Fish hook with whalebone barb bound to a wooden shaft and looped baleen leader. [ZM 31/3/2005]

Collection type: Object
Description: Fish hook with whalebone barb bound to a wooden shaft and looped baleen leader. [ZM 31/3/2005]
Long description: Fish hook with whalebone barb bound to a wooden shaft and looped baleen leader. This fish hook assembly is made of wood, baleen and bone. The bone barb is 12.2 cm. long, and the length of the leader and shaft is 41.8 cm. The leader is baleen, looped at the end and lashed, possibly with baleen. The shaft is wood, and a lashing, probably of bark, attaches the bone barb to the shaft.' Description taken from Bockstoce, 1977 (see publications field), verified against object by [ZM 1/4/2005]
Geographical reference: United States of America
Northern America > North America > United States of America; Western USA Alaska Icy Cape
Cultural groups: Inuit (Greenland); Inuit
Person: Field collector Frederick William Beechey; Field collector HMS Blossom; PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Date / Period: Date made: On or before 1826
Date collected: 1826?
Acquisition information: Transferred: 11/03/1886
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Bone, Material Whale Bone Animal, Material Baleen Whale Animal, Material Bark Fibre Plant, Process Carved, Process Bound
Dimensions: Length: max 420 mm, Length 122 mm bone
Object numbers: Accession number: 1886.1.778 Other numbers: 366
Research and responses: Please note that there was no further information about Beechey on the Donor Index cards at the Ashmolean Museum, Department of Antiquities. [L.Ph 23/3/2004]
Associated publications: This object is no.72 described, and illustrated in black and white in Fig. 39, on p.62 of J.R. Bockstoce, Eskimos of Northwest Alaska in the Early Nineteenth Century, edited by T.K. Penniman (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, Monograph Series No.1, 1977). Listed under 'Burbot and sheefish equipment' it is described as: 'Beechey Collection, Museum no. A.M. 778 According to Pitt Rivers Museum Catalogue, collected at Icy Cape. (Fig. 39:72) Length, 42 cm (Fig. 38:69) This fish hook assembly is made of wood, baleen and bone. The bone barb is 12.2 cm. long, and the length of the leader and shaft is 41.8 cm. The leader is baleen, looped at the end and lashed, possibly with baleen. The shaft is wood, and a lashing, probably of bark, attaches the bone barb to the shaft.' [ZM 1/4/2005]

Search terms: Fishing, Hook, Fishing Accessory