Hello, my name is Laura Crawford and I am an archaeological technician
at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.
I'm working from home to help stop the spread of COVID-19,
so here i am next to my tent pretending that i'm camping.
Today, I want to share with you an archaeological mystery,
let me show you.
[snaps fingers]
Ah, this is it.
HOCU 3561. it's made of off-white antler.
It's mostly straight, about 8 inches long or 21 centimeters
and we think it's a harpoon head.
When it was intact it had two flared ends and two barbs all along the
same side which is why we call it a unilaterally
barbed harpoon head. This artifact was found in the burial of
an adult male which was dug down into mound 25 at
mound city but it's not a Hopewell artifact
actually this artifact belongs to the Jacks Reef Horizon culture
or JRH for short. The JRH people would bury their dead into the
top of Hopewell mounds and we don't know much about these
people they existed between 650 and 900 a.d and they really didn't
leave much behind what we do know is that JRH people were
highly mobile hunter-gatherers they can be
identified by their cord mark pottery, their beaver tooth incisor tools, thin
lightweight arrowheads and antler harpoon heads
like this one. Their sites which are mostly burials can be found
throughout Ohio and surrounding regions. So what makes this artifact mysterious?
Mostly because even though it looks like a harpoon head
it's lacking some common harpoon features.
Most noticeably the lack of a line hole. So once a harpoon is thrown it detaches
from a shaft and slides under the flesh of prey
often a fish. A line secured to a line hole
is what allows hunters to retrieve their quarry.
Line holes are common to harpoons although there are some examples
of harpoon heads with flared bases presumably to help secure
a tied line. While this harpoon did have a flared base there's
another problem, it's totally dull. Oftentimes harpoons would have stone
blades inserted into the top end or sides,
or they were simply sharpened to a deadly point.
But this object lacks any sharp edges at all.
So maybe if the sharp edges have deteriorated over time
or maybe this harpoon was never sharp and this may be due to reasons we just
can't fully understand. Unfortunately, we don't know enough about
JRH culture to know for sure.
What do you think?