Ground and pecked black stone head (found underground and rehafted). Grooved and painted wooden handle with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic carved faces. Hafting by triple rawhide lashings through pierced handle. Pigment used.
Donor:
Alaska Commercial Company, Benjamin Bristol, and Older University Collections
Collection place:
St. Michael, St. Michael Island, Nome Borough
Verbatim coll. place:
Alaska; St. Michael
Culture or time period:
Alaskan Eskimo
Collector:
A. Belkaf and Rudolph Neumann
Collection date:
July 3, 1894
Materials:
Leather and Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Adzes
Function:
1.6 Manufacturing, Constructing, Craft, and Professional Pursuits and 5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions
Accession date:
1904
Context of use:
Head shows utilization; handle does not. Made into novelty by addition of fancy handle.
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
35 centimeters and 56.5 centimeters
Comment:
According to Eskimo consultant Ronald W. Senungetuk, July 1987, this is a root digger. Cf. 2-4057. Note: see root picks ill. in Nelson, Pl. XXXIIIB, text p. 75 and INUA fig. 114. All of these picks are ivory, not heavy stone as in this specimen.
Loans:
S2007-2008 #1: Anchorage Museum at Rasmunson Center (January 10, 2008–August 13, 2010)