Baleen

Baleen — Kagit’ruaq

Inartat kag’it’ruamek pilitaallriit. – They used to make baskets out of baleen.

The Karluk One site contains the remains of an Alutiiq village dating from about 600 years ago to the historic period. Baleen is common throughout the site’s prehistoric layers, both as raw material and as a part of finished objects. Karluk residents used thin strands of baleen to lash handles to tools, stitch the ends of bentwood vessel rims together, tie suits of wooden armor, join the pieces of model kayaks, braid cords, and weave baskets. There are pieces of three, open weave baleen baskets from the site. Thick vertical strands of baleen spaced about 1 cm apart were secured with thin horizontal bands of twining. One of the baskets is quite large, suggesting that it was used for collecting or storing items.

alutiiq, baleen, Kodiak, museum, wordoftheweek

Baleen-Alutiiq Word of the Week-August 28th added by Alutiiq Museum on Aug 28, 2023View all posts by Alutiiq Museum →