“May you receive that favourite harpoon of yours...

”
Old Kingdom spears/harpoons and their contexts of use

Martin Odler/Marie Peterková Hlouchová*

Abstract
The article examines the roles of spears and harpoons in textual and other sources of the Old Kingdom. Firstly,
palaeographic evidence is discussed, then Pyramid Texts, iconographic material and finally material culture, i.e.
the preserved artefacts, are reviewed. It is argued that mabA is the name of a complete artefact, mAw.t is the
wooden haft, bwn is the name for double harpoons, bound and used together, and qs is the name for the blade,
regardless of the material, be it bone, horn or metal. According to the Pyramid Texts, harpoons were connected
to the king’s victories over his enemies personifying chaos, his rebirth and resurrection. Whereas in iconogra-
phy and palaeography, distinction between spears and harpoons is usually clear, it is often not the case in mate-
rial culture. It is shown that artefacts named as harpoons in material culture were used as spears in the iconogra-
phy. Preserved specimens of barbed points from 4th and 3rd millennium BC Egypt have maximal length below
20 cm, the longest points for the hippopotamus hunt are most probably not preserved in the archaeological
record.

1 Introduction
Spear-fishing and harpooning are among the main means of procuring food in an aquatic
environment. The difference is in the firmness of point, while on spear the point is fixed, the
point will be detached using the harpoon. While harpoon with detachable head could be used
mostly for the tracing or catching of the animal, spears with firm heads must have been used
to kill it.1 The ancient Egyptian use of (fishing) spears and harpoons has received sustained
attention in the literature,2 being it in relation to the practical use of spears and harpoons or
their iconography, as well as their social, ritual and religious meaning in royal and non-royal
contexts. However, the objects used in spearing and harpooning, i.e. the harpoons themselves,
have received less attention and scholarship remains hazy. We propose to focus in detail on
the harpoons and their use in the Old Kingdom (ca. 2543–2120 BC), a period where we have
a sufficient amount of written, iconographic and archaeological evidence to support a detailed

* Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague. This study was supported by
the Grant Agency of Charles University, as part of project GA UK No. 38715. We would like to thank
N. Kanawati (The Australian Centre for Egyptology, Macquarie University, Sydney), H. Altenmüller (Ham-
burg), M. Raven (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden), R. Freed (The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Musées
Royaux d’art et d’histoire, Bruxelles, L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire, Ägyptisches Museum
– Georg Steindorff – der Universität Leipzig and Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh for permission to use drawings in
the article. We would like to thank Ivana Šmulíková for comments on the text.
1
M. Christensen/D. Legoupil/J.-M. Pétillon, Hunter-Gatherers of the Old and New Worlds: Morphological
and Functional Comparisons of Osseous Projectile Points, in: M.C. Langley (ed.), Osseous Projectile Weapon-
ry, Dordrecht 2016, 237–252.
2
The significance of ancient Egyptian harpooning has been discussed widely in the literature. See, e. g.,
T. Säve-Söderbergh, On Egyptian Representations of Hippopotamus Hunting as a Religious Motive, in: Horae
soederblomianae III, Uppsala 1953, 5–56; A. Behrmann, Das Nilpferd in der Vorstellungswelt der Alten Ägyp-
ter, 2 vols., Europäische Hochschulschriften, Reihe 38: Archäologie 22 and 62, Frankfurt am Main 1986, 1989.
For later harpoons see D. Kurth, Zur Konstruktion altägyptischer Harpunen, in: Nikephoros: Zeitschrift für
Sport und Kultur im Altertum 18, 2005, 53–69. Old Kingdom harpoons were discussed by the first author in the
volume M. Odler, Old Kingdom Copper Tools and Model Tools, Oxford 2016, 200–201, Figs. 205–206; this
article is intended to be an update of the chapter in the monograph.