Mourning Neck Ring
date: label: Accession Date
content: 26 Jan 1869
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. William H. Dall
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. William H. Dall
notes: 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=503, retrieved 8-19-2012: Mourning neck ring. Koyukon mourners wore wooden neck rings and arm bands for a period of one year following a death. This neck ring, engraved with caribou designs, was part of the same set as the arm bands that are also on exhibition. In the situation described by Russian explorer Lavrentii Zagoskin, a Yukon River man who had killed another was required to blacken himself with charcoal and to wearing mourning hoops made of willow bark. "His face and hands were blackened with charcoal; on his neck, on his upper arms, at the waist, and on his legs he wore hoops of peeled willow bark like a necklace and bracelets. In this attire he was condemned to go about for a year and he would remain untouched; if he failed to comply, he risked being killed by any of his comrades." - Lavrentii Zagoskin, 1847.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Alaska (not certain), United States (not certain), North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Koyukon (Denaakk'e)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 69A00010
label: USNM Number
content: E7610-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Neckring