Home again...

Good to be back home after some intense days in Finland. I thought the work would be done by now, but no.....it has just begun. The material we have gathered is great, but notes have to be written and pictures have to be sorted. Drawings have to be done, discussed and re-done....

The figures in this beautiful uluxtax look so alive - it's spooky how they look at you from the past. this model shows two Aleuts who are fishing.

Another little model, much similar in shape to the full size iqyax in the museum. The Aleut man figure does what we call a "stern rudder" paddle stroke nowadays. wonder what names they had for their paddle strokes in the old days? 

A bit of interior in the iqyax.....some testing and creative thinking made us able to get good detailed pictures inside the kayak, and a good examination of the framework. This is the cockpit area, and guess what the Aleut brought with him as a repair kit? in this case some extra baleen strips and 2 spare ribs. one rib carried in each side of the kayak between gunwale and first stringer, between ribs and cover. in this picture the spare  rib is visible just above the gunwale.