Large Wooden Dish
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: "ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. XXXII-8; P. 71 ALSO AS FIG. 165, P. 448, SAME REPORT ("DRAWING OF MYTHIC CREATURE IN A WOODEN TRAY.") OVAL SHAPE, DIAMOND SHAPED BONE INSETS IN THE RIM, PAINTED RED. DRAWING OF THE FIGURE IN THE CENTER IS OF THE X RAY TYPE, SHOWING THE INTESTINAL TRACT OF THE FIG. ILLUS. IN THE FAR NORTH CATALOG, NAT. GALL. OF ART, 1973, P. 84. 38,642 LOANED TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART OCTOBER 20, 1972. RETURNED 5-29-73. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. LOAN: U.S.I.A. INUA JUN 24 1988. ILLUS.: INUA CATALOGUE. USIA 1988, PL.12, P.14. & PL.79, P.54. LOAN RETURNED DEC 28 1990." USIA Inua catalogue identifies: "Sometimes Eskimos found the bones of extinct mammoths emerging from eroding frozen soil in riverbanks. They interpreted these remains as belonging to a large subterranean burrowing animal called Kiluguwuk. Should this creature break through the surface and contact the air, it would immediately die."
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=562 , retrieved 10-24-2021; see web page for additional information: Bowl, Yup'ik. Edward W. Nelson purchased this Yup'ik bentwood bowl at Big Lake in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The painting depicts a long-tusked animal with human limbs, probably the mammoth-like underground creature that is described in Yup'ik oral tradition. Real mammoths lived in Alaska as recently as 5000 years ago and their bones and tusks are found eroding from river banks and along the coast. The story of the kĭ-lûg′-û-wûk may have arisen from finds of these remains, or from actual memories of the living animals, passed down through the generations.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Big Lake, Yukon & Kuskokwim Delta, 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: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E38642-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bowl
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 35.6 cm