Ivory Plate National Museum of Natural History. Click to open image viewer. ... Probably a shoehorn. Perhaps 19th cent Chukchi and Eskimo did such carvings on order for Russians as shoehorns, umbrella ...

The Chukchi people of Uelen, a tiny village on the Russian side of the Bering Strait and the Russian mainland community closest to Alaska, have long been known for their masterful ivory carving ...

At the time, the carved head was the first known ivory carving from the cave. But the newfound "body" part of the carving has thrown the equine interpretation out the window.

Chukchi and Eskimos are keepers of the tradition of hunting at sea. This lifestyle gave rise to the art of carving and engraving, as it provides both food and the raw material on which the images ...