Implement Of Whalebone
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "OLD CARVING. USE UNKNOWN. QUIVER STIFFENER. DESCRIBED BY COLLINS IN "AN OKVIK ARTIFACT FROM SOUTHWEST ALASKA AND STYLISTIC RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN EARLY ESKIMO AND PALEOLITHIC ART", FOLK. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. "QUIVER STIFFENER" FROM CHALITMIUT, ALASKA. THIS IS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN GIVEN TO NELSON BY CHALITMIUT ESKIMOS, WHO RECOGNIZED ITS ANTIQUITY. COLLINS (1959) HAS IDENTIFIED IT AS THE SOUTHERNMOST OKVIK SPECIMEN KNOWN TO DATE. SEE COLLINS (1959) POLAR NOTES ARTICLE REGARDING RAW MATERIAL FROM WHICH ARTIFACT WAS FASHIONED. THERE ARE LARGE CRACKS AROUND THE HEAD OF THE BEAST ON BOTH SIDES. COLLINS THINKS BEAST IS MEANT TO BE THE MYTHOLOGICAL PALRAIYUK - AN ALLIGATOR - LIKE BEAST; RAW MATERIAL STILL UNCERTAIN ID. Can head be stabilized?"
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 304, p. 248, in Fitzhugh, William W., Susan A. Kaplan, and Henry B. Collins. 1982. Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Washington, D.C.; Published for the National Museum of Natural History by the Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there as "... a flat fragment of dark, polished bone, one end of which has been carved into the head and face of a beast with raised nostrils and eyes. The face is decorated with incised lines which form pointed ovoids around the eyes. Behind the head, both sides of the bone are incised with geometric patterns. The "stomach" side has paired sets of diagonal lines ornamented with small sets of ticks or spurs divided into panels by ladderlike motifs. The "back" side of the beast has skeletal or lifeline motif of bolder design, with radiating lines in positions suggestive of beastly legs or joint attachments. The design if the piece is clearly zoomorphic and is very similar to the beast design on an ethnographic quiver stiffener collected by Lucien M. Turner from St. Michael (fig. 103). [Ethnographic piece is # E24597]. Both pieces appear to illustrate a many-legged mythological beast, possibly a palraiyuk [paalraayak]. However ... [E36396] is decorated in the Okvik style with flourished in Bering Strait more than two-thousand years ago. The presence of this art on a type of implement not known to occur north of Norton Sound in historic times raises interesting questions about the distribution of Okvik art and the ancient roots of Bering Sea Eskimo culture. At present ... [E36396] is the oldest known Eskimo artifact originating from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region."
label: Notes
content: Illustrated in Fitzhugh, William W., Julie Hollowell, and Aron L. Crowell. 2009. Gifts from the Ancient Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, CT. Fig. 24, p 187. Identified there as a quiver stiffener, Okvik?, polished bone, l. 28 cm.. "In 1959, Henry Collins published a short article on this unusual bone artifact collected by E. W. Nelson from Chalitmut. The object bore Okvik-like decoration, and appeared very old, but the function, age, and identification of the animal bone were not known. Collins eventually identified it as a quiver-stiffener based on its similarity to a beast-headed quiver-stifferener collected by Lucien Turner from Yup'ik peoples at St. Michael, Alaska. Although Collins supposed it might represent an early Okvik-like culture of the Bering Sea coast, to date no other materials like it have been found."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Chalitmut, Yukon & Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E36396-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Quiver Stiffener