Native American, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska (Bering Strait), Thule peoples, ca. 1200 to 1700 CE. A very rare wooden bowl of a simple yet elegant ovoid form created by the Thule peoples, the prehistoric ancestors of the modern Inuit whose advanced culture and technology occurred during what those in the West call the Medieval Period. Size: 10.625" L x 5" W x 2.75" H (27 cm x 12.7 cm x 7 cm)

This bowl was carved during a dynamic time in Thule history; recent research indicates that sometime after ca. 1200 CE, perhaps in a span of just a few years, the Thule people spread from their Bering Strait homeland all the way to Greenland, likely driven by the search for iron, both from meteoric deposits they may have heard about from the Dorset people to their east and from trade. They traded with the Chinese to their west - metal beads and a belt buckle of Chinese manufacture and dating to 1100 to 1300 CE have been found in in the Seward Peninsula - and interacted with the Vikings to their east, who describe them in the Vinland Saga as the Skraelings.

Provenance: private Newport Beach, California, USA collection

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.

#145255

Repaired from three pieces with hairline fissures radiating from break lines. Losses and chips to peripheries as shown. Abrasions across body as expected with use and age. Nice patina to wood.