Eskimo Inuit Harpoon Ice Tester Buoy Hook St. Lawrence Island Alaska Artifact

Making an effort to restock the Ebay store, figured I'd start with the staples. Every Alaskan Artifact collection has to have ice testers, period. Every Yupik hunter carried a harpoon and almost every harpoon had a durable "ice tester" at its base. These allowed the hunter to test the stability and strength of the ice pack as he hunted his way across it. This basic bulletproof design is thousands of years old and this particular specimen is easily 500+ years given its patina. Ice testers came in many sizes and designs, the more intricate ones could be interlocked so that two hunters in separate umiaks could give each other extra stability while traveling side by side. This specimen falls into that dual purpose category here the rounded tip served to wrap around the harpoon and act as an ice tester while the flared end allowed it to be used as a buoy or line hook when the hunter was in his Umiak. Please look at my other Alaskan Artifacts.