figurine
Report a Mistake- Date Made Circa A.D. 1250-1300
- Event --
- Affiliation Inuit, European
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer --
- Object Number KeDq-7:325
- Place of Origin Continent - North America, Country - Canada, Province / Territory - Nunavut, Township / District - South Baffin
- Category Communication artifacts
- Sub-category Documentary artifactArt
- Department Archaeology
- Museum CMH
- Earliest 1245/01/01
- Latest 1305/12/31
- Materials Wood
- Measurements Length 53.8 mm, Width 18.7 mm, Thickness 9.4 mm
- Caption Prehistoric Inuit Carving, circa 1250-1300:;Sculpture préhistorique inuit, vers 1250-1300
- Additional Information About a thousand years ago the Northern Hemisphere experienced a few centuries of relatively warm climate. Arctic sea ice diminished in extent, navigation became easier in the high latitudes, and two maritime-oriented peoples were attracted to arctic Canada. From the west came the ancestors of the Inuit, a people whose way of life had been developed along the bountiful coasts of Alaska. Travelling in large skin-covered boats in summer and by dogsled in winter, they rapidly occupied most regions of arctic Canada. From the east came the Norse, who established colonies in southwestern Greenland and made at least occasional voyages to the adjacent coasts of northeastern Canada. The meeting of these two peoples is recorded in the small wooden figure at left, carved from driftwood and found in the remains of an early Inuit house on Baffin Island. The featureless face and stumpy arms are characteristic of Inuit carvings of the period, but this figure is unique in portraying a person in European dress; lightly incised lines indicate the folds of a long robe and an apparent cross on the chest. The Norseman portrayed here may have come ashore on Baffin Island to trade with the Inuit. Such trade is suggested by scraps of metal, cloth and hardwood of European origin found in Inuit houses of the period. In return, the Inuit may have traded walrus ivory, a material that the Norse valued and that the Inuit had in abundance, even using it to manufacture many of their tools.
- Caption The Norse Visit - image caption
- Additional Information Inuit carving of a European, about 1350, Baffin Island, Nunavut
- Caption The Norse Visit - image credit
- Additional Information CMH, KeDq-7:325 (IMG2009-0063-0154-Dm)
- Caption The Norse Visit
- Additional Information In the early 1000s, Norsemen from Greenland established a small settlement at the tip of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula. Known today as L'Anse aux Meadows, it is the earliest known European settlement in North America. It was occupied sporadically for a generation or so but was eventually abandoned due to over-long communication lines to Greenland and ultimately to northern Europe, and the resistance of local First Peoples. Norse hunters and traders continued to visit the eastern North American Arctic, however, for several more centuries.