specimens resemble in a number of ways some of the 

 slender barbed points from Kachemak Bay, Kodiak, and Prince 

 William Sound. It is interesting that one man should ascribe them 

 to the Chugach, for they have a definitely Eskimoid appearance, 

 even though their particular combination of features is not duplicated 

 on southwestern Alaskan specimens. Thus, the flat tip like a blade 

 is characteristic of the Chugach barbed arrowheads, although these 

 are much smaller, and it is also found on protohistoric and modern 



