Plug For Seal Float
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1880
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "[CARVED IN FORM OF] OTUS BRACHYOTUS [SHORT-EARED OWL]. ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. LVI-A9; P. 142 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE: FIG.359, P.263. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads of Continents catalogue identifies as a float plug decorated with a short-eared owl with red mineral eyes.
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=571 , retrieved 10-26-2021; see web page for additional information: Float plug, Yup'ik. Hunters tied inflated seal skin buoys to their harpoon lines when hunting large animals such as walrus and beluga whales. Openings in the seals' skins were closed with grooved wooden or ivory plugs. The short-eared owl on this plug probably represents a hunter's helping spirit. To make a float, a woman cut off a seal's head and skinned it from the inside using a small uluaq (half-moon knife).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Cape Vancouver, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 80A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E43509-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Float Plug
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 5.2 cm