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Art of Siberia & Arctic America
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A Legacy
of Arctic Art

Overview | Art of Siberia | Art of Arctic America  | Peoples | Chukchi

we humans have been creating art for more than 30,000 years, and some of the earliest art of Palaeolithic Eurasia - including carvings of birds and paintings of animals - influenced the themes and types of carving, painting and rock art for thousands of years. The ancient art of northern Eurasia, Siberia and Arctic America provides insights on the cultures of the Chukchi, Eskimo and other maritime peoples of the North Pacific Rim.

For more information on these northern cultures, see resources on other ancient artifacts, harpoons and pottery of these regions.

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The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art

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Painters of
The Cave

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Prehistoric Art: The
Symbolic Journey of
Humankind
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Chauvet Cave:
The Art of
Earliest Times
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Cave of Altamira

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Crossroads Alaska:
Native Cultures of
Alaska and Siberia

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First Fish, First
People: Salmon Tales
of the North
Pacific Rim
Story of Ainu,
Ulchi, Nivkh,Salish,
Makah, Spokane,
many more

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World Rock Art

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The Ancient Art
of Northern Asia

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Jomon of Japan:
The World's
Oldest Pottery

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Chinese Potter: A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics

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Bronze Mirrors
from Ancient China

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The Arts of China

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Radiant Stones:
Archaic Chinese
Jades

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Art of the Amur: Ancient Art of the Russian Far East

Siberia | Amur River & Lake Baikal | Bering Strait | Alaska | Canada

Overview of Earliest Palaeolithic Art

Ancient Ivory Carvings - 30,000 Years Old: new discoveries of a carved ivory water bird, horse's head, and half-man/half-lion are among the oldest known figurative art. Found in Hohle Fels Cave on a Danube River tributary in southwest Germany, they are now among 20 such small carvings [enlarged photos offered] of mammoth ivory in this area of Europe.

Horse head carving

Paleolithic Art from the Danube to Lake Baikal: major work [pdf] with illustrated sections on Central Europe, Ukraine, Central Russia, Siberia

Prehistoric Art: stone tools, cave art more than 30,000 years old, and the art of famous Chauvet Cave and Lascaux Cave in France

Overview of Art of the North Pacific Rim

Art of Siberia & Alaska: brief introduction to art traditions of the native peoples of northern Siberia, Alaska and the Northwest Coast

Comparative Art of the North Pacific Rim: 17-page exploration of the art of the Aleut, Alaskan and Bering Sea Eskimo, Haida, Tlingit of North America, and Asian Eskimo, Chukchi, Even, Kamchadal, Koryak, Nanai, Nivkh, Yukagir of Asia - including carvings, masks, decorated clothing

Art of Siberia & Northern Eurasia   [ Top ]

Carving & Engraving

Figurines of Birds & Females: birds in flight, from 20,000-year-old Paleolithic site of Mal'ta in southern Siberia, west of south end of Lake Baikal, and more on Mal'ta art including a stylized female figurine

Ivory Plaque with Mammoth Engraving: from Mal'ta, and more images of flying birds, likely amulets for wearing given the holes, from Mal'ta

Ancient Art & Artifacts from Mal'ta: including bird sculptures, female figurines or Venuses, and an pendant from mammoth tusk that may be an early calendar with moon phases recorded

Bird Figurines & Masks & Rock Art of the Shaman and more about the shaman's amulets & drums

Female Figurines from Kostienki in Russia: more Paleolithic art

Neolithic Stone Carvings & Pottery: from the Lake Baikal area, including carvings of elk [moose in North America], human head, more

Old Bering Sea Winged Object: compare face with the Taotie face on bronze and jade art of Shang China; also note use of circle and dot pattern, an ancient Chinese sun symbol, shown evolving here

Cave Art & Rock Art

Cave Art in Siberia: Neolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages, with images ranging from elk and boats to bulls and fantastic shapes

