Shamanic scraper
Alaska
Old Bering Sea II-III culture
Archaic Eskimo
200-500 A.D.
Walrus tooth
Height: 19 cm – 6 ¾ in.
Provenance
Excavated from the old site at Gambel, St Lawrence Island, Alaska in 1984
Ex collection Merlys Hollis Pinsof & Jerald A. Goldfarb, Morgantown, West Virginia
Ex Sotheby’s New York, 15 Nov. 1988, lot 192
Ex collection Amy & Elliot Lawrence, New York
Publication
“Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait”, A. Wardwell, Hudson Hills Press, New York, p. 93
“Trésors du nouveau monde”, Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, p. 102, fig. 8
Exhibition
“Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait”, 1986-1988 :
The Anchorage Museum of History and Art
The Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley
The Detroit Institute of Arts
The American Museum of Natural History, New York
“Trésors du nouveau monde”, 1992 :
Musée du Cinquantenaire, Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, Brussels
In the archaic cultures of Alaska, hunting tools and gear were often adorned with powerful shamanic motifs. Scrapers were used in the preparation of skins to make garments, notably parkas. The scraper presented here stands out for its quality of sculpture and its evocative power.
