Archaeologica.org

I'll catch up with you guys this evening...been down at the site all morning....zzzzzzz....nap time for this old man.

Not if the equation runs one dead whale = one dead hunter it isn't Monk.
Using Stan's post, with the harpoons in and the boat alongside, the lances will rapidly prove fatal to the whale. A man going into the water would have minutes to live, even getting him back into the boat would not save him. Check up on the arctic convoys of WW2 or of British the trawler fleet in northern waters.
I wouldn't say that some nut hasn't done it, but as a routine method of whale hunting, no very likely I think.

It's that boggled mind mate!

I doubt if arctic "whale riding" lasted much beyond one or two attempts before people figured out there were better ways to get the groceries (like caribou).

But in more temperate waters, why not. People today are foolish enough to swim with humpbacks and they pay good money for the chance. I seriously think if I was 24, living near warm waters, and the tribe needed food. I might have chanced it.

We're not talking ice age here - remember? - we've got tridents.

A man going into the water would have minutes to live

I guess its lucky that Sperm whales are found in every ocean on earth except for the arctic ones then eh Roy

We need a border collie for this thread.

But in more temperate waters, why not. People today are foolish enough to swim with humpbacks and they pay good money for the chance. I seriously think if I was 24, living near warm waters, and the tribe needed food. I might have chanced it.

By the way, how long would a beached whale feed a small village of, say, 100 members? I would be willing to send the village idiot out there into the middle of the pod just for laughs! If he resulted in a beached whale, then I would be tempted to make him Honorary Whale Prince or some such title until I sent him out on another impossible task ... hmmm, Sabre-tooth cowboy?

Cognito wrote:I would be willing to send the village idiot out there into the middle of the pod just for laughs!

What's that say for me...I just said I'd chance it!

Like I said Monk, there's plenty of idiots about. But there is more to it than there seems, the Right whale is the one that was normally hunted from open boats, it was the Right whale to hunt for one simple reason. It is positively buoyant, when dead it floats. There is no use killing that amount of meat if you then have to sit and watch it sink out of sight. I do not know if the Right whale's range covers the warmer waters, but immersion in the colder waters is a death sentence, and the hunters would have known that so unless somebody wanted to be a member of the 'glorious dead' I'll continue to treat these ideas as fishermen's tales till proven otherwise.

Except marduk old son a dead Sperm whale sinks, just how would you prevent that in deep waters that Sperm whales normally frequent? Fancy tying it to the side of your Kayak do you?

A whale, when stuck with anything (and I thought we were talking about tridents) will not beach. He will dive. Then no ancient boat will catch up with him unless they are pulled by a harpoon and a rope.

Tridents don't come with ropes, or is the subject changed?

I made the same point some Marduk arguments back Beag.

I made the same point some Marduk arguments back Beag.

Sorry to be repetitive then. I'll have to get out of the discussion since I'm not reading all of it. I'll just go on record as saying that ancient mariners armed with tridents did not go whaling.

To say they did is ridiculous.
I'm outta here.

Except marduk old son a dead Sperm whale sinks, just how would you prevent that in deep waters that Sperm whales normally frequent?

Roy you are descending into idiocy here now
let me say two things
firstly my second love after archaeology............
okay my third love after women and archaeology is marine biology
have you got that
every time you have opened your mouth so far you have been wrong
think before you do it again please because I am tired of arguing with you
you have already seen the evidence of the sperm whale teeth
no other great whale has teeth Roy
now secondly
if you actually did 30 seconds research you might have come across the wiki page on sperm whales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale
read it
especially at the bottom where it says

Dead Sperm Whales float towards shore quite often

now go back and read all my other posts where I have stated that the reason and the only reason you hunt sperm whales with a trident is so that you don't kill them
so that they get distressed
because when they are distressed they beach themselves
have you got that now
thankyou for your cooperation

Thank you for the enlightened comments Marduk, dead Sperm whales sink till the gasses of decomposition bring back to the surface. That is why they hunted the Right whale.
If your interest into marine life extends to whaling you will find that modern whalers pump the dead 'uns with gas to keep them afloat till the factory ship can pick them up. they also attach a beacon to the floating body so that the factory ship can find them before they are eaten. Didn't you know that?
Oh and by the way, you still haven't produced any evidence of hunting Sperm whales with a trident.