de Laguna] ARCPIEOLOGY, YAKUTAT BAY AREA, ALASKA 149 



a hexagonal cross section. These broken shafts may have been parts 

 of weapons or tools. 



It is impossible to determine the functions of these points and shafts, 

 even though similar objects have been found in southwestern and 

 southeastern Alaska. As Drucker (1943, p. 56) writes: "Almost any 

 collection of archeological materials from this area contains numbers 

 of pointed bone artifacts, which may have served various purposes: 

 hook barbs, herring rake teeth, hafted drill points, pins or skewers." 

 The same uncertainty applies to larger shafts or fragments of rods 

 (Drucker, 1943, p. 55). 



COPPER PINS 



There are two copper pins pointed at both ends from Old Town II 

 (see fig. 18, d, e). One is 6.3 cm. long, and 0.3 cm. in section; the 

 other 5.5 cm. long, and 0.5 by 0.2 cm. A third pin from Old Town 

 III (see fig. 18, i) is pointed at one end, while the other is expanded 

 and flattened. This is 6.8 cm. long, 0.6 cm. wide, and 0.3 cm. thick. 

 A slender, curved and pointed piece of copper, 3.2 cm. long, also from 

 Old Town III, may be a scrap cut from a larger sheet, partially shaped 

 into a pin. 



These double-pointed pins are not unlike a copper pin from Prince 

 William Sound, although the latter is 12.5 cm. long, and was tenta- 

 tively identified as a nose pin (de Laguna, 1956, pi. 42, 26, p. 209). 

 The Old Town specimens are too short and roughly finished for such 

 a use. Like eight copper pins from the prehistoric Athabaskan site 

 of Dixthada on the Tanana (Rainey, 1939, fig. 3, 11), they may have 

 been awls. Or, possibly they were parts of hooks or rakes for catching 

 fish. 



DEVICES USED IN FISHING AND TRAPPING 



The Yakutat natives formerly caught salmon in large rectangular 

 fishtraps set in weirs across such streams as the Situk and Lost Rivers. 

 Smaller cylindrical traps were also used for salmon and eulachon. As 

 already mentioned, the harpoon with detachable barbed head was 

 used for taking salmon, as was a type of gaff hook with bone barb. 

 Unfortunately, the latter is no longer clearly remembered. Halibut 

 were caught in deep water with large hooks, made of two pieces of 

 wood lashed together to form a V, and furnished with a sharp bone 

 barb (cf. Niblack, 1890, pi. xxxi, figs. 155, 156). The shanks of these 

 hooks were carved to represent men, birds, mythical creatures, and 

 other figures. Pieces of squid were used for bait, and the hooks were 

 anchored by heavy stones. The line was attached to a float or pair 

 of floats made of wood carved like a sea bird, or made of an inflated 

 seal stomach. Smaller compound V-shaped hooks were used for 

 other fish, such as cod (Niblack, 1890, pi. xxx, figs. 147, 146, although 



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