Harpoon Socket Piece

Excavated at the Kialegak Site, St Lawrence Island, Alaska
Jeffrey R. Myers, New York
Howard and Saretta Barnet, New York, acquired from the above on October 23, 1984

Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait, July 13 - September 7, 1986, and travelling: the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,  October 18, 1986 - January 9, 1987; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, January 25 - March 22, 1987; the American Museum of Natural History, New York, October 2, 1987 - January 3, 1988

Allen Wardwell, Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait, New York, 1986, p. 88, cat. no. 100

Very good condition for an object of this type and age. Some old losses to the narrower (back) end where harpoon body attached. Some pitting to the surface of bone. Minor marks nicks scratches abrasions and wear consistent with age and use. One small chip reattached. Exceptionally fine dark honey brown colored patina, glossy in places.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Whilst remaining highly abstract in form, this harpoon socket piece is perhaps the most naturalistic of the ancient hunting equipment in the Barnet Collection. It is carved as a predator, its muscular jaw swelling around two circular plugs at the corners of the mouth and gradually widening to a great pair of fangs incised on either side. Sergei Arutiunov notes that clear depiction of fangs on a harpoon socket piece may act "as a kind of hieroglyph or ideogram of the master predator",¹ their menace clear even when the form of the beast itself is camouflaged from immediate recognition amongst the intricate arrangement of lines and dots. The predator in question is perhaps a masterful polar bear spirit, a relentless pursuer of prey that aptly serves as a spirit helper for the ancient hunters. The creature’s eyes are suggested by two nucleated circular bosses, their centers pierced, placed on the flattened muzzle above the jaw. These circles, which appear on lots 7 and 9 too, were also used in depictions of animals by the Yup’ik people of the historic period, the descendants of the Old Bering Sea hunters. Ann Fienup-Riordan remarks that the Yupi’k used these symbols "to support their complex transformational view of the spirit world",² in which all living things participated in an eternal cycle of birth and rebirth. 

Evidence suggests that the ancient people of the Bering Strait shared the Yup’ik belief that all things, natural or artificial, were in possession of a sentient spirit. They believed that carving these creatures upon hunting equipment helped the harpoon to find its prey, and moreover that these elaborately decorated objects honored their spirits. This socket piece, together with the other parts of the harpoon was in effect a traveler between spirit worlds, a respectful yet lethal messenger sent from the human realm to the creatures of the sea.

¹ Arutiunov in Fitzhugh, Hollowell, and Crowell, eds., Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, Princeton, 2009, p. 55
² Fienup-Riordan in Fitzhugh and Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 261