Rock Art of Siberia: of elk, the animal known as moose in North America, and human figures, including the skeletal style figures, from the Amur River, Lake Baikal, Yakutia and Mongolia. Note similarity of faces with rock art from British Columbia

Rock Art of Mongolia: images range from elk and archers to bulls, and more on Cave Art of Mongolia with animals such a camel and goat

Rock Art of Scandinavia: during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages images often are Eurasian elk, the moose of North America

Rock Carvings of Southern Siberia: monoliths or stelae covered with engraved animals, often deer, and so called deer stones, part of a culture zone from South Siberia, northern Mongolia, and Transbaikal

Cave Art at Kkapova - Russia: Paleolithic cave art extended east into Russia, with the cave on the western slopes of the southern Ural Mountains displaying mammoths, rhinos, a bison and horses

Ancient rock art on northeast Siberia's Pegtymel River flowing into the Chukchi Sea, showing boats and reindeer hunting, and more about the 1,000 year old Pegtymel rock art

Masks & Ritual Clothing & Objects

Chukchi Mask: representing a "hairy face" or evil spirit

Eskimo death mask and carved ivory chains and maskettes and the shaman's carved ivory paddle for shaping pottery, all from the Ekven burial at East Cape, the northeast tip of Siberia

Koryak Ritual Mask: worn for sea mammal hunters thanksgiving feast in autumn, Kamchatka, and a Maritime Koryak wooden mask used in a festival held for purging evil spirits from winter dwellings, and a Reindeer Koryak leather mask representing evil spirit

Shaman's Coat: Yakut shaman's decorated coat representing a bird, and an Evenk shaman's coat with similar imagery and a shaman's apron, from the Yenisei River region, and more spiritual objects including a carving of a bird as a shaman's helper, Negidal, and still more ritual objects

Pottery      [ Top ]

Amur River Pottery Shard: circle and dot and ovoid eye patterns seen in  Neolithic ceramic vessel fragment, Voznesenovka Village, Amur River, Far East Russia, and more art and artifacts from Northeast Asia

Pottery and Ceramics: an in-depth guide, from pottery's origins in China &, Japan to its arrival in the Bering Strait region of Siberia and Alaska

Ornaments of Bronze, Gold, More     [ Top ]

Bronze Objects of Inner Mongolians: bronze mirror, button and plate from nomads' graves date to ca. 700 BC, show links to West

Bronze Art & Artifacts: from Central and North Asia, 2000-1000 BC, and Gold & Bronze Art from the same region, 1000 BC - 1 AD

Gold and Fabric Ornaments of the Nomads: objects from Southern Siberia and Mongolia, including a swan and gold and turquoise ornament

Golden Deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian carvings covered in gold, early nomadic Eurasian art from the Russian steppes, 500 BC, and the themes in Scythian art including use of circles, animals

Scythian Gold: 5,000 decorative gold pieces, dated to 500 BC, found near Kyzyl, the capital of the southern Siberia republic of Tuva, and examples of ancient Scythian gold from Ukraine

China, Amur River, Lake Baikal & Sea of Okhotsk Regions  [ Top ]

Bronze Age T'ao Tieh: Chinese mythological beast [see cover on book on Jades, below] related to the tunghat creature on Bering Eskimo harpoons and to Sisiutl, the sea monster of the Northwest Coast peoples

Chinese Bronze Ritual Wine Container: with the Taotie pattern

Jade - China's Stone of Heaven:  an in-depth guide

Jade: valuable for carvings in China for more than 5,000 years - and also among native peoples of British Columbia by 3,000 years ago, and more on jade - stone of heaven in China, nephrite and jadeite, and the early history jade carving of in Neolithic China, and jade objects from early China and central America, including jade masks

Ainu Designs seen in Clothing: Chinese influence in seen in these south Sea of Okhtsk peoples' clothing; similarities with Shang  and Chou Chinese and Northwest Coast Indian designs have also been observed

