Full description: |
A carved walrus-ivory drill bow, trapezoidal in section along most of its length, with all four faces carved and inked in, and an elliptical perforation at each end for attaching bowstring or thong. The narrower flat face tapers to a ridge at both ends of the bow making the ends triangular in section. One face is carved with a scene depicting a whale being hunted from two open skin boats, or umiaks, and two kayaks, with five inflated sealskin floats attached to it; next to the indigenous whalers is shown a further umiak, its crew this time in the process of harpooning a walrus among a group of other walruses with noses raised up from the water; beyond is shown a scene of processing a whale carcass on land, with figures hauling it by lines up the shore and another balanced, squatting on top surrounded by sea bird scavengers while the umiak crew look on with their harpoons and paddles; and finally a snow house with a pair of figures in front with poles ready to cache a kayak for winter and a further group of figures apparently standing on top of the snow house. The scene carved on the narrower face above the latter shows two hunters on all fours with harpoons approaching a pair of seals on the ice between them. A third carved face depicts, from left to right, a scene with whales and a hunter hauling a seal on the ice whilst another crawls with a harpoon towards a pair of seals, above which is a flock of birds; adjacent to this scene is a caribou above another seal mammal being hauled by three figures towards a second group apparently also hauling on a seal harpooned through the ice whilst their harpoons are stuck into the snow nearby; next is a group of three larger figures hauling on a sea-mammal carcass surrounded by five smaller figures who may be children; beyond the latter group is a snow house with a small figure balanced on the porch and a cached kayak on stilts beyond under which is a child looking up to another whose feet are visible below the inverted top of the kayak; behind is another snow village of two snow houses with two figures in combat, each firing an arrow at the other while other figures apparently run with arms raised; and, finally, a cross-section if a snow house with two seated figures playing drums at either end and four dancing in the centre with a fifth outside the dance house apparently lying down. The fourth carved face shows one contiguous winter village scene comprised of six snow houses, ten umiaks and four kayaks inverted and cached on stilts for winter, and at least 29 human figures busy constructing the village by caching supplies, building the houses and raising the boats.
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