Human head

The head, sculpted in ivory with a digging patina, features a diamond-shaped face and simple slits for the eyes and mouth, typical of Okvik civilization figurines.

Two thousand years ago, approximately between 200 B.C. and A.D. 100, a group of hunting families living in a few small coastal villages on St Lawrence Island and the nearby Punuk Islands in the Bering Sea on the Alaskan coast had developed the tools and know-how needed to capture large marine mammals, walruses and whales. This period is commonly known today as the Okvik period or style. According to Allen Wardwell¹ this name means :
“The place where walruses come ashore”.

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1- Allen Wardell 1986. Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait. Hudson Hill Press, New York p.36

Price: €28,000