August 14, 2013: Just when the area B crew was starting to loose faith in their site’s potential this turned up. It is a complete full size mask with a dual human/wolf – or fox – face. In view of yesterday’s find of a wolf – or fox – female transformation doll, we think this might be a woman’s mask. It is also the right size for a woman’s face, as the finder can verify. Masks were used for many different ceremonial purposes, and could be of different size and design. They connected humans to the spiritual world, but the specific meaning behind a mask related to the mask’s creator and was special to fox-woman, hers or his story.
Masks were powerful spiritual objects, and when a mask had served its purpose it was often broken or otherwise destroyed, it is therefore quite unusual to find complete masks. Masks were decorated with different attachment and bangles, such as carved animals, hands and feathers. We have found several mask attachments at the site in the last days, and a number mask fragments, but this is the first whole mask. It is possibly the oldest complete Yup’ik mask in existence. When cleaning the mask back in the lab, Rick detected traces of silver paint made out of ground mica, so when in use it would have glimmered in silver.
More remarkable finds in the 2013 dig diary at nunalleq.wordpress.com.
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