燕方銛頭|Toggle harpoon head

Unknown

Date unknown · Bone · Asian Art

The Jōmon period is the earliest period in Japanese history, lasting from roughly 14,000 to 300 BCE. The Jōmon people were primarily hunter-gatherers, hunting land animals and gathering vegetables and nuts on the land as well as hunting and fishing at sea. This toggle harpoon head, which works by detaching from the shaft of the harpoon once it is stuck in an animal while remaining attached to the shaft by a rope, facilitated the hunting of larger animals at sea. It allowed the Jōmon people to practice both opportunistic as well as deliberate hunting of large sea mammals including whales, which are known to have been part of the diet of some Jōmon communities along with other sea mammals like seals.

Artist

Unknown

Date

Date unknown

Medium

Bone

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975