Archaic Eskimo - Ancient Arts of Alaska Page 4

Le Grand Nord, une terre de découvertes
A quelques encablures des côtes de Sibérie, dans le milieu hostile du Grand Nord, les
premières civilisations paléo-Eskimo ont traversé le Détroit de Béring pour s'établir en
Alaska vers -2000 avant Jésus-Christ.
Ces populations de chasseurs semi-nomades, suivant la migration des grands mammifères
marins baleines, morses, phoques se sont progressivement installées sur St. Lawrence
Island et les côtes d'Alaska donnant naissance à la civilisation Okvik (-200 avant J.C. à
+100 après J.C.).
Les Okvik et les cultures ultérieures qui se sont succédé Old Bering Sea II et III, puis
Punuk, Thule sont les ancêtres des Eskimos (Inuit) actuels. Le mot « Okvik » signifie
littéralement « le lieu où les morses viennent à terre » et correspond à un site de chasse
privilégié de St. Lawrence Island.

Le sol gelé du permafrost continue de livrer année après année, des objets sculptés en
os et en ivoire marin qui y ont été déposés ou enterrés à travers les âges. Réchauffement
climatique aidant, les Eskimos contemporains mènent chaque été des campagnes de
fouilles qui permettent de mettre à jour ces témoignages précieux de pratiques religieuses
et chamaniques ancestrales.

Stylization of features, alliance of naturalism and symbolism, sculptural finesse, sobriety and
a hieratic quality these are the key features characterizing this several thousand years old
aesthetic style, whose parallels with modern art are striking.
When looking at a head or a carved figure from archaic Eskimo art, works by Modigliani,
Giacometti and Brancusi immediately echo in the mind.

Fascinating manifestos tracing the development of culture and survival in the environs of the
North Pole, archaic Eskimo cultures have left an artistic legacy in the form of marine ivory
sculptures of an incomparable expressivity.

The Far North: land of discoveries
Only a short distance off the coasts of Siberia, in the hostile milieu of the Far North, the
first ancient Eskimo civilizations crossed the Bering Strait to establish themselves in Alaska
around 2000 B.C.

These semi-nomadic populations of hunters following the migration of the large sea mammals
whales, walruses, seals progressively established themselves on St. Lawrence Island and
the coasts of Alaska, giving birth to the Okvik civilization (200 B.C. to 100 A.D.)
The Okvik and the later cultures that succeeded it Old Bering Sea II and III, then Punuk,
and Thule were the ancestors of the present-day Eskimos (Inuit). The word « Okvik » literally
means « the place where the walruses come ashore » and corresponds to a choice hunting
ground on St. Lawrence Island.

Year after year, the frozen soil of the permafrost continues to yield carved objects in bone
and marine ivory that were put there or buried at some point over the ages. With the help
of global warming, present-day Eskimos carry out digs each summer allowing this precious
evidence of ancestral religious and shamanic practices to be brought to light.

The oldest pieces, superbly preserved by the cold and the ice, were first discovered
and studied in the early 20

century. Of particular interest were the digs of Otto Geist

on the Punuk Islands between 1931 and 1934 which proved to be as decisive for the
understanding of Eskimo arts and cultures as the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in
1922 was for Egyptian art...