Tokarev Culture: barbed and toggle harpoons used in this native culture on the northern Sea of Okhotsk coast 2,500 years ago
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A History of
Chinese Civilization

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Jades of the
Liangzhu Culture

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Alaskan Eskimos
and Aleuts

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The Shaman's Coat: A
Native History of Siberia
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Inuit Art: An
Introduction

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Looking at Indian
Art of the
Northwest Coast

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Tlingit Art: Totem Poles & Art of the Alaskan Indians

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Tlingit, Their Art, Culture and Legends

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Images of a People:
Tlingit Myths and
Legends

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Northern Haida
Master Carvers

Art of Alaska including Kodiak Island    [ Top ]

Masks Bering Sea Eskimo Masks conveying human/animal links including Transformation Mask and Bird Mask and Black Bear Inua Mask with discussion of Eskimo views on the soul Yupik Masks: shaman's mask, and masks of owl, animal helper, wolf, polar bear, human/bird mask, seal or walrus, sandhill crane, caribou and more, used in dances and ceremonies

ORDER Living Tradition of Yup'Ik Masks

Eskimo Masks: including one from northern Alaska, 19th century

Shaman's Mask: Yukip Eskimo, 19th century, for thanking animals, and
· Ipiutak style mask
· Half-man & half-animal mask
· Shaman's helper mask - riding a beaver
· Shaman's mask with sun & moon & dog spirits

House and Shaman's Masks: 20th century masks in traditional styles from Alaska and British Columbia

Carving & Sculpture

Eskimo Ivory Carvings: early examples of Bering Sea and Thule carvings of people, animals, tools such as hapoon socketpiece and winged object

Inuit Sculpture: in traditional and modern styles

Art of the Northwest Coast of Alaska, Canada    [ Top ]

Overview

Northwest Coast Art Style: shared by the Haida, Tsimshian and Tlingit including the use of ovoid shapes, such as for eyes

Carving & Engraving & Wood Shaping

Amulets - Ivory Carvings: Tlingit soul catcher and shaman's amulet, and fine examples of wood carvings Carvings of Animals & More: see bear, raven, owl, thunderbird, Sun, Moon, frog, beaver and more, creatures also known from totem poles

Moon

Haida Bentwood Bowl: with mythic face

Native Totem Poles - An Exploration: excellent site on the totem poles of Alaska and British Columbia, including various key animals such as the bear and eagle Totem Pole Gallery and wood carvings with raven, bear and wolf, plus an introduction and map for Northwest Coast cultures Northwest Coast Indian Totem Poles: with photos and details, and more about Pacific Northwest Indian totem poles

ORDER Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form .

Cave Art & Rock Art

Rock Engraving of Spirit Mask: from Port Neville, British Columbia, and one from Venn Passage, with parallels seen in Northern China, Eastern Siberia, circa 7000 BP, plus petroglyphs of faces from Northwest coast, examples from online slide show of Canadian rock art

Masks

Haida Masks and more Haida Art

Masks of the Northwest Coast: an introduction to the materials and methods of carving and painting masks and examples including:
· Thunderbird mask
· Owl mask - compare to taotie face from bronzes of Shang China with round eyes, fierce look, sharp beak

Mask Styles of Northwest Cultures: Haida, Salish, Tlingit, more

Kwakiutl Chief's Mask: for a potlatch

Tlingit Shaman's Mask with discussion of native views on the soul and supernatural beings, and Tlingit Ceremonial Mask collected during Russian voyages of discovery.

