Drill Bow
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Mar 1897
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department of Agriculture
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ETCHED. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN." One section of this drill bow (under incorrect catalogue # 44399) is illus. Fig. 366 p. 268 in Fitzhugh, William W., and Aron Crowell. 1988. Crossroads of continents: cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. It illustrates the culmination of the Bladder Festival, held in December at the winter solstice. After several days of ceremonial activity, the bladders, in which resided the souls of all the sea mammals killed during the previous year, were taken out of the qasgiq and sunk through a hole in the ice, releasing the spirits to be reborn as new animals next year. In this panel a procession of men bearing four ritual paddles and a staff of bladders surround the ice hole, while men with knives stab the bladders, one by one, and sink them. See attached photo view 1 (color digital neg. # 2008-5222) of drill bow, which includes this scene.
label: Notes
content: Illustrated in Fitzhugh, William W., Julie Hollowell, and Aron L. Crowell. 2009. Gifts from the Ancient Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, CT. p 164
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Apr 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sledge Island, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 031796
label: USNM Number
content: E176191-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Drill