Currently not on view
Head of a mechanical doll,
1000–1400 (?)
Late Punuk or Thule
1997-131
More Context
Didactics
This unique object may have once been part of a mechanical doll, a Siberian introduction. The flat back side would have been covered by a parka hood or headdress. The dot motifs drilled into the face resemble tattoos worn by Diomede Island men who added a tattooed dot above the upper lip for every whale killed. The markings underneath the lip were more common among women, although on rare occasions men were tattooed like women in Bering Strait to confuse the spirits of disease.
Information
Title
Head of a mechanical doll
Dates
1000–1400 (?)
Medium
Walrus ivory
Dimensions
h. 14.6 cm., w. 5.2 cm., d. 2.7 cm. (5 3/4 x 2 1/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
The Lloyd E. Cotsen, Class of 1950, Eskimo Bone and Ivory Carving Collection
Object Number
1997-131
Place Excavated
North America, United States, Alaska, St. Lawrence Island
Materials
- Ralph T. Coe, Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art (London: Hayward Gallery, 1976)., cat. no. 227, p. 120 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1997," in "A Window into Collecting American Folk Art: The Edward Duff Balken Collection at Princeton," special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 57, no. 1/2 (1998): p. 164-208., p. 200
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), illustrated p. 343