Shaman's Death or Bird Spirit Mask & Tsimshian Mask
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History, Ethnology,
and Anthropology
of the Aleut

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Native Cultures
in Alaska

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Haida Monumental Art:
Villages of the Queen
Charlotte Islands

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Natives of the Far
North: Alaska's
Vanishing Culture
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Not Just a Pretty
Face: Dolls and
Human Figurines
in Alaska Native
Cultures

The Eskimos
and Aleuts
Search for
used copy

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Arctic People

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Raven's Children: Word Sketches of the Land and Native Arctic Peoples of Alaska

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Hunters of the Ice

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Alaskan Eskimos
and Aleuts

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The Eskimo:
The Inuit and
Yupik People

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Sacred Hunt: A Portrait of the
Relationship between
Seals and Inuit

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Arctic &
Siberian Books

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Arctic Adaptations:
Native Whalers &
Reindeer Herders of
Northern Eurasia

DISCOVER
Eskimo Peoples

Art of Northern Canada & Greenland   [ Top ]

Carving & Engraving

Ancient Dorset carvings of bears, more bears, more bears and other bears of ivory and wood, natural and abstract, and animals such as seals and musk ox, and amulets in the form of birds and fish, and miniature masks, as well as rock art and maskettes

Canadian Dorset Art: wood and ivory sculpture and masks

Dorset Eskimo Carvings: ancient spirit bears, beluga whale, carved  harpoons, and examples of carved masks and faces

Inuit Carving - Human Figure: art of the people who replaced the Dorset

Canadian Eskimo Art: overview of contemporary carvings of animals and human figures, and ancient Eskimo carvings of ivory and wood, and tools used to create them, and women's art including fabric work and basketry

Bering Strait    [ Top ]

Early toggling harpoons were found in Old Whaling and Wrangel Island Chertov Ovrag sites dated to 1500 B.C.

Neo-Eskimo Cultures: earliest cultures, Okvik and Old Bering Sea, have polished slate tools, pottery, and toggling harpoon heads of bone or ivory

Okvik & Old Bering Sea & Punuk Harpoons: from St. Lawrence Island in Bering Strait, with artifacts compared, and a chronology for the island

Old Bering Sea Culture Harpoon: parts including the head, socketpiece or foreshaft, shaft, line, and how a hunter used them, ca. 200 B.C.

Old Bering Sea I or Okvik Harpoon Heads: and other ivory carvings, dated 300 B.C. - 700 A.D., and Old Bering Sea II & III Harpoon Head with elaborated engraved, and other ivory carvings, dated 200 B.C. - 800 A.D.

Old Bering Sea Toggling Harpoon: walrus ivory, 300-400 A.D., Alaska, beautifully carved to attract the spirits of their prey, and more examples of Old Bering Sea Harpoons and other fishing devices

Harpoon Heads: from St. Lawrence Island in Bering Strait, with close-ups of a toggling harpoon head and an older barbed harpoon head; each harpoon head in display can be viewed up close here - scroll down for image

Old Bering Sea Harpoon Counterweight: 300 A.D. and a Punuk period Harpoon Counterweight and other carvings, 600-1200 A.D.

Punuk Harpoon Heads from Nukleet near Cape Denbigh, Norton Sound and more Punuk Harpoon Heads from the same area, ca. 600-1200 A.D. and a   ivory harpoon head, same location, no time period, plus from St. Lawrence Island at Bering Strait a Punuk Harpoon Head with copper blade as well as a decorated a Punuk Harpoon Head

Toggling Harpoon Heads: bone and ivory heads with ground slate tips, from the Alaskan Arctic, and more harpoon heads from Bering Strait and Greenland & a search engine with keylist to find many more Arctic photos including harpoons in use

Eskimo-type harpoons are known no further west than Chukotka

Alaska including Kodiak Island    [ Top ]

Alutiiq Toggling Harpoon: for hunting seals, sea lions, Prince William Sound, and more on the Alutiiq or Aleut of Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula and Kenai Peninsula, including villages with map, people, ancestors, artifacts, more on Alutiiq of Kodiak Island who used barbed and toggling harpoons

Barbed Harpoons: known from the Ocean Bay period (5500-1500 B.C.) on Kodiak Island where toggling harpoons appeared during the Kachemak phase starting 3800 years ago, and more on barbed & toggling harpoons from Kodiak Island [map] which is 250 miles southwest of Anchorage

