The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of an ulu-knife (uluchik) from the ethnographic collection of I.G. Voznesensky of the Alutiiq Eskimos from the island of Kodiak (MAE No. 593-44). The interest to this artefact was driven by application of the ethnotraceological approach to the study of ancient stone knives of Eskimos. The history of the implement, the technology of its production and use can be reconstructed on the basis of synthesis of different types of sources, including ethnography. However, the use of ethnographic data often raises skepsis amongst researchers, since the methods of economy management are determined not only by climate and landscape, but also by many other factors that are not possible to be reconstructed. Ethnographic data can also be inconsistent and therefore require verification. In the case of work tools, verification is carried out using the experimental-traceological method and by drawing analogies from independent sources. Through the use of this approach, it has become possible to determine its real functional use as a knife, refuting the information that it was used for hide processing. It is interesting to note that knives of a similar morphology were attributed as knives for fish filleting and cutting frozen meat. The search for analogies also allowed it to expand the already known distribution area of this knife type. It was in demand by the Alutiiq Eskimos, Tanaina Indians, and the Tlingits, amongst whom close trade ties were noted. As a result of the conducted experiments, it was possible to clarify the description of the manufacture of a blade from hardened and non-hardened steel. Following the ethnographic data, a preference was given to saw blades made of hardened steel, since they retained their sharpness longer, whereas a blade made of non-hardened metal could bend under pressure when working on hard material. However, cutting hardened steel manually using a gad picker or a chisel is very labour-intensive without pre-treatment, and, as a rule, in such cases metal tempering is employed. Experiments on cutting frozen fish and meat demonstrated greater efficiency and ergonomics of the knife type under study.

Key words: Russian America, Alutiiq Eskimos, knife-ulu, complex methodology, ethnotraceology, reconstruction.

 

Acknowledgements. The author expresses gratitude to the chief custodian of the funds of the MAE RAS, Ph.D. Kopaneva Natalya Pavlovna, Junior Researcher Department of Ethnography of America MAE RAS Dmitrenko Lyubov Yakovlevna, Deputy Director for Accounting, Storage and Restoration of Museum Values of the REM Natalya Nikolaevna Prokopyeva, Researcher of the highest category, Keeper of the hard reserve fund of the Department of Ethnography of Siberia and the Far East of the REM Kosyak Natalya Aleksandrovna for the opportunity to work with ethnographic collections of Eskimos.

The author also thanks the cabinetmakers Andrey Aleksandrovich Smirnov and Anton Kirillovich Markin (St.-Petersburg) for consultations and participation in the experiments together with the traceologist and experimenter Semin Dmitry Valerievich (Samara).

Funding. The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 22-28-01295 “Reconstruction of ancient technologies in the production activities of the Chukotka Eskimos: ethnoarchaeological method and natural science data”.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 30.05.2024

Article is published: 15.09.2024