Knapped Points for Whaling!

[Gus]

A thread over in Arrahs got me to thinking about a story I'd seen on one of the History Chanels a while back.
About knapped points discovered lodged in the blubber of recently harvested Bowhead whales.

The Whales were taken as part of the local people's annual harvest.
When the whales are brought to shore the hunters allow biologists access to the the carcass for study.
The biologists take measurements, bone and tissue samples for use in their research of the whales.
Then the the real work begins of butchering and distributing the whale to the families involved in the kill and those that aid in the butchering. As well as the Feast of the Hunt!

Over the years of this study some pretty amazing artifacts have been discovered lodged in the whales from hunts long past.

One point of interest was a Beautiful Jade point, the point to the upper left, found by following this link:
http://pratie.blogspot.com/2007/03/bowhead-whales-live-more-than-200-years.html

What a beautiful piece of work. The point is a bout the size of your hand.

Regards,

-gus

[Gus]

Here is another related article on some of the points used.

http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/96ASJ/05.06.96_BowheadAge.html

-gus

[Sparrow]

Harpooning whales and killing them with lances is a primitive harvest technigue that was virtually unchanged until the advent of the exploding harpoon head. That a guy can build him a boat,chip out some points,make him some lines and floats and go kill the largest animal known to exist is a testament to the ingenuity of the human animal.  It would be interesting to have watched the technique develop. Big Hairy cohones required !  I'd like to have a go at it myself.  '  Frank

[JackCrafty]

Hmmm...I think it was hunger that drove man to kill things as big as whales.  Starving is not fun!  It changes your whole outlook.

[Gus]

No doubt.

The People used every part of the whales they took.
And the whales took up a sacred place in the lore and lives of the folks that they provided for.
As it should be.



-gus

[Gus]

And What a Right of Passage that would be.

-gus

[mullet]

I'm confused; The point in the upper left has been knapped. Jade is like a super hard slate, it will not chip, it is usually ground and polished. I have made a half dozen Jade points in the past.