Unilaterally Barbed Harpoon Head: 4000 BP, Rosie's Rockshelter on Hecata Island, southeast Alaska, where new harpoon forms appear 1000 BP, and image of a unilaterally barbed harpoon from Alaska or Northwest Coast

Inupiat Adopt New Harpoon Technology: about 1870, North Slope Eskimo hunters swap older stone or bone blades for metal harpoon blades, and elderly bowhead whales that survived hunting contain ancient harpoons

Aleutians      [ Top ]

Aleut Harpoon Model: from Commander Islands, Russia [click image to see] and an Aleut kayak - hunter holds harpoon with attached line, floats. Aleut hunters used aconite poison on harpoons to hunt whales

Harpoon Points of Bone: among ancient artifacts in the Aleutians, along with fish hooks, net sinkers, projectile points - and shell middens

Harpoon - Agattu:  research at Karab Cove here in the Near Islands, the westernmost of the Aleutians, turned up toggling harpoon heads with circle & dot motifs, dated ca. 200 AD

Northwest Coast - British Columbia, Canada    [ Top ]

Harpoons & Points (pictured): includes bilaterally barbed harpoon head (5,500-3,500 years old), unilaterally barbed harpoon (2,500-1,500 years old) and single-piece toggling harpoon (3,500-2,500 years old)

Socketed Harpoon Heads: 3 types, for salmon, small sea mammals such as seals and larger ones such as sea lions, among the Salish, Tlingit, more

Toggling Harpoon Head and Bone Barbed Harpoon Heads dated to about 2000 years ago from Namu north of Vancouver Island

Labrador & Newfoundland      [ Top ]

L'Anse Amour Harpoon: toggling harpoon known from Labrador 7500 BP and more on this ancient technology for sea mammal hunting with a photo with the harpoon head from L'Anse Amour shown upper left plus barbed points and harpoon heads from Labrador ca. 4000 BP

L'Anse Amour site and the burial discovered there and a photograph of the harpoon head and other artifacts plus the burial envisioned and more on the Maritime Archaic Indians who used the toggle harpoon and other artifacts

L'Anse Amour Harpoon: made of antler, showing the hole inside the harpoon head for the harpoon lance, plus other artifacts including a walrus tusk

Toggling Harpoon with Foreshaft - Newfoundland: dated to 4000 BP and considered on improvement on the harpoon from L'Anse Amour, and more on the toggling harpoons of Eastern Canada: harpoon parts, how they work

Sealing harpoon with blade, harpoon head, foreshaft, long shaft and line from the Inuit in Labrador

Paleo-Eskimo of Canada: non-toggling harpoons preceded toggling harpoons, yet this Paleo-Eskimo harpoon head shows the line hole, slot for a blade

Socketed Toggling Harpoons in Pre-Dorset Period: key tool first appearing in this culture starting 4000 BP, along with the bow and arrow, while the closed socket toggling harpoon is found in Dorset period starting 2800 BP, and more on the Dorset, their toggling harpoons and other tools

Dorset & Thule Harpoons: harpoons from two cultures at the Crystal site near Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, plus Thule artifacts including  a dog trace buckle, ivory comb

Harpoon Heads - Copper Inuit: from Coronation Gulf region of the Canadian Arctic, and more about harpoon types including open socket harpoons and closed socket toggling harpoons

Inuit Harpoons: barbed and toggling harpoon types compared and illustrated, with toggling harpoon parts detailed; ancient and recent

Seal Hunting: ivory sculptures of hunters and harpoons

Thule Harpoon Head: of ivory, for hunting seals, Repulse Bay, and related information and illustrations of harpoons from Naujan site in the Repulse Bay area which has from four ancient Thule villages ca. 1000 AD

Western Canadian Arctic      [ Top ]

