Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A simple harpoon from the Sahel area


Here's one of the handful of primitive weapons I've purchased somewhere other than eBay, and one of my two harpoons. I will describe the other tomorrow. I bought this from a guy selling African pieces at a flea market in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This particular harpoon, said to be from Niger and certainly from the Sahel region, is probably not the greatest quality, but it's definitely made for use and shows a great deal of ingenuity and resourcefulness. I have not been able to find any similar pieces in the American Museum of Natural History or Pitt Rivers Museum archives. Compare it to the nice, darkly patinated piece below:



The harpoon is thick and sturdy-looking. I'd use it. I wonder what it was intended for...there are some pretty big fish in African rivers, as well as hippos, crocs, manatees - but I'd conservatively assume it was intended for large fish.



Overall, the point is crude but functional. The piece is reddish-colored with light rust and caked-on dirt. The large barbs are cut with a chisel (they're cut out, not lifted off) and bent outward slightly. The point is weakened by the large barbs, which leave a narrow waist that wold be prone to bending (a lot of harpoons, especially whaling harpoons, were designed to bend into pretzels, like the Roman pilum). The socket is roughly-made, with a large hole for bolting the point to a shaft or for attaching a tether. There's probably some use-wear and resharpening.


Length (overall): About 10".
Length (blades/points): About 7 1/2".
Length (other dimensions): Socket is about 2 1/2".
Width at widest point (blade/point): About 2 1/2" if bent tips were repaired.
Width (other dimensions): Socket is about 5/8" wide.

Materials: Probably scrap iron. My impression is that the piece was made from a flat piece of steel cut into shape, with the base shaped into a socket and the tip trimmed into shape.

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