Lot 180
Native American, Pacific Northwest Coast, Alaska, St. Lawrence Island, Gaball or Sevunga, Yupik peoples, Thule period, ca. 1200 to 1700 CE. A fascinating trio of handmade stone tools, all presenting mottled hues of ash and charcoal gray with light caramel-colored earthen deposits throughout. Each of the 2 largest implements exhibits an ovoid form with a thick butt on one end that tapers to a slender, curved edge at the other. Alternatively, the more petite example displays a slightly trapezoidal form with a narrow butt and a thin, gently arched blade edge. These fine tools likely served as axe heads or digging implements. Size of largest: 4.6" L x 2.3" W (11.7 cm x 5.8 cm)
The Thule people were the ancestors of modern Inuit whose advanced culture and technology made them a part of the global economy during what we in the West call the Medieval period. These figures were carved during a dynamic time in Thule history; recent research indicates that sometime after ca. 1200 CE, perhaps in a span of just a few years, the Thule people spread from their Bering Strait homeland all the way to Greenland, likely driven by the search for iron, both from meteoric deposits they may have heard about from the Dorset people to their east, and from trade. They traded with the Chinese to their west - metal beads and a belt buckle of Chinese manufacture and dating to 1100 to 1300 CE have been found in in the Seward Peninsula - and interacted with the Vikings to their east, who describe them in the Vinland Saga as the Skraelings.
Provenance: private southwestern Pennsylvania, USA collection, acquired prior to 2000
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#144807
- Condition: Chipping and losses to peripheries of all 3, commensurate with age and use. All have expected nicks and abrasions throughout. Otherwise, all are very nice with light earthen deposits.
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