Thule Hunting Gear: bone harpoon head for hunting whales, three smaller harpoon heads for hunting smaller sea mammals, an ivory toggle, a trace buckle for a dog harness, more, from Arctic maritime hunters who left Alaska for Canada about 1,000 A.D.
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Aboriginal American
Harpoons

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Arctic
Archaeology
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Arctic
Hunter
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The Vanishing
Arctic
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Northern
Breeds

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Ancient
Artifacts

Chukchi & Other People of Siberia   [ Top ]

Chukchi & their Neighbors: what anthropology and history tell us about the Chukchi, Koryak, Siberian Eskimo, from WorkingDogWeb

Chukchi Origins: what genetics tell us about the Chukchi, Koryak, Siberian Eskimo, from WorkingDogWeb

Paleolithic Origins of the Chukchi: and their Siberian neighbors as well as the Native peoples of the Americas, from WorkingDogWeb

Peoples of the Russian North and Far East:  resources about the North Pacific peoples including the Chukchi, Koryak, Evenki and more

Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: info on 85 peoples of Russia and Siberia, Chukchi, Koryak, Itelmen, Eskimo, Yukagir, Evenks
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The Paleolithic
of Siberia

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The First Americans: In
Pursuit of Archaeology's
Greatest Mystery
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Ancient Encounters:
Kennewick Man and
the First Americans
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Drawing Shadows
to Stone
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Ainu: Spirit of a
Northern People

Ainu: Spirit of a
Northern People
Soft Cover Edition

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Ancient People
of the Arctic

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Antler on the Sea:
The Yup'ik and Chukchi of the
Russian Far East

Arctic & Northern Peoples   [ Top ]

Ainu: of Hokkaido, Sakhalin Island & Kurile Islands, and Arctic Studies Center online exhibit: Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People

Alaska's Native Peoples: Aleuts, Eskimos, Tlingit, Haida and Tshimsians of the coastal areas, Athabaskans of the interior, and from the exhibit Crossroads of Continents, more on Alaska's Native Peoples

Aleut or Unangan People: people of the Aleutians and southern Alaska

Bering Strait Eskimo Cultures: sequence of cultures starting 1,000 B.C. including Old Bering Sea/Okvik, Punuk, Ipiutak, Western Thule

Canada's Native Peoples:  including ancient links to Beringia, Asia
· Paleoarctic or Beringian Tradition: a culture linking Siberia, Alaska
   and the Yukon as early as 13,000-10,000 BP
· Early Paleo-Eskimo Cultures: culture dated to 2,500 BC in Canada,
   with origins rooted in cultures of Neolithic northeastern Siberia
· Middle Paleo-Eskimo or Dorset Culture: 1,000 B.C. to 500 A.D., an
   era of reduced caribou hunting, increased marine mammal hunting
· Thule or Inuit: northern maritime hunters who moved out of northern
   Alaska across the Canadian Arctic about 1,000 A.D.

Chukchi & their Neighbors: what anthropology and history tell us about the Chukchi, Koryak, Siberian Eskimo, from WorkingDogWeb

Early Arctic & Subarctic Cultures: origin times, details, maps of cultures -- PaleoArctic, Arctic Small Tool Tradition Independence I [non-toggling harpoons], Aleutian [elaborate bone harpoon heads], Pacific Coast [multibarbed harpoons], Maritime Archaic of Eastern Canada [socketed toggling harpoons], then Norton, Dorset & Thule with toggling harpoons

Eskimos of Siberia & North America: a guide to Web resources about these native peoples, from WorkingDogWeb

Eskimo Peoples: native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of North America and the northeastern tip of Siberia

Eskimo Peoples of North America: including archaeology, history, and a look at the Inuit of Canada and ancestors, the Dorset and Thule people

Greenland Eskimo Cultures: starting with Independence I, 2500 BC

Siberia's Northern Peoples: Nanai, Itelmen, Koryak and Chukchi, from the exhibit Crossroads of Continents
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