[Bonetools] (no subject)

[S O'Connor]

Dear Alice,

The following query and attached images came to me via Clare Ward at the
British Museum who has requested that I forward them to the bonetools
discussion list to see if anyone can help with the function of this piece.
It is not clear to me what the materials is from these photographs but what
I can see is consistent with an ivory of some species.  I am happy to pass
thoughts back via Clare.

 

All the best,

 

Sonia

 

Dr Sonia O'Connor PhD FSA FIIC ACR Honorary Visiting Fellow, University of
York

Post-doctoral Research Fellow

Archaeological Sciences

Division of AGES,  

University of Bradford

Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK

 

tel 01274 23 6498 (office) 5210 (lab)

fax 01274 23 5210

 

From: Sherry Doyal 
Sent: 29 June 2010 15:01
To: Caroline Cartwright
Cc: Clare Ward; Philip Kevin
Subject: FW: Identification?

 

Any guesses? S 

 

From: Ed Tennant [mailto:etennant2 at comcast.net] 
Sent: 29 June 2010 14:57
To: Sherry Doyal
Subject: Identification?

 


Dear Sherry -- I am a good friend of your cousin, Jim MacDiarmid. Started
working with him in Alaska in the mid 1970's. Still talk to him a couple of
times a week, brushing up on our German and exchanging recipes. He suggested
that I forward these photos and background information about a fossilized
piece of ivory that so far no one can identify. Below is the info I sent to
Vincent LaFonde at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. I think you will
find the piece curious and if I am lucky you will be able to say "Eureka!"
-- My best regards, Ed Tennant

 

Dear Colleague:

 

  Although I am now retired here in Albuquerque, I worked as a language
education consultant in rural Alaska for about 30 years. Over a ten-year
period I worked with the elementary school staff at Gambell on St. Lawrence
Island. During that time I picked up several pieces of fossilized ivory
artifacts. One is particularly intriguing and somewhat mysterious, as, so
far, no one can tell me what it is. The first suggestion was that it was a
guide for the hitch on a fan-shaped dog team. The elders at Gambell tell me
that that type of sled hitch was never used on the island. Fan hitch
specialists also say they have never seen anything like that to guide
traces. So, after twenty years I am still trying to find out what this
object may have been used for. At the suggtestion of my Canadian friend Jim
MacDiarmid (currently a language consultant in Juneau, Alaska) I have
included two photos: a front view and a top view. The back is somewhat
roughly hewn and is not as polished as the front. Note the stick figure in
the center that  has the "eye of awareness" (ellam inga)  as its head. This
may suggest that the object may have been used in some religious ceremony.
The five equidistant 1-cm holes run completely through the piece from top to
bottom-- I would be most grateful if you could identify this unusual,
artifact that is from the Bering Sea Punuk culture (800-1200 C.E.).

 

My sincere thanks -- Ed Tennant

etennant2 at comcast.net

 

Y

 

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