Mud house digging with Professor Rick and students
On June 21st our Anthropology class started to dig a specific mud house right behind our camping area that has been there for many years. So far we have found many different artifacts. As a team we found many different types of bones, pieces of a boot, lot of nails, a barrel, the scapula of a whale, a knife spears, pieces ivory, a plate that is still in one piece, and a lot of different things. We are digging our items from the mud house that people used when there was hardly any western technology here at all. Nunivak Island has been inhabited for over 2,000 years by the Nuniwarmiut, or Cupi’g, people. The first contact with the Europeans was in 1821 by explores from the Russian-American Company. They recorded 400 people living in 16 villages on the Nunivak Island
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The most interesting artifact that I found was an ivory harpoon wedge. Ivory is interesting because the people used it here for so many different things. They used ivory for decorations, weapons, transportation, furniture, adornment, wealth, and trade with the outsiders that used to come to the Nunivak Island. Ivory comes from a walrus tusk. Ivory was harder and more durable than wood or bone, and ivory didn’t chip, crack, or even break like other materials. It was lighter than stone and lasted a lifetime. They also used the ivory for fleshes, needles, digging sticks, fish hooks, and fishing nets. This is why I chose this particular artifact because it was usable for many things to the Cup’ig people.
-Mary moe
