Bow Drill
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Jan 1910
name: label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department Of Interior
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Bone [sic] bow, wooden drill shaft, steel point. Mouth piece."
label: Notes
content: From 2008 Anthropology Conservation lab condition treatment report: Engraved ivory drill bow with leather thong; wood drill shaft with steel bit, and wood mouthpiece with carved seal heads. Materials and Construction: The drill bow was made from a walrus tusk that had been split; the piece was shaped and polished extensively and then engraved using a flint tip. The engraving was blackened so that it could be read easily, probably using a charcoal and oil mixture. The wood drill shaft was slit at one end to receive the steel bit; the end was wrapped with skin line. The mouthpiece is carved from a piece of wood, with a circular stone insert on one side where the drill spun.
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=670 , retrieved 12-16-2021; see web page for additional information: Bow drill, Inupiaq. The traditional drill was a wooden spindle wrapped in a turn of leather cord and twirled by the back and forth motion of an ivory bow. The upper end of the spindle was held by a mouthpiece inset with a cupped bearing of smooth stone. Craftsmen kept sets of spindles with different sized bits made from stone or iron. Drill bows were engraved with life scenes, like this these showing hunting and dog sledding.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 3
place: label: Place
content: Port Clarence, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 051115
label: USNM Number
content: E260132-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Drill Bow / Drill / Drill Mouthpiece
physicalDescription: label: Length - Drill
content: 25 cm