This #ThrowbackThursday, explore archival images from the latest episode of #ShelfLife and be sure to check out the latest episode and 360 video via the link below! This image shows tossing on walrus-hide, a Chukchi midsummer ceremony to ward off dangers from contagious diseases or to assuage violent tempests, 1900-1901. Taken by Waldemar Borgoras.
Shelf Life episode 15 uncovers The Guts and Glory of Object Conservation. In the Museum’s Objects Conservation Laboratory, walrus intestines, birch bark, and reindeer hide are all in a day’s work for conservators trying to preserve Siberian anthropology collections for the future.
#ShelfLife is back in 360! Meet the shamans of snowy Siberia with the Jesup North Pacific Expedition—one of the largest anthropology expeditions of all time. Curator Laurel Kendall tells the story of how the Museum’s pre-Soviet collections remain vital to the preservation of a living culture: https://goo.gl/F4LwGG #360video
Believe it or not, this summer coat is styled entirely from salmon skin!
It was made by a woman from the Nanai ethnic group--also known as the Goldi--who live near the Amur River in eastern Siberia. The strips of salmon skin were dried, soaked, massaged and sewn together, then trimmed with sumptuous salmon-skin appliqué.
Find this coat on display at the Museum with the help of the Explorer app, now available in Beta.
AMNH/M.Shanley
We’re heading to the ends-of-the-Earth for this Trilobite Tuesday!
Cutting a nearly 600 mile south-to-north path through the heart of the Sakha Republic in Siberia are the Lena and Anabar Rivers. On their own merit, these closely aligned bodies of water would most likely retain their relative anonymity upon the global stage. However, the fact that some of the world's oldest trilobites have been discovered in the 520 million year-old sedimentary outcrops carved out by these waterways makes them of particular interest to both paleontologists and trilobite enthusiasts around the globe. With trilobites in these formations ranging in size from the diminutive Delgadella lenaica, which rarely exceeded 1 cm, to the large Jacutus primigenius (pictured) which often attained lengths of 12 cm, or more, it is clear that these were diverse and advanced faunas, especially considering how early they appear in the trilobite record. Indeed, perhaps the first trilobite in the entire fossil lineage, Profallotaspis jakutensis, has been documented in adjacent mudstone layers, marking this remote Siberian outpost as one of unique paleontological significance.
For today's peek into the archives, we bring you "Dina Jochelson-Brodsky and Waldemar Jochelson in their Siberian clothes, about 1900" and with the temperature in NYC hovering around 13°F, we're more than a little envious of their get-up.
Dina and Waldemar were participants in the Museum's Jesup North Pacific Expedition, of 1897-1902. Organized by Franz Boas, the expedition yielded an unparalleled record of the life and culture of the peoples of the North Pacific. In the entire field of anthropology, nothing of comparable ambition or scope had ever before been attempted.
