Description (Labels & Markings)
Label attached to object reads: 'M. I'.
Event Date
Author: Sophie Wardle

Description (Physical description)
Description for Z 46192.9 [A-F]: 'Knife Blade; Harpoon head'.
Event Date
Author: Sophie Wardle

Context (Field collection)
Area CV. Excavated by Graham Rowley, British Canadian Arctic Expedition, likely in August 1936.
Event Date 8/1936
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Probably a harpoon head.
Event Date 2/3/2001
Author: maa

Context (References)
Rowley, G. (2007). Cold Comfort: My Love Affair with the Arctic. 2nd edition. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Event Date 2007
Author: Sophie Wardle

Description (Physical description)
Incomplete self-bladed harpoon head made from bone. Tapering form, with tip of pointed end broken off and missing. Several shallow notches running down both sides for approximately half of its length, beginning near tip. Two round line holes located centrally above an open socket. Lashing notches to either side of this. One asymmetrical basal spur with tip missing. Very flat on underside. Pale cream-yellow in colour. Polished surfaces, with strip of rough, porous texture on reverse.
Event Date 14/10/2024
Author: Sophie Wardle

Context (Amendments / updates)
When this collection (Z 46186 – Z 46192) was registered, it had lost association with its excavation site and was tentatively listed as from Southampton Island. However, the excavation markings (C1.I.1, for example) are consistent with the numbering system used by Rowley, whereby the first letter (C, in this case) corresponds to the first letter of the site. In the index to Rowley’s autobiography (2007) there is a list of excavations and Coats Island is the only one beginning with ‘C’, it has also not yet been identified in MAA’s collection. Unlike most of the other sites excavated by Rowley in c 1936-1939, MAA does not appear to have the excavation notebook for Coats Island, which would have confirmed this. Therefore Coats Island has been tentatively added to the Place field, and the tentative excavation date (August 1936) added to the Field Collection.
Event Date 8/10/2024
Author: Sophie Wardle