No. | 60 |
Description | Harpoon heads |
Site | Raitokoro Kawaguchi Site: from the Midden in the fill of Pit House 11 |
Size (cm) | L. 8.4〜4 |
Period | Ainu |
Date | 15th century |
Possessor | Tokoro Research Laboratory |
Comment | Made of deer antler or whale bone, these harpoon heads were used in the Ainu Sending-back ritual. The third and the sixth (from the left) are types attached to arrowheads, and the sixth still has the arrowhead in place. Such artifacts from the fifteenth century are very rare in eastern Hokkaido, so these samples are remarkable. |