North America | Alaska
Knife handle
Alaska
Ulu Knife handle depicting stylized caribou heads and an anthropomorphic silhouette
Ipiutaq or Inupiaq culture
North of the Bering Strait
Ancient Eskimo
Probably 200-600 AD
Marine ivory, bead
Length: 16.5 cm – 6 ½ in.
Provenance
Ex collection Jean-Claude Bellier, Paris
Ex collection Guy Porré & Nathalie Chaboche, acquired from above
Sold
This ulu handle with a slate/flint blade would have been used to cut up the walruses that provided not only the meat and hides, but also the tusks that were used to carve tools, ornaments and shamanic amulets.
This functional knife handle features figurative and stylized figures: a human silhouette as well as the head of a caribou. The holes that are visible on the surface of the handle were expertly designed to provide a perfect grip during the use of this knife.
The art of archaic Ipiutaq culture in Alaska is distinguished by an extraordinary bestiary with striking shamanic and skeletal motifs. The style observed in certain Ipiutaq sculptures suggests possible Sino-Siberian influence, with noticeable reminiscences of Anyang art, a Bronze Age archaeological culture in China associated with the late Shang Dynasty. Upon crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia, it is believed that archaic Eskimo populations settled around Point Hope on the northwest coast of Alaska, coinciding with the emergence of the Old Bering Sea culture on the shores of Siberia and St. Lawrence Island.
This functional knife handle features figurative and stylized figures: a human silhouette as well as the head of a caribou. The holes that are visible on the surface of the handle were expertly designed to provide a perfect grip during the use of this knife.
The art of archaic Ipiutaq culture in Alaska is distinguished by an extraordinary bestiary with striking shamanic and skeletal motifs. The style observed in certain Ipiutaq sculptures suggests possible Sino-Siberian influence, with noticeable reminiscences of Anyang art, a Bronze Age archaeological culture in China associated with the late Shang Dynasty. Upon crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia, it is believed that archaic Eskimo populations settled around Point Hope on the northwest coast of Alaska, coinciding with the emergence of the Old Bering Sea culture on the shores of Siberia and St. Lawrence Island.
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