Carved Human Face Or Miniature Mask
date: label: Accession Date
content: 19 Nov 1931
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Ales F. Hrdlicka
label: Donor Name
content: Smithsonian Institution
label: Site Name
content: Jones Point Site
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Exceptionally fine spec., carved from ivory. Small mask; 2 holes on each side and above forehead. 2 1/2' deep in black refuse. Illus. in The Far North catalog, Nat. Gall. of Art, 1973, p. 37. Loaned to the National Gallery of Art October 20, 1972. Returned 5-29-73. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22, 1988, loan returned: Jan 21, 1993. Ilus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 157, p. 133." From Crossroads of Continents photo caption: Kachemak Carving, ca. 500 B.C. - 500 A.D.. The miniature mask is crowned with a headdress and has eye holes like a real mask, suggesting that it may have ceremonially masked a figurine.
label: Notes
content: Ancient Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) Mask, probably 500 - 1000 A.D., walrus ivory.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=493 , retrieved 8-30-2012: Mask, [Prehistoric] Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag; Late Kachemak. During the Late Kachemak period of Sugpiaq prehistory, between one and two thousand years ago, carvers produced striking images of people, animals, and spirits. This small bone mask with drilled holes and inscribed circles may have been made to place on a ceremonial figurine.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 18 Mar 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kodiak Island / Uyak Bay, Kodiak Quad / Kodiak Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
culture: label: Culture
content: Prehistoric Eskimo, Kachemak Tradition
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 115748
label: USNM Number
content: A363740-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mask
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 8.5 cm