Early Dorset Palaeoeskimo Harpoon Heads

Early Dorset Palaeoeskimo Harpoon Head Reproductions

Harpoon heads are probably the most diagnostic artifacts found in Arctic and sub-Arctic archaeological sites.  Most of the major divisions assigned to northern cultures by archaeologists are tied to distinctive harpoon head types.  The frequencies and types of other artifacts might change over time and space, but you can count on every culture having their own unique style (or styles) of harpoon head.  I just finished making a pair of Early Dorset Palaeoeskimo harpoon heads.  In the photo on the right, the top one is made from antler, and the bottom one is walrus ivory.

Harpoon head, in situ

At Early Dorset Palaeoeskimo sites, harpoon heads with "slices" in the socket are diagnostic.  The slice is an extra little slit that extends from the base of the harpoon head on the ventral face for a few millimetres.  Earlier pre-Dorset harpoon heads had open sockets, and while open socketed harpoon heads don't completely disappear from the Dorset toolkit, closed socket forms become the norm for the Dorset culture.  Early Dorset sites date in the 2500-2200 B.P. range and they aren't found in as wide an area across the Arctic as earlier and later palaeoeskimo cultures.  For example, Early Dorset Palaeoeskimo sites are not found in Newfoundland and Labrador, although both earlier and later palaeoeskimo groups did live in the Province.  The sites that I used as references for these reproductions are from Baffin Island, Nunavut.

Open socket, sliced socket, closed socket

The slice is a curious feature and I'm not exactly sure whether it has a functional explanation or if its just an interesting design element.  When you see it alongside earlier open socketed harpoon heads, you get the impression that the open socket is slowly closing up until they are completely closed.  An open socket is somewhat easier to make using stone tools than a closed socket, especially in ivory.  If you work antler while its wet, then closed sockets aren't too difficult to make, but they are pretty tedious scraping in a material as tough as walrus ivory.

The slices are only on the ventral face

Perhaps the slice is meant to provide some limited access to the socket to make carving it out a little easier.  However, some of the slices are so narrow, that they wouldn't really be that much help.  I added the slices on mine after I had already gouged out the socket, so they were no help at all in carving out the sockets.  Although, I was using a rotary tool and x-acto knives, so its probably not a fair test.  Maybe the slice has some function in helping release the harpoon head from the foreshaft.

Streamlined!

Or maybe the Dorset were so conservative that it took them a few hundred years to accept a completely closed socket harpoon head, and kept opening them up symbolically so that they looked more like grandma and grandpa used to make them.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has seen a sliced harpoon head abandoned in manufacture.  Were the slices made at the same time as the socket? Before or after? Any theories on their function?

Photo Credits: Tim Rast