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Some Textile Specimens from the Aleutian Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Paul Gebhard  and
Kate Peck Kent
Paul Gebhard
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kate Peck Kent
Affiliation:
St. Peter's School, Cambridge, Peekskill, New York
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Extract

The twelve specimens here analysed were obtained from the island of Kagamil in the Four Mountain Group and from the island of Shiprock in Umnak Pass. No date other than merely "pre-Russian" has been assigned either burial cave from whence the specimens were obtained, although it is likely that Dr. Aleš Hrdlička will formulate a satisfactory chronology for the known sites of the Aleutian Islands. The specimens consist of the fragments of five baskets or mats, five cords, and two bird skins, the latter presumably from parkas. While these specimens are few in number and in no wise unique, the paucity of published material on the prehistoric textiles of the Aleutian Islands justifies this paper.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 7 , Issue 2Part1 , October 1941 , pp. 171 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1941

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References

1 Although several fragments come from one and the same textile, each fragments is treated as a separate specimen. The technical analysis was done by Mrs. Kate Peck Kent as Research Associate in Ethnology of the Denver Art Museum whose acting director, Mr. Eric Douglas, kindly contributed much additional information.

2 For anyone especially interested in textile technology, photomicrographs of the following are available: (1) Elymus mollis of specimens A-l and D-2; (2) undetermined black fiber of specimen A-l; and (3) Scirpus microcarpa of specimen A-2.

3 Mason, O. T., “Aboriginal American Basketry.” United States National Museum, Annual Reporl for1902.

4 Dall, W. H., “Cave Relics of the Aleutian Islands.” Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 22. No. 318, 1878 Google Scholar.

5 Jochelson, W., History, Ethnology, and Anthropology of the Aleut. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1933 Google Scholar.

6 Mason, op. cit. , Pl. 136.

7 Weltfish, G., “Prehistoric North American Basketrv Techniques and Modern Distribution.” American Anthropologist, Vol. 32. No. 3. 1930, pp. 454–475 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Leaflet 68, Denver Art Museum.

9 Material Culture Note, Denver Art Museum, No. 5, p. 20.