Grass Mat
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Jun 1933
label: Collection Date
content: 1901
name: label: Collector
content: Comm. J M. Moore
label: Donor Name
content: United States Coast Guard Service
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Collected at Attu Island in 1901; twined open-work weave with small decorative inserts of colored woven yarn."
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=354, retrieved 5-8-2014: Mats made of wild rye grass (Elymus mollis) had a wide range of uses in classical Unangan society, and weaving them was one of a woman's constant tasks. Russian fur merchant Ivan Korovin wrote of the Unalaska people in 1763-65 that "they sleep upon thick mats, which they twist out of a kind of soft grass that grows upon the shore." Such sleeping pads were loosely woven from whole grass stems. Finely woven mats made of split grass were used as sleeping blankets, floor coverings, and screens. Mats were also hung as dividers between the separate family areas of large communal houses, where up to 150 people lived. In addition, seating mats were placed inside kayaks and taken out to create shelters when traveling. Mourners wrapped the dead in embroidered mats before placing them in the ground, tomb, or cave. Later in time, women wove grass prayer mats and rugs to cover the floors of Russian Orthodox churches. The processes of harvesting, processing, and weaving the grass for mats were much the same as for baskets, although long, tough grass harvested in late summer or even early winter was preferred for its durability. Large, fine mats could take months or an entire year to complete, a task that sometimes fell to female slaves in pre-contact society. Embroidery techniques, like the geometric designs worked in colored thread on this fine mat, were similar to those used on baskets. From Elders' discussions of the mat in 2003 (see web page cited above for the full entries) with Mary N. Bourdukofsky, Vlass Shabolin, Maria Turnpaugh and Daria Dirks (Tanadgusix Foundation) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/07/2003-4/11/2003. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA). Aron Crowell: How would you use a mat like this? Maria Turnpaugh: Well, some use them as room dividers, also as burial mats. A story I heard from my dad is that Aleuts taught themselves how to cure. And if somebody died, they say they wrapped them up like a mummy, but they took all the insides out and studied their insides to figure out the cause of the death. And before they buried them, they stuffed them with grass and moss, then wrapped them all up. Before they had cloth they used grass mats. They talked a lot about burial grass mats. Daria Dirks: How would you say this in Aleut? Mary Bourdukofsky: It's qaa}a{ [grass], and zanavéska means "curtain" [in Russian]. [She later said that this was too small to be a curtain and identified it as a luugiigamax (decorated grass mat, ceremonial mat).] Aron Crowell: Is that a different type of weaving? Mary Bourdukofsky: Like fish baskets [open weave]. Daria Dirks: This looks like a regular weave.
label: Notes
content: Maria Turnpaugh: Yes, that's a regular weave. You have to turn around and go back if you're making something flat like this. Mary Bourdukofsky: They go back and forth. Maria Turnpaugh: And you just weave them straight. That's actually very easy, and it's much faster to weave like that. Mary Bourdukofsky: Mm-hmm, with the wide spaces. It's a long ways. They probably got so far then hung it up, because it'd be hard to keep it up on your lap. Maria Turnpaugh: Or another way is to do so much and then roll it, then do so much and roll it. Mary Bourdukofsky: To me it looks like after they weaved it, they embroidered over it. Maria Turnpaugh: Well, if you do it the old-fashioned way, you would take your colored thread, wrap it around your weaver, and then weave it. And then the next one you just wrap it around again so your colors are on the top. That's how Anfesia [Shapsnikoff] taught me to make flowers and stuff like that.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 16 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Attu Island, Aleutian Islands / Attu Quad, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas), Attu
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 124570
label: USNM Number
content: E365225-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mat
physicalDescription: label: Total Height - Object
content: 137 cm