Rare wooden figure of the Thule culture, probably 17th century
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Rare wooden figure of the Thule culture, probably 17th century
Alaska, Shishmaref, Thule
| Provenance | Size | Hammer price |
|---|---|---|
| Jeffrey Myers, New York City, USA John Giltsoff, Girona, Spain |
H: 27.6 inch | sold |
wood, rest., base
This figure was excavated at the ceremonial burial site of Shishmaref, a tiny island between Alaska and Siberia in the Chukchi sea.
It is the largest known wood Thule figure that could be excavated from the permafrost.
The Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region. The appellation "Thule" originates from the location of Thule (relocated and renamed Qaanaaq in 1953) in northwest Greenland, facing Canada, where the archaeological remains of the people were first found at Comer's Midden. The links between the Thule and the Inuit are biological, cultural, and linguistic.
