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Made of barracuda jawbone(*) and wrapped in red-dyed barkcloth, this scarifier was used by mourners to draw blood from themselves in honour of a dead chief. You can see the original here along with a second picture and some curator's notes.

(*) The source contradicts itself by saying both barracuda and porpoise -- googling for images suggests it's a barracuda, but I could be wrong.

This image is used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license and requires this attribution: © The Trustees of the British Museum

Originally posted to Reddit by me in 2023.

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[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The conical teeth indicate that's dolphin... But upon looking at cuda teeth, maybe!

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Fun fact, barracudas have two sets of teeth. This is from the inner jaw.

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yep. I lived in the Florida Keys. Itd eerie how they follow your every move when diving with them.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Cool af, and also terrifying

this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
55 points (100.0% liked)

Historical Artifacts

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Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

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