Whalebone Mask May Rewrite Aleut History

Anchorage Daily News ^ | 7-28-2007 | Alex deMarban

[blam]

Whalebone mask may rewrite Aleut history

By ALEX deMARBAN
ademarban@adn.com

Published: July 28, 2007
Last Modified: July 28, 2007 at 04:08 AM

ED ARTHUR / Cultural Resource Consultants LLC
Archaeologists excavating on Amaknak Island in the Aleutians have discovered what may be a piece of the oldest-known Unangam whalebone mask.

Archaeologists unearthing an ancient village from an Unalaska hillside believe they've found the remains of the oldest-known Aleut whalebone mask.

Much of the mask is missing -- it's mostly intact above where the cheekbones would sit -- but archaeologists are pretty sure it's about 3,000 years old, said Mike Yarborough, lead archaeologist at the dig.

Stained brown by soil, cracked in two at the left temple, the discovery made early this month by a member of Yarborough's team is about 2,000 years older than any known Aleut mask, he said.

It was created around the time Mayan civilization began, around the time Homer was producing the Iliad and Odyssey.

The Earth had suddenly cooled then, and ice surrounded the Aleutian Islands nearly year-round, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist and University of Alaska Fairbanks professor.

People at the ancient site -- a sprawling village marked by unprecedented stone houses and delicate ivory carvings -- ate polar bears, ice seals that no longer visit the island, and a whale that's never been documented in North American waters, said Knecht. He led a dig at the village in 2003 but wasn't part of the mask discovery.

Perhaps six inches wide once, the mask could have been worn and broken at a funeral, Yarborough said. Cultural anthropologist Lydia Black, who died earlier this year, wrote that members of ancient Aleut burial parties wore and shattered tiny masks during funerals.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[thackney]

ping

[muawiyah]

Stay focused on the Polar Peoples type stories. Although the relationship these people have with the Sa'ami is no greater than anyone else's, and much less than that of ordinary Europeans with the Sa'ami, they do have the special genes that make life tolerable in these very cold regions.

It's a reasonable question to ask where those genes came from.

BTW, the Aleut "face" looks pretty much Chinese. The Inuit more resemble Samurai, try the guy at: http://www.greenland.com/content/deutsch/touristen/kultur/die_geschichte_gronlands/mythen_und_sagen/media(828,1031)/Drum_dancer_Egon_Sikivat,_photo_by_Greenland_Tourism.jpg

[Maeve]

It makes me think of Sparta.

[blam]

This guy?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[Grizzled Bear]

The Earth had suddenly cooled then, and ice surrounded the Aleutian Islands nearly year-round, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist and University of Alaska Fairbanks professor.

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The Earth had been much warmer and then was cooler? Does Al Gore know about this?

[WL-law]

The Earth had been much warmer and then was cooler? Does Al Gore know about this?

Well, the writer hasn't strayed from the politically correct reference to climate change, i.e., that the "Earth had suddenly cooled then". "

Was it really "suddenly"? If so claimed, then what does that word possibly mean? But of course it conjures up the right fears.

[xcamel]

I would compare that to an etruscan bronze mask, not anything chinese.

[blam]

Ping.