Carved Wood Berry Dish
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jul 1921
name: label: Collector
content: Rev. Sheldon Jackson
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
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=690, retrieved 4-24-2012: Berry dish or bowl. Wooden bowls held the fruits of the land - crabapples, cranberries, blueberries, and other foods, dried and mixed with seal or fish oil to preserve them for the winter ceremonial season. Potlatch hosts served berries to their guests in carved wooden bowls, large trays, and even empty canoes. Grooves carved at the corners of this bowl mimic the bent edges of birch-bark baskets that Skeena River people used before making their legendary migration to the coast, led by the great shaman Devoured by Martens. "This is a very simple feast bowl, also called a square or high-end bowl. It is made of alder. Carved "wrinkles" at the corners represent folds on the birch-bark baskets that people used in the interior, before they moved to the coast." - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 066880
label: USNM Number
content: E316903-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Dish
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 32.6 cm